Allah addresses Adam through his offspring:

 We will start with interpreting the second Ayah, Allah says:

﴾He it is Who has created you from clay, and then has decreed a stated term (for you to die). And there is with Him another determined term (for you to be resurrected), yet you doubt (in the Resurrection).﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 After Allah says in the first Ayah:

﴾All praises and thanks be to Allah, Who (Alone) created the heavens and the earth, and originated the darkness and the light, yet those who disbelieve hold others as equal with their Lord.﴿

[Al-An’am, 1]

 “Hold others as equal with their Lord” Means that they join partners with Him:

﴾ He it is Who has created you from clay, ﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 The most accepted interpretation is that Almighty Allah is addressing the offspring of Adam through Adam, PBUH, or addressing Adam through his offspring.
 Adam is created of clay, or the human being, who is created from parents, who drink and eat food which grew in the soil, is the outcome of eating that food.
 When the baby is delivered, his weight is only 3 Kilograms, and he gets older and older till his weight becomes 80 or 100 Kilograms, where does all that weight come from? It comes from the food he eats which is plants and meat, given that meat comes from a creature which eats plants, and plants grow in soil.Hence, from an analytical point of view, man who is born and who grows, is created from clay, and Allah the Almighty addressed Adam through his offspring that man is created of clay.

The wisdom behind making death hour unknown to us:

 Allah says:

﴾He it is Who has created you from clay, and then has decreed a stated term (for you to die). ﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 Allah decreed a stated term for man, thus each one of us has a stated term which can be neither delayed an hour nor can be advanced an hour.
  Hence, no matter how keen man is on his health, his hour will never change.
  Lifetime might pass full of health, zeal and energy, or it might pass full of sickness and lying on bed, however the hour of death has nothing to do with sickness. Thus, each one of us has his own hour, but when that will be? Nobody knows.
  A scholar saw the angel of death in his dream once so he asked him: How much time is left for me before I die? The angel of death pointed out to the number five using his hand. When the scholar woke up, he got confused: did the angel of death mean five years, five months, five weeks or five days? When he asked another scholar who is professional in interpreting dreams, he said to him: O Imam, the angel of death is saying to you that this is one of five questions which answers are known only by Allah.
  Man’s grave-cloths might be woven while he doesn’t know that, a few hours might be left for him to live while he is in full health, he also might go out of his house and never come back, he might come back to his house but he then goes out of it in a casket, he might travel and never comes back, he might buy a house and never lives in it, he might engage a woman but never has the chance to marry her, he might acquire a scientific license but never makes use of it and he might collect a wealth which is no use to him.
  Allah made our death hour anonymous, and the wisdom behind that is to give us the power to strive in life and obey Almighty Allah and to get ready for our death hour. Allah says:

﴾O you who believe! Fear Allah (by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden) as He should be feared. [Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always], and die not except in a state of Islam (as Muslims) with complete submission to Allah.﴿

[Aal-‘Imran, 102]

 One might understand from this part: “and die not except in a state of Islam” that death is in our hands, but the interpreters of Quran said: this part means that beware of reaching your hour of death and you are not Muslims, for you should prepare yourselves to this hour which might come any second, and no man knows if he will live one more hour after the hour he is at.

Stories about preparing for death:

  I mentioned the following story several times but now it is the right time to mention it once more: I sat down with a man who kept telling me about his future plans, and I tell you without any exaggeration, he had planned for the next 20 years and he told me how he would travel and stay in this country for five years, then how he would spend the summer in another country, and he kept mentioning every country for every summer, and how he would quit his job and take his pensions and use them to start an antique business and establish an intellectual club. Though he planned for the next twenty years, I read his obituary the same day.
  In another incident, a brother said to me once: “I won’t die in a young age depending, in this opinion, on scientific facts which are my healthy body, not being fat, eating always healthy food, working out, swimming and avoiding any source of tension”. Sure it was scientifically true. However, he told me that on a Saturday, and the next Saturday he was under the ground.
  An American doctor believed that jogging was the only way to protect the heart from heart attacks and clots, so depending on that he used to jog 21 kilometers every day, not to mention all the interviews on TVs, essays in newspapers and lectures in forums in which he assumed that jogging was the only way to protect the heart. It is true that his is a scientifically proven fact. However, he considered that jogging prohibits death, and he died while he was jogging at the age of 42.
  A doctor who has a rare specialty sometimes thinks that he is safe from diseases of his own specialty, but for a profound wisdom, specialized doctors sometimes die because of the same disease they are specialized in.
  Elevating jogging in our previous example to the divine status and making it the only reason to prevent death is wrong, for no one knows when his hour will come?
  Allah conceals the death hour of each person so that the latter will prepare himself for that hour and becomes ready every minute to meet Almighty Allah.
  Among these preparations is writing man’s own will, paying debts and telling others about the key of the safe in which he keeps people’s trusts and money so that the heirs won’t think that these money are theirs.
  The same goes for living in a house that you don’t own, but it is registered in your name so that the owner will avoid paying taxes, so informing others of this fact is deemed important as a preparation for your own death in order to avoid any financial problems.
  All these preparations are important because man doesn’t know when he will die.
  A man gave money to someone in order to change them to another currency, but after two hours the owner of the money died and his family didn’t have any signed paper which proving that this money was his.
  Another brother gave a huge sum of money another person for investment without telling his family or signing any papers, and he died suddenly.Had not the person who took the money been trustworthy, he could have denied receiving that money.
  These examples show that one should be ready always to meet Allah whether this readiness is manifested in repenting, obeying Allah, offering acts of worship and being clear about one’s financial standing so that he and his heirs won’t take unlawful money unintentionally.

Man is a few days and the passage of time consumes him::

  Allah says:

﴾He it is Who has created you from clay, and then has decreed a stated term (for you to die). ﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 Each one of us has a stated term of death. Some computer programs give the exact age of yours telling you for example that after a few seconds your age will be 53, eight months, four days, five hours, seven minutes and eight seconds.
  Man is but a few days, and every day goes takes with it part of him:

Man’s heart beats are telling him
Life is only minutes and seconds

 

The definition of "Man":

Therefore, the most accurate definition of man is that he is a few days and every day goes, takes with it part of him.
 “Every new day that comes upon man says to him: “O son of Adam, I am a new creation and I will witness your deeds. Hence, make the best out of me, for you will not see me ever again till the Day of Resurrection.”
  Man might sleep and never wakes up.
  One of the notable scholars of Damascus went to bed, and before he did so I texted him and he texted me back sending his warm greetings and he praised my Eid Khutbah, but in the morning when his son was waking him up, he found him dead.
  Man might die suddenly, might sleep and never wakes up, might wake up and never goes to sleep again and might go out and never comes back home.
  Every day we read obituary of a doctor, an architect, a scholar, a pharmacist and so forth, but one day people will read our obituary whether we like it or not.
  We enter the Masjid to offer Salah, but one day people will pray funeral prayer on us.
Once I read an outstanding quote: “Pray before people pray on you”

True cleverness is to prepare for death:

  Allah says:

﴾He it is Who has created you from clay, and then has decreed a stated term (for you to die). And there is with Him another determined term (for you to be resurrected), ﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 Everybody has a due date.One of the reasons behind success in worldly life is to start from the end, but what is the end? It is death which is the most crucial event in man’s life, better yet, Allah mentioned death before life, Allah says:

﴾Who has created death and life, that He may test you which of you is best in deed. And He is the All-Mighty, the Oft-Forgiving;﴿

[Al-Mulk, 2]

 I always say: the most all-inclusive sufficient definition of intelligence is “adapting”, because since death is the gravest event in man’s life, adapting with it or preparing for it is the highest rank of cleverness.
  How could one adapt with death?
  Adapting with death is manifested in repenting, being upright, perfecting one’s acts of worship, spending from your own money on the needy, raising your children and maintaining the needs of people around you. By doing so you are actually preparing for your own death.
  I’d like to mention the following example to elaborate this concept:
  The likeness of the believer who is ready for death when the angel of death comes to him is as the likeness of a very poor person who is promised, if he acquires the PHD, to occupy the highest positions, to live in the most luxurious houses, to marry the most beautiful woman, to have a summer house, to own a cabin on the beach and to ride an exquisite car. Thus, he travels to the west to study. Since he is very poor, he has to work beside studying, so he works in restaurants as a waiter, he works as a guard at night, and he works for long hours in the cold or hot weather. He keeps studying at night and attending school in the morning, and he stays late at night to prepare for the next day. After long years of suffering, he acquires his PHD, he stamps his license at the embassy and does all the paper work to authenticate it, then he books a flight to take him back home. The minute he puts his foot inside the plane will be his peak of happiness, because he puts behind his back all the suffering, the hardworking, the worries, the efforts and the shortage of income he was in, and this step is actually his first one in the course of richness, fame and comfort.

The time of the Day of Resurrection is known only by Allah:

  Death is the wedding ceremony of the believer and it is his own milestone.

“Anas told that when the Prophet's illness became heavy, he began to be overwhelmed by anxiety, and Fatima said, "Alas for the anxiety, father!" He replied to her, "Your father will have no anxiety after to-day." Then when he died, she said, "0 my father! He has responded to a Lord who summoned him. 0 my father! In the garden of Firdaus is his destination. 0 my father[*] To Gabriel we shall announce his death!" Then when he was buried Fatima said, "Anas, have you people found it an easy task to scatter earth over God's messenger?"”

 The suffering, the hard work, the assignment, struggling with self and desires, the burden of the Dawah (conveying the message of Allah) and fighting against the enemies of faith, all are over. Allah says:

﴾It was said (to him when the disbelievers killed him): "Enter Paradise." He said: "Would that my people knew!﴿

[Ya-Sin, 26]

 Allah says:

﴾He it is Who has created you from clay, and then has decreed a stated term (for you to die). And there is with Him another determined term (for you to be resurrected), ﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 People’s lifetimes are known after their death, because when someone dies, you can say that he lived 63 years for example, therefore, when man dies, his lifetime is known to all people in minutes and hours.
  One more thing, when someone is afflicted with intractable disease, his death time is anticipated by doctors and they go saying: you have only a few weeks to live, some of these expectations come true, hence sometimes the death hour of man might be expected and known, but no one has the knowledge of the hour of the Resurrection Day except Allah.

﴾ And there is with Him another determined term (for you to be resurrected),﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 Only Allah knows that determined term (The Day of Resurrection).
 Therefore, there are two determined terms (the death hour of people and the hour of the Resurrection day).
 Days are either a lost one (the past), a witnessed one (the present), a coming one (the death), a promised one (the Day of Resurrection) and an everlasting one (one’s destiny in paradise or hell) which makes five sorts of days. However, the most crucial one is the witnessed day which is the present, for you still have a chance to repent to Allah, to reconcile with Him, to spend from your money and to offer good deeds for your hereafter.

Quran inimitability testifies that it is Allah’s words:

  Almighty Allah says:

﴾yet you doubt (in the Resurrection).﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 “Imtira’a” is an Arabic word which means “doubt”. Therefore, man argues out of doubts, and some people say: “Who died and was able to come back and tell us what he saw?”
  Allah is Great, He created the heavens and earth, and every part of this universe testifies of His Greatness.

﴾Who has sent down to His slave (Muhammad) the Book (the Qur'an),﴿

[Al-Kahf, 1]

 The inimitability of the Quran testifies that it is the word of Allah. Allah gives us in the Quran scenes of the Day of Resurrection:

﴾ yet you doubt (in the Resurrection).﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 Is it rational that worldly life will pass without a hereafter?
  Is it rational that the powerful stays powerful, the rich stays rich, the weak stays weak, the oppressed stays oppressed, the tyrannized stays tyrannized, the poor stays poor, the sick stays sick, and the healthy stays healthy, and then worldly life is over without another life?
  If you want to overlook the hereafter, thousands of unanswered questions will disturb you. Moreover, some notable scholars considered believing in the hereafter as something rational, while the details of it are divinely reported to us (through the Quran and Sunnah), but why is that?
  It is because life will never be comprehended without another life in which there will be reckoning.Is it rational that those tyrants, who kill people, wreck houses, violate prohibitions and kill patients and kids as if they are killing animals in cold blood, will get away with all these bad deeds without another day of reckoning?
   Is it rational that there are people who die of satiety while others die of hunger?
   Is it rational that the rights of the poor are taken by the rich and they will go unpunished?
  Is it rational that there are oppressors and oppressed and there are tyrants and tyrannized and then life will end just like that without reckoning?

﴾Does man think that he will be left Suda [neglected without being punished or rewarded for the obligatory duties enjoined by his Lord (Allah) on him]?﴿

[Al-Qiyamah, 36]

 Allah also says:

﴾"Did you think that We had created you in play (without any purpose), and that you would not be brought back to Us?"﴿

[Al-Mu’minun, 115]

Believing in the hereafter changes our standards:

  Unless we believe in the hereafter we will never succeed.
  On the other hand, believing in the hereafter exactly as Allah decreed should reflect on all our standards, namely, when you believe in the hereafter, you look at spending on the poor as thriving of your wealth not diminishing of it, you look at paying the effort to serve people not to use them as success, and you look at humbleness as the right thing to do not being arrogant against Allah’s servants.
Therefore, when you believe in the hereafter, your faith should reflect on all your standards in life:

﴾ He it is Who has created you from clay, and then has decreed a stated term (for you to die). And there is with Him another determined term (for you to be resurrected), yet you doubt (in the Resurrection).﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 The hereafter is like the exams at universities. Have you ever heard about a university on earth without exams?
 No educational institution on earth will ever give license to its students without exams.
 Have you ever heard of a student who applies to a university and asks for his license without studying, graduating project, graduating discussion and tremendous effort? This is impossible!

﴾yet you doubt (in the Resurrection).﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 They have doubts in what comes after death, and they doubt the detailed reckoning in the hereafter.

﴾ So, by your Lord (O Muhammad), We shall certainly call all of them to account. For all that they used to do. ﴿

[Al-Hijr, 92-93]

Only Allah knows what is apparent and what is hidden:

  Allah says:

﴾What sort of Book is this that leaves neither a small thing nor a big thing, but has recorded it with numbers!" And they will find all that they did, placed before them, and your Lord treats no one with injustice.﴿

[Al-Kahf, 49]

 The meaning of:

﴾ yet you doubt (in the Resurrection).﴿

[Al-An’am, 2]

 It means that: you are arguing because you doubt that it (the hereafter) is inevitable or you argue out of doubts.

﴾And He is Allah (to be worshipped Alone) in the heavens and on the earth, He knows what you conceal and what you reveal, and He knows what you earn (good or bad).﴿

[Al-An’am, 3]

 He is Allah in heavens and on earth, and all our affairs are in His Hand:

﴾ He knows what you conceal and what you reveal, ﴿

[Al-An’am, 3]

 Man usually hides lots of matters from those around him, but his secrets are known by Allah, for Allah knows what he reveals and what he conceals, Allah knows him inside and Allah knows his heart and thoughts.
  Allah is The All-Hearing when man talks, Allah is The All-Knowing when man intends something, Allah is The All-Seeing when man moves and Allah knows what people don’t know, Allah knows what is in the past, what will be in the future and knows what didn’t happen how it would be in case it happened. Allah says:

﴾ He knows the secret and that which is yet more hidden. ﴿

[Ta-Ha, 7]

 Allah knows what you conceal and even what is hidden from you inside you.

Earning manifests the movement in life:

  Allah says:

﴾And He is Allah (to be worshipped Alone) in the heavens and on the earth, He knows what you conceal and what you reveal, and He knows what you earn (good or bad).﴿

[Al-An’am, 3]

 “Earn” here means any deed which results in goodness or in badness.
  Every person has a career in this life, and in general, if he is honest in his career, if he masters it, if he is trustworthy in it and never deceives anybody, and if he is good, in his house, attentive, merciful and forbearing, all these good attributes, at home, in the street, at work, in ceremonies, in grieving, inside one’s country and abroad, add up to make a good person. There is another kind of people whose attitude with people is different from their attitude when they are alone, such man is a hypocrite. The third kind of people is the one who is villain with everyone, is an immoral man who doesn’t care about his reputation. Thus:

﴾and He knows what you earn (good or bad).﴿

[Al-An’am, 3]

 Your movement in life is your own earning, and this movement might be right oriented or evil oriented, it might lead to goodness or lead to harm, and it might bring happiness or bring misery.
This is the meaning of the following Ayah:

﴾and He knows what you earn (good or bad).﴿

[Al-An’am, 3]

 Man’s earning is the thing he strives for in order to bring goodness, avoid harm or deserve punishment.

Every calamity befalls because of a sin and goes away because of repentance:

  Almighty Allah then says:

﴾And never an Ayah (sign) comes to them from the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) of their Lord, but that they have been turning away from it.﴿

[Al-An’am, 4]

 Morals are so many, but little are the people who learn their lesson.
  Some stories show clearly Allah’s just, mercy, favor, wrath, punishment or honoring.
  Hence there are countless divine lessons driven to mankind so that they will know that Allah is:

﴾It is He (Allah) Who is the only Ilah (God to be worshipped) in the heaven and the only Ilah (God to be worshipped) on the earth.﴿

[Az-Zukhruf, 84]

 All matters are in His Hand and to Him return all affairs (for decision).

﴾And never an Ayah (sign) comes to them from the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) of their Lord, but that they have been turning away from it.﴿

[Al-An’am, 4]

 When you analyze events from the standing point of Tawheed (monotheism), and when you show others that all calamities are but divine punishments deserved by people and that a trial is not sent down except due to a sin and it is not lifted except with repentance, and when you explain that, some people are hurt badly (they refuse this explanation).

﴾ And when Allah Alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who believe not in the Hereafter are filled with disgust (from the Oneness of Allah) ﴿

[Az-Zumar, 45]

The people of worldly life don’t accept monotheistic explanations

  When you analyze events from the standing point of worldly life and Shirk (polytheism) and when you ascribe the reasons of calamities to this or that person and to this or that power, this explanation is accepted by Mushriks (polytheists) and by those who don’t believe in the hereafter and generally by the people of worldly life, whereas the analysis from the standing point of Tawheed is not accepted by those.
There are thousands of explanations for the fierce wars in some countries, but when one reads the following Ayah:

﴾And Allah puts forward the example of a township, that dwelt secure and well content; its provision coming to it in abundance from every place, but it (its people) denied the Favours of Allah (with ungratefulness). So Allah made it taste the extreme of hunger (famine) and fear, because of that which they (its people) used to do . ﴿

[Al-Nahl, 112]

 This is the explanation from the standing point of the Quran to any major disasters in life.
Accordingly, only the believer is satisfied by the explanation from the standing point of Tawheed and faith, whereas the one, who doesn’t believe in the hereafter, will never be satisfied by this explanation, and he looks around for other earthly explanations.

When one is close to death all facts become clear to him::

  Allah says:

﴾And never an Ayah (sign) comes to them from the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) of their Lord, but that they have been turning away from it. Indeed, they rejected the truth (the Qur'an and Muhammad) when it came to them, but there will come to them the news of that (the torment) which they used to mock at.﴿

[Al-An’am, 4-5]

 Actually, all the facts, brought to people by prophets, are disclosed at the moment of death.

﴾Now We have removed your covering, and sharp is your sight this Day ﴿

[Qaf, 22]

 All these facts will be clear to the fiercest disbelievers on earth when they are about to die. The proof comes from the story of Pharaoh who said:

﴾and I am your Lord, therefore worship Me (Alone). [Tafsir Ibn Kathir]﴿

[Al-Anbiya’, 92]

  And who said also:

﴾ I know not that you have an ilah (a god) other than me ﴿

[Al-Qasaas, 38]

 Yet when drowning overtook him he said:

﴾in Whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am one of the Muslims (those who submit to Allah's Will)." ﴿

[Yunus, 90]

Man’s choice with regard to faith is a matter of time

  Dear brother, it is painful that your choice with believing is only a matter of time, because when you are about to die, you will believe, but it will be too late.

﴾no good will it do to a person to believe then, if he believed not before, nor earned good (by performing deeds of righteousness) through his Faith. Say: "Wait you! we (too) are waiting."﴿

[Al-An’am, 158]

 You have millions of choices in life to which you can say yes or no, except for believing, for it is a matter of time, so either you believe in the right time, or you do so after it is too late.

﴾Indeed, they rejected the truth (the Qur'an and Muhammad) when it came to them, but there will come to them the news of that (the torment) which they used to mock at.﴿

[Al-An’am, 5]

﴾ there will come﴿

 In the future tense.
  Hence, one of the most accurate definitions of reasoning is that the reasonable man never regrets anything, because he expects what is coming in the future and he adapts himself to receive it so that he won’t be taken by surprise.
  In order to explain this concept consider the following example: suppose, by way of example that there were two students, one of them studied very well during the year and thus he deserved to succeed with flying colors because he was prepared for the exams, he would never be surprised by any question, he solved all the problems, filled the blanks and got high scores, whereas the other student was very lazy, he never studied during the year and he was tipped by a friend that he would get the questions of the exam from his teacher if he gave him a gift, so accordingly, he spent his studying year in picnics, in clubs and in playing, but when he knocked at the door of his teacher and gave him the gift in order to get the questions of the exams, he got two slaps on his face instead, and he knew the truth one day before the exams when it was too late.
  Hence, men are of two kinds: those who expect what is coming and prepare themselves for it, and those who don’t pay heed to what is coming and they are taken by surprise, so in this case what is the definition of reasoning? It is the ability to adapt with the future, and intelligence is nothing but the ability to adapt.

Right or wrong perceptive is the gravest thing in man’s life:

  Allah says:

﴾Indeed, they rejected the truth (the Qur'an and Muhammad) when it came to them, but there will come to them the news of that (the torment) which they used to mock at.﴿

[Al-An’am, 5]

 Any person who committed a crime had imagined that he would get away with it.
The thief’s dreams are all about the money he is about to steal from the victim he is about to kill, but a few days later he would find himself locked up in prison and twenty days later he would be hanged. This is the reality.
  Accordingly, the most important thing in man’s life is to have a right vision, and the worst is to have a wrong one.
  When your vision is clear and right, you will succeed in your life, and this makes us understand the prophetic supplication which goes as follows:
  “O Allah, show us the truth as truth and help us follow it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and help us avoid it.”
  Allah says:

﴾Have they not seen how many a generation before them We have destroyed whom We had established on the earth such as We have not established you? And We poured out on them rain from the sky in abundance, and made the rivers flow under them. Yet We destroyed them for their sins, and created after them other generations.﴿

[Al-An’am, 6]

 One generation extends for 60 years, 70 years, 80 years or 100 years through which all people met one another.
  In this good country, people know each other, this man might die before that one, and this man might die after that man, but they are all acquaintances either through direct connections or through intellectual and media tools.Hence one generation varies from 60 to 100 years during which people know each other. The prophet PBUH said:

(("The best people are those of my generation, and then those who will come after them (the next generation), and then those who will come after them (i.e. the next generation)))

[Agreed upon by Umran Bin Haseen]

Worldly bestowal is not an evidence of Allah’s content:

  Allah says:

﴾Have they not seen how many a generation before them We have destroyed whom We had established on the earth such as We have not established you? And We poured out on them rain from the sky in abundance, ﴿

[Al-An’am, 6]

 When man travels to the western countries he will say to you: their countries are like paradise, they are all green, and you drive for hours through green mountains, valleys and plains which are full of rivers, lakes, birds and fishes. Allah says:

﴾Have they not seen how many a generation before them We have destroyed whom We had established on the earth such as We have not established you? And We poured out on them rain from the sky in abundance, and made the rivers flow under them.

[Al-An’am, 6]

 Which means that there are plenty of rain from the sky, and lot of rivers, gardens and orchards on the ground:

﴾Yet We destroyed them for their sins, and created after them other generations.﴿

[Al-An’am, 6]

  However, earthy graces are not a proof that Allah is pleased with those people.