Quran Universe
15:26

وَلَقَدۡ خَلَقۡنَا ٱلۡإِنسَٰنَ مِن صَلۡصَٰلٖ مِّنۡ حَمَإٖ مَّسۡنُونٖ

Walaqad khalaqna alinsana min salsalin min hamain masnoonin

And We did certainly create man out of clay from an altered black mud.

Word by word
  1. وَلَقَدۡAnd verily
  2. خَلَقۡنَاWe created
  3. ٱلۡإِنسَٰنَhumankind
  4. مِن(out) of
  5. صَلۡصَٰلٖsounding clay
  6. مِّنۡfrom
  7. حَمَإٖblack mud
  8. مَّسۡنُونٖaltered
Al-Hijr · 15:26Makkah

Made from mud, and still honored.

The humble stuff the human was made from

The raw material
black mudsoil, smoothed
dried into
sounding claylike a potter's clay
shaped into
the humanAdam, and you
What the origin says
mud means worthlesslow beginning, low value
pure originshaped by Allah's hand

The surah now opens the story of Adam and Iblis. Ibn Kathir compares it to 55:14, man from clay like the potter's. He says the verse is meant to point out the noble nature, good essence and pure origin of Adam.

You catch yourself in the mirror on a bad day and think you are nothing special. Or you look at someone poorer and feel above them. Same clay, both of you. Both shaped on purpose.

Where I come from decides how much I am worth.

The human came from mud, and Allah still chose to honor what He shaped.

Try this

Say something kind today to someone you would normally overlook.

Related55:14
Simplified reflection. Read the tafsir for scholarship.draft
Tafsir Ibn Kathir

And indeed, We created man from dried (sounding) clay of altered mud (26)And the Jinn, We created earlier from the smokeless flame of fire (27)

The Substances from which Mankind and Jinns were created

Ibn 'Abbas, Mujahid and Qatadah said that Salsal means dry mud. The apparent meaning is similar to the Ayah:

خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِن صَلْصَالٍ كَالْفَخَّارِ - وَخَلَقَ الْجَانَّ مِن مَّارِجٍ مِّن نَّارٍ

(He created man (Adam) from sounding clay like the potter's clay, And He created the Jinns from a smokeless flame of fire.)(55:14-15) It was also reported from Mujahid that,

صَلْصَالٍ

(dried (sounding) clay) means "putrid", but it is more appropriate to interpret an Ayah with another Ayah.

مِّنْ حَمَإٍ مَّسْنُونٍ

(of altered mud) means the dried clay that comes from mud, which is soil. "Altered" here means smooth.

وَالْجَانَّ خَلَقْنَاهُ مِن قَبْلُ

(And the Jinn, We created earlier) means before creating humans.

مِن نَّارِ السَّمُومِ

(from the smokeless flame of fire.) Ibn 'Abbas said, "It is the smokeless flame that kills." Abu Dawud At-Tayalisi said that Shu'bah narrated to them from Abu Ishaq, who said: "I visited 'Umar Al-Asamm when he was sick, and he said: 'Shall I not tell you a Hadith that I heard from 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud? He said: 'This smokeless flame is one of the seventy parts of the smokeless fire from which the Jinn where created. Then he recited,

وَالْجَانَّ خَلَقْنَاهُ مِن قَبْلُ مِن نَّارِ السَّمُومِ

(And the Jinn, We created earlier from the smokeless flame of fire).'" The following is found in the Sahih,

خُلِقَتِ الْمَلَائِكَةُ مِنْ نُورٍ، وَخُلِقَتِ الْجَانُّ مِنْ مَارِجٍ مِنْ نَارٍ، وَخُلِقَ آدَمُ مِمَّا وُصِفَ لَكُم

(The angels were created from light, the Jinn were created from a smokeless flame of fire, and Adam was created from that which has been described to you.) The Ayah is intended to point out the noble nature, good essence and pure origin of Adam.