(20–24) “Did We not create you from a lowly fluid, * then place it in a secure resting place * until an appointed time? * Thus We determined—and how excellent are We in determining! * Woe on that Day to the deniers!”

That is: Did We not create you, O human beings, “from a lowly fluid”—one of the utmost insignificance, emerging from between the backbone and the ribs—until Allah placed it “in a secure resting place,” namely the womb, where it settles and grows?

“Until an appointed time”—a time already decreed.

“Thus We determined”—that is, We determined and directed the development of that fetus within those layers of darkness, transforming it from a drop of fluid into a clinging clot, then into a lump of flesh, until Allah made it a body and breathed the soul into it. Some of them die before that.

“And how excellent are We in determining!” [By this He means His holy Self], for His determination was governed by wisdom and in keeping with what is praiseworthy (1).

“Woe on that Day to the deniers!”—after Allah had made the signs clear to them and shown them lessons and manifest proofs.