2 Preface إِنّا خَلَقنَا الإِنسانَ مِن نُطفَةٍ أَمشاجٍ نَبتَليهِ فَجَعَلناهُ سَميعًا بَصيرًاYusuf AliVerily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm,1 in order to try him: So We gave him (the gifts), of Hearing and Sight. Mingled: the female ovum has to be fertilised with the male sperm before a new animal can be born. Man as an animal has this humble origin. But he has been given the gift of certain faculdes of receiving instruction (typified by Hearing) and of intellectual and spiritual insight (typified by Sight). His life has therefore a meaning: with a certain amount of free will, he is to be God’s vicegerent on earth (2:30). But he must be trained and tried, and that is the whole problem of human life.