Short answer
The Qur'an says where the fluid comes out from. It does not say which organ makes it. Qur'an 86:6-7 says man is created from a fluid "proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs". The Arabic words are sulb, the back and loins, and tara'ib, the breast-bones and ribs at the front. Many early scholars read these as the father's loins and the mother's chest. On that reading, the words name the two parents the child comes from. Others read them as the back and front of one body. The answer does not depend on anatomy. But the testes first form high at the back of the abdomen, near the kidneys. Their arteries still branch from the aorta, the body's main artery, a little below the kidneys' arteries. Islam's answer is that the verse is a plain description, and a reminder of the plain fluid we were made from.
Full explanation
What the verses say
Surat al-Tariq asks people to think about what they were made from. Its answer is a fluid poured out. The fluid comes out from between the sulb and the tara'ib. The verb is yakhruju, which means it issues, or comes out. The verse says where the fluid comes out from. It names no organ. It says nothing about how the fluid is made.
“Now let man but think from what he is created!”
“He is created from a drop emitted- Proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs:”
How the early commentators read it
The early commentators, the first scholars to explain the Qur'an, read these words in more than one way. Many of them, from Ibn Abbas on, said the sulb is the man's back, his loins. Ibn Abbas was a cousin of the Prophet (ﷺ) and an early teacher of the Qur'an. They said the tara'ib are the woman's chest, where a necklace lies. Al-Tabari, a scholar who died in 923, judged this the right meaning of tara'ib. His reason was the Arabic language: that is how the Arabs used the word in speech and poetry. On this reading the verse speaks of the father and the mother. Al-Qurtubi, a scholar of the thirteenth century, passes on a note by al-Mahdawi, an earlier scholar. On this reading, he says, the one who comes out from between them is the human being, not the fluid. The Qur'an speaks of the parents this way elsewhere. It calls man's beginning a drop "mingled", from both parents. It also speaks of sons "proceeding from your loins". Others took both words of one body, back and front. Al-Qurtubi reports this from al-Hasan of Basra, and al-Tabari reports it from Qatada. Both were early scholars. On either reading the verse names the body in everyday words. It does not say which organ makes what.
Says "from between" here means "from the two of them". He reports that the early scholars differed over the tara'ib. Many said the chest, and several the woman's chest, where the necklace lies: among them Ibn Abbas, and Ikrima, who said "the man's backbone and the woman's breast-bones". Mujahid said between the shoulders and the chest, and Sufyan al-Thawri said the backbone is the man's and the tara'ib the woman's, above the breasts. Others said the hands, feet and eyes, or the ribs below the backbone. Qatada said the fluid issues from between the man's backbone and his upper chest. Al-Tabari judges the right reading to be the place of the necklace on the woman's chest, because that is the known meaning of the word in Arabic and its poetry.
Explains the fluid as gushing from the man and from the woman, the child being born of the two by God's leave. He reports from Ibn Abbas, through Ikrima, that the backbone is the man's and the tara'ib the woman's, and that the child comes only from the two of them. He says Sa'id ibn Jubayr, Ikrima, Qatada, al-Suddi and others said the same. He adds other reports on the tara'ib: the place of the necklace, between the breasts, between the shoulders and the chest, above the breasts, and others. He ends with Qatada's report: from between his backbone and his upper chest.
Explains the fluid poured out of 86:6 as two fluids, the man's and the woman's, named as one because they mix, since man is made from both. He says the sulb, the backbone, is the man's and the tara'ib, the bones of the chest, the woman's, and gives the reports on the tara'ib from Ibn Abbas, Ikrima, Mujahid and others. He reports from al-Hasan that the fluid issues from each parent's own backbone and chest. He gives al-Farra's note that in Arabic "from between the backbone" can mean simply "from the backbone". He also gives al-Mahdawi's note: on the man's-backbone-and-woman's-chest reading, "it comes out" refers to the human being; on the one-body reading, to the fluid.
“Verily We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm, in order to try him: So We gave him (the gifts), of Hearing and Sight.”
“Prohibited to you (For marriage) are:- Your mothers, daughters, sisters; father's sisters, Mother's sisters; brother's daughters, sister's daughters; foster-mothers (Who gave you suck), foster-sisters; your wives' mothers; your step-daughters under your guardianship, born of your wives to whom ye have gone in,- no prohibition if ye have not gone in;- (Those who have been) wives of your sons proceeding from your loins; and two sisters in wedlock at one and the same time, except for what is past; for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful;-”
Plain words, not physiology
Sulb is the hard part of the back, the loins. Tara'ib are the breast-bones and ribs at the front of the body. Read of one body, the verse names the region between the back and the breast. That is ordinary, everyday language about the trunk of the body, back and front. The fluid does issue from within the body, between the two. The objection assumes the verse is a statement about which organ produces semen. The verse makes no such claim.
“He is created from a drop emitted- Proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs:”
Where the testes begin
Anatomy adds a detail. The testes do not start where they end up. They form early in the unborn child at the back of the abdomen, near the kidneys. They move down before birth. Their arteries still branch from the aorta, the body's main artery, a little below the arteries of the kidneys. The answer to the objection does not depend on this. But on the one-body reading, the region the verse names is where these organs start, and where their arteries still branch off.
Describes how the testes form in early foetal life at the back of the abdomen, in front of and a little below the kidneys, and descend to the scrotum before birth; their arteries branch from the aorta a little below the arteries of the kidneys.
“He is created from a drop emitted- Proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs:”
What kind of objection this is
The Qur'an asks its readers to consider it with care. It says they would find much discrepancy in it if it came from anyone but God (﷾). This objection points to no discrepancy and no error. It is a question of what a verse is about. The verse is about where the fluid comes out, not which organ makes it.
“Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care)? Had it been from other Than Allah, they would surely have found therein Much discrepancy.”
“He is created from a drop emitted- Proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs:”
The objection answered
Qur'an 86:6-7 — Surat al-Tariq (The Morning Star), verses 6-7
“He is created from a drop emitted- Proceeding from between the backbone and the ribs:”
Cited for
Critics say the Qur'an teaches that semen is made between the backbone and the ribs, when it is made in the testes.
The response
The verse says where the fluid comes out from, in the plain words anyone would use of their own body. It does not say which organ makes it. Many early commentators, from Ibn Abbas on, read it as the man's loins and the woman's chest. On that reading the words name the two parents the child comes from, not a gland. Others read it as one body, back and front. The answer does not depend on anatomy. But the testes themselves form high at the back of the abdomen, near the kidneys. Their arteries still branch from the aorta, a little below the arteries of the kidneys.
Where it lands — A plain description of where the fluid issues from, not a claim about which organ produces it.
Perspectives
The Islamic perspective
Qur'an 86:6-7 describes where the fluid comes out, between the back and the breast, in plain language. It makes no claim about which organ produces it.
The verse says the fluid issues from between the sulb and the tara'ib. It names no organ and says nothing about how the fluid is made.
Sulb means the hard back or loins, and tara'ib the breast-bones and ribs at the front of the body. Read of one body, the phrase describes the region between the back and the breast in everyday words.
Many early commentators, from Ibn Abbas on, read sulb as the man's loins and tara'ib as the woman's chest. On that reading the verse speaks of the father and the mother. Others read both words of one body, back and front. Neither reading names the organ that makes the fluid.
The testes form at the back of the abdomen near the kidneys and descend before birth. They keep arteries that branch from the aorta a little below the arteries of the kidneys.
The Qur'an teaches that man should reflect on the plain fluid he was made from. It is a sign of his Creator.