Walaqad khalaqna al-insana min salsalin min hama-in masnoon (surah Hijr: 26)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(15:26) We created Man from dried clay of rotten earth: *17

Wa laqad khalaqnal insaana min salsaalim min hama im masnoon

*17) The Arabic word "salsal" means the dried clay which produces a sound like pottery."
"Hams " is "the black mud which has become so rotten as to be in a fermented state."
"Masnun" has a double meaning: (a) "rotten clay which has become greasy" (b) clay which has been moulded into a shape." It is clear from the wording of the text that at first the image of man was made of clay from rotten earth and when it dried up, soul was breathed into it. Thus the Qur'an positively refutes the Darwinian theory of Evolution that man came into existence after passing through continuous genetic adaptations. It will, therefore, be a futile attempt, as some modernised commentators have done, to prove that theory from the Qur'an.