Mustaqar and mustawdaʿ are interpreted in three ways:
1. Mustaqar refers to the settling of the nutfa (sperm-drop) in the wombs of women; mustawdaʿ refers to the state of the nutfa being present in the sulb (loins) of men. This is as in the following verse:
He is the One who created you from a single nafs (self). So there is a mustaqar (that is, the place where the nutfa settles in the wombs of women) and a mustawdaʿ (that is, those beings present in the sulb of men, whom He has not yet created and will create). (al-Anʿām 6:98)
2. Mustaqar is used for the place where living beings settle at night; mustawdaʿ is used in the sense of the time of their death, as in the following verse:
There is no creature on earth whose provision is not upon Allah. He knows their mustaqar (that is, the place where they settle at night) and their mustawdaʿ (that is, the place where they are left when they die). (Hūd 11:6)
3. Al-mustaqar means the final destination [the place to which one ultimately arrives or settles], as in the following verses:
And the sun runs on course toward its mustaqar (that is, the place where it will ultimately settle and stop). (Yā Sīn 36:38)
For every news is a mustaqar (that is, every hadith [saying] has a final point or ultimate end). (al-Anʿām 6:67)
For every matter is a mustaqar. (al-Qamar 54:3)