38ثُمَّ كانَ عَلَقَةً فَخَلَقَ فَسَوّىٰMuhammad Asadand thereafter became a germ-cell - whereupon He created and formed [it] in accordance with what [it] was meant to be,1For this rendering of sawwa, see note 1 on 87:2 and note 5 on 91:7. The stress on God's creating man after he had been a germ-cell is a metonym for His endowing the (originally) lowly organism with what is described as a "soul".