Indeed, We created man from a sperm-drop mixture

Not just any fluid: ‎أَمۡشَاجٍ‎, mixtures.

The word amshaj refers to fluids that are mixed together containing different kinds of qualities and properties.

This is the fluid that carries all of our DNA code, determining what size nose you’ll have, what color eyes you’ll possess, how tall you’ll grow. All of this encoded in that mixture.

Consider how great the difference is between what is called mere hydrogen and what is called “a sperm-drop mixture.” Then consider what an insurmountable step forward in nature, what a lofty work of art and power, lies between what is called “a sperm-drop mixture” and what is called “a human being.” These ayahs are meant precisely to make people hear and see this. Indeed, just as the human being did not come to be on his own, neither was he created in a simple way. Allah the Exalted, in His majesty, created him from a drop formed of mixtures, casting off what is useless and filtering out what is pure, in order to perfect him step by step and raise him from the lowest rank to the highest ranks toward Himself. The wisdom of creating him in this way is explained as follows:

We created the human being, not to leave him to wander aimlessly as if the matter were finished once he was made, but to hold him responsible through trusts and obligations, to test him through various hardships by giving him feelings and duties, and finally to carry him into a higher life in a more advanced realm, turning him from one state to another. This is so that he may accept the consequences of these tests and obligations, see what lies before him and behind him by listening to the commands and guidance given to him, and set his course accordingly.

We made him a responsible creature who hears and sees the signs and proofs in the Qur’an and in the universe, grasps them with the eye of the heart, and consciously carries out his duty in accordance with them.

This creature, who was once nothing worth mentioning and only later came to be called human, has passed through countless states since the beginning of time. He was created with a sound form from a sperm-drop, refined from countless things unworthy of mention and blended with various elements; then he was granted an entirely different, spiritual creation.

Made hearing and seeing, he is tested through the passages of death and life. He has not yet reached his destined goal, and he is a being bound for another life after death, journeying toward it.

When Abu Bakr heard this ayah, he said, “If only he had been made complete, and we had not been put to the test!” This wish shows how finely and deeply Abu Bakr understood the ayah. For in these words speaks a fear and concern that deeply senses the human being’s inborn deficiency and the weight of the duties he must take on in order to mature.