An-Nahl (The Bee)

70. “And Allah has created you, then He will cause you to die, and some of you will be kept back unto lowest state of the age, so that after knowing somewhat, they may know nothing. Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Powerful.”

The Arabic term /’arŏal/ is derived from the word /raŏl/ which means, ‘mean’ and without any value. The meanest part of one’s life is often that period during which weakness and forgetfulness will reach its peak.

The oblivion of the period of senility belongs to the ordinary people, otherwise, men of Allah, such as Hadrat-i-Noah (as) and Hadrat-i-Mahdi (as), who live long for carrying out their missions, will never be entangled with problems of weakness or negligence.

Therefore, by all means, the verse follows the line for proving the existence of the sole Allah, which is done by introducing changes in blessings, matters which are beyond the limits of man’s power, and which exhibit the fact that they are determined from another origin.

At first, it says:

“And Allah has created you, then He will cause you to die…”

Both issues are determined by Him: Life and death, so that you may know that it is not you who determine your own life and death. Nor is your life span decided by you. Some die while they are still young, while others die when reaching old age. However, some of you reach the worst and the utmost years of your life which is the extreme senility period.

The end-result of such a long-lasting life is that, after acquiring the full command of all learning, they would know nothing and all their knowledge would be last in oblivion.

The verse says:

“…and some of you will be kept back unto lowest state of the age, so that after knowing somewhat, they may know nothing…”

It is just like the beginning of the life and the onset of childhood during which they knew nothing and they were unaware and oblivious. Certainly, Allah is aware and has all potentialities.

The verse continues saying:

“…Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Powerful.”

All power is His and He will bestow that power whenever He feels appropriate and He will take back whenever He feels fit.