recite it. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said in an authentic hadith:

“The believer who recites the Quran is like a citron: its taste is pleasant and its fragrance is pleasant. The believer who does not recite the Quran is like a date: its taste is pleasant, but it has no fragrance.”

It may also be said: Senescence is not peculiar to human beings; other animals likewise become decrepit as they age. Moreover, although an elderly person’s body grows weak, his intellect is stronger than a young person’s. Even supposing that some of his faculties decline, this does not amount to being reduced to the lowest of the low. Allah, glorified be He, describes old age only in terms of weakness, as when He says:

“Then, after strength, He brought weakness and grey hair.”

And:

“Whoever We grant a long life, We reverse his development.”

Thus, He returns him to a state of weakness. It is well known that a child is not among the lowest of the low; the same holds for an elderly person, with even greater reason. Rather, those in the lowest of the low are those who will be in Sijjīn, not in Illiyyīn, as Allah Most High says:

“Indeed, the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of the Fire.”

Further clarification comes in His words:

“What, then, makes you deny the Judgment?”

This must be connected to what precedes it, since it is introduced by the particle fa (“then”). If the preceding passage referred only to a person’s being reduced to decrepit old age, rather than to what happens after death, there would be no reference here to judgment and recompense, unlike