(70) “Allah created you, then He takes your souls. Some of you are left to reach the most decrepit age, so that after having knowledge they know nothing. Surely Allah is All-Knowing, Most Capable.”

Allah Most High informs us that He is the One who created His servants and brought them through the stages of creation, one stage after another. Then, once they have completed their appointed terms, He takes their souls. Some of them He grants such long lives that they are “left to reach the most decrepit age”—that is, its lowest state, in which a person’s outward and inward faculties become weak. Even the intellect, which is the essence of the human being, grows progressively weaker until the person forgets what he once knew and his mind becomes like that of a child. Hence He says: “So that after having knowledge they know nothing. Surely Allah is All-Knowing, Most Capable.” That is, His knowledge and power encompass all things. Among these is His bringing the human being through the stages of creation, one phase after another, as He Most High says: “It is Allah Who created you in a state of weakness, then developed weakness into strength, then developed strength into weakness and old age. He creates whatever He wills, and He is the All-Knowing, Most Capable.”