Ghafir 40:67
In a single sentence the verse traces six stages of human life: turāb (dust) → nuṭfa (seed-fluid) → ʿalaqa (clinging clot) → ṭifl (infant) → strong age (ashuddakum) → old age (shuyūkh) → death.
هُوَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُم مِّن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ عَلَقَةٍ ثُمَّ يُخْرِجُكُمْ طِفْلًا ثُمَّ لِتَبْلُغُوٓا۟ أَشُدَّكُمْ ثُمَّ لِتَكُونُوا۟ شُيُوخًا ۚ وَمِنكُم مَّن يُتَوَفَّىٰ مِن قَبْلُ ۖ وَلِتَبْلُغُوٓا۟ أَجَلًا مُّسَمًّى وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
It is He who created you from dust, then from a seed, then from an embryo, then He brings you out as an infant, then He lets you reach your maturity, then you become elderly—although some of you die sooner—so that you may reach a predetermined age, so that you may understand
Ghafir 40:67 · Translation: talal-itani
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"Wa minkum man yutawaffā min qablu" (some among you die before that) — a parenthesis: not everyone completes the stages. At the end, "laʿallakum taʿqilūn" (that perhaps you may use reason). The chain dust → infant → old age is an invitation to reason.
Observation
Modern human developmental biology recognizes the same stages in the same order as the verse: zygote → embryo → fetus → infant → child → adolescent → adult → aged. Each stage has, at the cellular level, its own characteristic activities (totipotency, differentiation, growth, plateau, senescence). The verse's triad "ṭifl → ashuddakum → shuyūkh" is an observational life-line; modern biology does not reformulate it but confirms the reality of the phases.
Exegesis
Al-Qurṭubī (al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān) holds that this verse, read together with 23:12-14, provides the full panorama of the stages of creation. Al-Rāzī (Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb) emphasizes that "laʿallakum taʿqilūn" comes after the six stages, and that the reasoning is **on one's own existence**.
Sources
Tafsīr: al-Qurṭubī · al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; al-Rāzī · Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb; Science: human developmental biology (zygote → senescence).