Huwa allathee khalaqakum min turabin thumma min nutfatin thumma min AAalaqatin thumma (surah Ghafir: 67)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(40:67) He it is Who created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop, then from a clot; then He brings you out as an infant, then causes you to grow into full maturity, and then causes you to grow further so that you may reach old age, while some of you He recalls earlier. *96 All this is in order that you may reach an appointed term *97 and that you may understand (the Truth). *98

Huwal lazee khalaqakum min turaabin summa min nutfatin summa min `alaqatin summa yukhrijukum tiflan summa litablughooo ashuddakum summa litakoonoo shuyookhaa; wa minkum mai yutawaffaa min qablu wa litablughooo ajalam musam manw-wa la`allakum ta`qiloon

*96) That is, "Someone dies before birth, and someone before attaining youth, and someone before reaching old age. "
*97) "An appropriate time" may either imply the time of death, or the time when all human beings will be resurrected and presented before their Lord. In the first case, the meaning would be: Allah passes every man through different stages of life and takes him to the specific time which He has appointed for everyone's return. Before that time even if the whole world joins to kill him, it cannot kill him; and when that time has arrived, none can keep him alive even if all the powers of the world join together to do so. In the second case, it would mean: This gamut of life has not been brought about so that man may end up in the dust and be completely annihilated, but Allah passes him through different stages of life so that all human beings may present themselves before Him at the time which He has appointed for the purpose.
*98) That is, "You are not being passed through these different stages of lift so that you may live as the animals live and die as they die, but for the purpose that you may use yew common sense which Allah has granted you and thay understand the system in which you are living. The creation of a wonderful thing like life from the lifeless substances of the earth, then the coming into being of a marvelous creation like man from the microscopic germ of the sperm, then its developing inside the mother's womb, from the time of conception till delivery, in such a manner that its sex, its form and appearance, its bodily structure, its mental qualifies and characteristics, and its faculties and capabilities should be determined therein, un-influenced by any external factor or agency. Then the one who is to be eliminated by abortion does fall a prey to abortion, the one who is to die in infancy, does die in infancy, whether he be the child of a king, and the one who is to reach maturity or old age, dces reach that age, even through highly dangerous conditions, in which death should be certain, and the one who is to die in a particular stage of life, does die in that stage even if he is given the best medical attention and treatment in the best hospitals by the best doctors. Are not all these things pointing to the truth that the ultimate control of ow life and death is in the hand of an all-Mighty Sovereign? And when the reality is this that an all-Powerful Being is controlling ow life and death, then how did a prophet or a saint or an angel or a star or planet become worthy of ow worship and service? When did a creature attain the rank that we should pray to it, and accept it as the maker and un-maker of our destiny? And how did a human power have the status that we should obey its commands and prohibitions and its self-made law about the lawful and the unlawful, without question? (For further explanation, see Al-Hay: 5-7 and the E.N.'s on it).