Surah An-Nahl, Ayah 70
Quran 16:70 · The Bee · Makki · Para 14 · Page 274
وَاللّٰهُ خَلَقَكُمْ ثُمَّ یَتَوَفّٰىكُمْ ۙ۫ وَمِنْكُمْ مَّنْ یُّرَدُّ اِلٰۤی اَرْذَلِ الْعُمُرِ لِكَیْ لَا یَعْلَمَ بَعْدَ عِلْمٍ شَیْـًٔا ؕ اِنَّ اللّٰهَ عَلِیْمٌ قَدِیْرٌ ۟۠
Transliteration
Wallahu khalaqakum thummayatawaffakum waminkum man yuraddu ila arthalialAAumuri likay la yaAAlama baAAda AAilmin shay-an innaAllaha AAaleemun qadeer
Saheeh International
And Allāh created you; then He will take you in death. And among you is he who is reversed to the most decrepit [old] age so that he will not know, after [having had] knowledge, a thing. Indeed, Allāh is Knowing and Competent.
Al-Mukhtasar fi Tafsir
Allah created you without a precedent; then He will cause you to die when your term of life ends. The lifespan of some of you will be extended to the worst stage of life, which is the severe old-age, when a person will no longer know anything of what he used to know. Allah is knowing, and no action of His servants is hidden from Him. He is powerful and nothing can overpower Him.
Tafsir Ibn Kathir (abridged)
And Allah created you and then He will cause you to die; and among you there are some who are sent back to senility, so that they know nothing after having known (much). Truly, Allah is Knowing, capable of all things (70)
In Man there is a Lesson
Allah tells us that He is controlling the affairs of His servants. He is the One Who created them out of nothing, then He will cause them to die. But there are some of them that He allows to grow old, which is a physical weakness, as Allah says:
اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن ضَعْفٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَ مِن بَعْدِ ضَعْفٍ قُوَّةً
(Allah is He Who created you in (a state of) weakness, then gave you strength after weakness, then after strength gave (you) weakness)(30:54)
لِكَيْ لَا يَعْلَمَ بَعْدَ عِلْمٍ شَيْئًا
(so that they know nothing after having known.) meaning, after he knew things, he will reach a stage where he knows nothing because of weakness of mind due to old age and senility. Thus Al-Bukhari, when commenting on this Ayah, reported a narration from Anas bin Malik that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to pray:
أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْبُخْلِ وَالْكَسَلِ وَالْهَرَمِ، وَأَرْذَلِ الْعُمُرِ وَعَذَابِ الْقَبْرِ، وَفِتْنَةِ الدَّجَّالِ وَفِتْنَةِ الْمَحْيَا وَالْمَمَاتِ
(I seek refuge with You from miserliness, laziness, old age, senility, the punishment of the grave, the Fitnah of the Dajjal and the trials of life and death.)
Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma said, in his famous Mu'allaqah: "I became exhausted from the responsibilities of life. Whoever lives for eighty years, no wonder he is tired. I saw death hitting people like a crazed camel, and whoever it hit dies, but whoever is not hit lives until he grows old."