Aslam

Praise be to Allah.

Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, says (interpretation

of the meaning): “And

Allah has created you and then He will cause you to die, and of you there

are some who are sent back to senility, so that they know nothing after

having known (much)” [an-Nahl

16:70].

And He, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the

meaning): “And

among you there is he who dies (young), and among you there is he who is

sent back to senility, so that he knows nothing after having known”

[al-Hajj 22:5].

At-Tabari (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

Allah, may He be exalted, is saying: Allah created you, O

people, and brought you into being, when you had been nothing, and it was

not the gods whom you worship besides Him (who created you). Therefore

worship the One Who created you, and no other, then He will take your souls

in death.

And some of you will grow old, and end up reaching a stage of

senility, which is the worst

of stages. We only bring him back to senility so that he will once again

become ignorant, as he was in infancy and childhood, so that he will not

know anything after the knowledge that he had when he was young. All of that

will be lost when he grows old, and will be forgotten, and he will not know

anything of it, for it will escape his mind. So after having possessed the

power of rational thinking, he will not understand anything.

As-Sa‘di (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

Here Allah, may He be exalted, tells us that it is He Who

creates people and causes them to move through the stages of creation, one

after another. Then after their lifespan has ended, He causes them to die,

but He causes some to live until they are

sent back to senility,

i.e., the worst age, in which a person loses his outward and inward

strength, even his power of reasoning, which is the essence of man. It grows

weaker and weaker, until he forgets what he used to know, and his mind

becomes like the mind of an infant. End quote.

Tafseer as-Sa‘di

(p. 444)

Az-Zajjaaj (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

What is meant is that among you are some who grow very old,

until they lose their power of reasoning, and after having known things they

become ignorant. Allah does that in order to show you His might and power;

just as He is able to cause a person to die or give him life, He is also

able to cause him to move from knowledge to ignorance. End quote.

Zaad al-Maseer

(2/571)

What is meant is that Allah, may He be exalted, causes people

to move from ignorance to knowledge, then from knowledge to ignorance, and

from weakness to strength, then from strength to weakness.

People vary in the extent of this ignorance to which they

move. Some of them will become completely senile, so that they do not know

anything at all; some of them will hardly know anything; and some of them

will know a few things but ignorance and lack of knowledge is mostly the

case for them.

What is meant by the words of Allah, may He be exalted, “so

that he knows nothing after having known”

is to highlight the fact that ignorance will prevail after he had knowledge,

not to rule out knowledge altogether for everyone who reaches this stage,

because saying that he will know nothing is not to be taken literally;

rather it is by way of emphasis.

Hence Allah says, “and

among you”, so as to

indicate that not everyone who grows old and reaches old age will be

sent back to senility;

rather some of them will be

sent back to senility so

that they do not know anything after having known something, and some of

them will grow old but Allah will protect their reasoning, hearing and

sight.

Ibn Jaziyy (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

It does not mean that knowledge is ruled out altogether;

rather it is a reference to having little knowledge and to forgetting a

great deal. End quote

Tafseer Ibn Jaziyy

(1/431)

Az-Raazi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

If it is asked: How come Allah says: “so

that he knows nothing after having known”

[al-Hajj 22:5], when he may well know some things, like a child? Our

response is: What is meant is that his power of reasoning will be taken

away, so he will become as if he does not know anything, because such a

thing may be described in the negative for the sake of emphasis. End quote.

Tafseer ar-Raazi

(23/205)

Ibn ‘Ashoor (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

Hence there are levels of weakness of reason, depending on

the degree of senility. It may go so far as being unable to learn anything

new, but before that there are different levels of weakness of reason, such

as forgetting things, mixing up information, and so on. End quote.

At-Tahreer wa’t-Tanweer

(17/202)

Conclusion:

These two verses do not mean that everyone who grows old will

be in this state of “senility”;

rather among those who grow old there will be some who are

sent back to senility

and will be in that state where they forget everything that they knew

before.

Moreover, this forgetfulness and being

sent back to senility are of varying

degrees, and people vary in

that regard. There are some who forget everything that they knew, and others

who suffer to a lesser degree. This is something that is very well known.

And Allah knows best.