@gnostic It is not vague. That is what you misconcept it as. You think it is vague? It is not vague at all. You say Quran explains nothing vaguely?
Could it be from earth?
11:61 It is He Who hath produced you from the
earth
Or dry clay (Arabic
Salsaal)?
15:26,28,33 We created man from
sounding clay
17:61 ... Thou didst create from
clay
32:7 He began the creation of man from
clay
Did we come from nothing?
19:67 We created him before out of
nothing
No, we did not!
52:35 Were they created of
nothing?
Did we come from mud?
23:12 We created man from a
product of wet earth (loam) (Pickthall)
23:12 Man We did create from a
quintessence (of clay)
38:71 I am about to create a mortal out of
mire
Or water?
25:54 It is He Who has created man from
water (see also 21:30, 24:45)
Could it be dust?
3:59 He created (Jesus) out of
dust
30:20 He created you from
dust
35:11 Allah did create you from
dust ....
Perhaps we arose from the dead or from one person?
30:19 It is He who brings out the living
from the dead
39:6 He created you from
a single Person (see also 4:1)
To resolve the considerable ambiguity about what exactly we are made of, it has been suggested that all of the above are complimentary accounts, in the same way that a loaf of bread could be said to be made of dough, flour, carbohydrate or molecules. This evades the issue however. The metaphorical description of God making man out of the dust of the earth is ancient and predates the Qur'an by thousands of years; it is found in the Bible in Genesis 2:7. If this was literal it would be in direct scientific conflict with evolutionists who maintain that life was created out of the oceans, but Muslims maintain that we were created both from the oceans and from earth.
These mistranslations and misinterpretation makes you think it is vague. But when translated to its correct definition and read without misconcepting the things it is not vague at all and defines it specifically.