Tafsir of Al-Mu'minoon 23:13

The pronoun in His saying, "Then We made him a drop," refers to the genus, considering its individuals who are distinct from Adam, peace be upon him. If what is meant by "man" at the beginning is Adam, peace be upon him, then the pronoun—according to what is in al-Bahr—refers to someone not mentioned, namely the son of Adam. This is permissible due to the clarity of the matter and its fame, though it is as you see. Or, it may refer to "man," and the speech involves the ellipsis of a genitive, meaning: "Then We made his offspring." It is also said that "man" initially refers to Adam, peace be upon him, and when the pronoun returns to him, it signifies those who descended from him by way of istikhdam (usage). It is highly unlikely that "man" refers to the individuals of the children of Adam while the pronoun refers back to it, requiring an implied genitive at the beginning of the speech, meaning: "And We created the origin of man..." and so on. Similarly, it could be that "man" refers to the genus or to Adam, peace be upon him, and the pronoun refers to "an extract" (sulalah), with the masculine form used based on the interpretation of the "extracted" (al-maslul) or the "fluid" (al-ma’), meaning: "Then We made the extract into a drop."

The apparent meaning is that "drop" in all interpretations is the second object of "made," assuming it carries the sense of "transformed into." On the final interpretation, this is clear. As for the interpretation where the pronoun refers to "man," one must commit the trope of "firstness," whereby "man" refers to what will become a man. It is also permissible for the "making" to signify creation, which takes a single object, and "a drop" is in the accusative case due to the removal of the preposition (prepositional ellipsis). Some researchers have preferred this, meaning: "Then We created man from a drop existing in a place of settlement (qarar)," which means a settled place. It is originally an infinitive from qarra, yaqurru, qararan, meaning "to be established/fixed," and it is applied to that [the womb] as a hyperbole. What is meant by it is the womb, and He described it with His saying, "firm" (makin).

Meaning: established/secure. Although "establishment" is a description of the one who possesses the place—which is the drop here—it is by way of metaphor, just as one says, "a traveling road." It is also permitted to say that the womb itself is "established," and the meaning of its establishment is that it does not detach due to the weight of its burden, or it does not expel what is within it. Thus, it is a metonymy for making the drop protected and preserved, which is a sound interpretation.