وَلَوْ يُؤَاخِذُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلنَّاسَ بِمَا كَسَبُوا۟ مَا تَرَكَ عَلَىٰ ظَهْرِهَا مِن دَآبَّةٍ وَلَٰكِن يُؤَخِّرُهُمْ إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى
"Had God taken people to task at once for what they have earned, He would not have left a single creature upon its back. But He defers them to a term that is set."
عَلَىٰ ظَهْرِهَا — "upon its back". The referent of the pronoun is not stated in the verse; the lexicographers record that it is the earth, the indication being understood from the word itself. And the word dābba is worth recording: it was analysed in al-Jāthiya at 45/4 — a living creature that moves.
I record this as my own reading: in relating the deferral of the punishment, the scope is not kept to man — min dābba, every living creature on the earth. That is: the verse states that man's reckoning concerns other living creatures too.
إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى — "to a term whose name has been set". The same construct was treated in al-Aḥqāf at 46/3 and in al-Zumar at 39/42. In all three places the same thing is said: the term is determined and its name has been set; but it is not man who has set that name.