Al Ḥijr

وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الإِنسَانَ مِن صَلْصَالٍ مّـِنْ حَمَأٍ مَّسْنُونٍ

وَالْجَآنَّ خَلَقْنَاهُ مِن قَبْلُ مِن نَّارِ السَّمُومِ

26. “And certainly We created man of raw clay, of black mud moulded.”
27. “And the jinn We created before, of intensively burning fire.”

The Arabic term /sals al/ refers to a dry and raw kind of clay in which once blown, the sound of whistling comes out of it. ¹ The Qur’anic term /hama’/ refers to dark mud, and the word /masnūn/ means varying and moulded. The Arabic word /sumūm/ refers to a hot wind which infiltrates into the depth of one’s entity like poison. This verse either makes allusions to the creation of the first man, namely Hadrat-i-Adam, or the objective is the process of creation of all human beings in which case, the materials within the earth are transformed through food and sperm into human beings.

As Qur’an in Surah Al-Kahf, No. 18, verse 37, implies that man was first in the from of dust, then it was turned into semen (sperm-drop) and it was finally turned into a (complete) man. In the Qur’anic literature, ‘jinn’ is a responsible being which has been addressed by Allah:

“O’ assembly of the jinn and mankind!…” ²

And Jinn understands the Qur’an:

“…a party of the jinn listened, and they said: Verily we have heard a wonderful Qur’an.” ³

Jinns also have passions like human beings. According to this verse, the creation of jinn took place before man and it was created out of fire. Allah says: Iblis is also one of Jinns:

“…he was of the Jinn…” ⁴

and Iblis will go into Hell like other evil Jinns.

“…Certainly I will fill Hell with the Jinn and the mankind together.” ⁵

In conclusion, the Qur’an implies that Allah has created man out of raw and dry clay (like tile or ceramic) which is extracted out of a kind of black clay. Prior to this, He had created Jinns out of hot and burning fire. The verse says:

“And certainly We created man of raw clay, of black mud moulded.”

“And the jinn We created before, of intensively burning fire.”

Footnotes

1. 1. Tafsir Al-Mizan
2. 2. Surah Al-’An‘ am, No. 6, verse 130
3. 3. Surah Al-Jinn, No. 72,verse 1
4. 4. Surah Al-Kahf, No. 18, verse 50
5. 5. Surah Hūd, No. 11,verse 119