Introduction to the Verse:
To counter the skeptics who doubted the Resurrection, the text attempts to humble mankind by pointing out their microscopic biological origins.
The Quran Verse
Surah 36:77:
Does man not consider that We created him from a [mere] sperm-drop (nutfah)? Then at once he is an open disputer.
The Quran repeatedly points to the nutfah (male semen) as the singular physical substance from which human life is generated.
This reflects the prevailing one-sided Aristotelian biology of the ancient world, which taught that the male semen contained the active form, blueprint, and soul of the child, while the female womb acted merely as a passive incubator or field for the seed. The Quran makes no mention of the female ovum (egg), a critical omission for a text claiming absolute divine knowledge of anatomy.