the fact that the Qur'an while talking about man's creation, has referred to two distinct creations. One is the creation of Adam (the first man) and the other is the creation of the children of Adam. Adam, as shall be seen later, was created from water/dust/clay etc, while his progeny was created from "a drop of semen". These two creations are actually two distinct stages in the creation of man. The first man was created from dust etc and later on, his progeny was created from "`alaqa", which developed from "nutfah" (a drop of sperm). The Qur'an has itself referred to these two distinct stages of creation in Al-Sajadah 32: 7 - 8, where the Qur'an says:
Who made excellent everything that He created. He began the creation of man from clay, then made his offspring from a drop of humble fluid.
Thus, all those verses which refer to "`alaq", "nutfah" and the like are actually referring to the creation of the offspring of Adam, which according to the Qur'an itself was different from the creation of Adam
Man was made from water (21: 30, 24: 45, 25: 54)
Man was made from dust/soil (3: 59, 30: 20, 35: 11)
Man was made from sounding [extremely dry] clay from black stinking mud (15: 26)
Man was raised from the earth (11: 61)
Besides these verses, Al-Saaffaat 37: 11 gives an even different picture, as it says that man was created from such soil that sticks to one's hands, or sticky soil. The verse reads as:
We created them from a sticky soil.
I really do not know what is the contradiction in these verses. Anyone with a literary sense can see that these verses are not contradictory.
If someone says that I made a cake from flour (soil) and then says I made a cake from water (water), and then says I made this cake from a solution of flour and water (mud, sticky soil), and then says that I made this cake from a dried out solution of flour and water (sounding clay from black stinking mud) and then says I brought the cake out from the oven (raised from the earth), a person may say that the statements are contradictory. But it is quite obvious that they are not. These statements inform us of not only the major ingredients of cake (man) but also give us some information regarding the stages from which these ingredients were made to go through for the ultimate production of the cake (man).
I draw the following conclusions:
Two major ingredients in man's creation are soil and water;
The soil and water took the shape of sticky mud;
The sticky mud was left to dry out till it became hard (sounding clay);
The total process beginning from the mixing of soil and water till man's birth took place on this planet called "earth".