As-Sajdah 32:8 - Linguistic Miracle

Then he made his progeny from an extract taken from disdained water

The meaning is clear. Creation of man began with clay, then his progeny continued through the worthless water - semen. Notice the word sulalah which is translated as extract. It comes from the root sīn lām lām which means something that is extracted

from something else.¹²⁴ The pattern this word sulalah follows in this verse - فعالة - is also used to describe a small substance that is extracted or taken out from a large substance like how we extract the thickest and strongest part of date juice from its thinner version. Allah created all human progeny from a substance that was extracted from disdained water- from semen. The overall theme is to display the humble roots of man. Allah did not even make you from this worthless and disdained water, but from a small part of it. We know that it is the sperm inside semen that fertilizes the egg and only 2-5% of semen is composed of sperm and even among this small amount, a tiny fraction is capable of reaching and fertilizing the egg; but the theme of this verse is to display the humble roots of man and the incredible divine power that can turn this small extract taken from worthless water, into human beings.

¹²⁴ Al-Muʿjam al-Ishtiqāqī al-Muʾaṣṣal li-Alfāẓ al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, vol. 2, p. 1044