The Quran

وَما مِن دابَّةٍ فِي الأَرضِ وَلا طائِرٍ يَطيرُ بِجَناحَيهِ إِلّا أُمَمٌ أَمثالُكُم ۚ ما فَرَّطنا فِي الكِتابِ مِن شَيءٍ ۚ ثُمَّ إِلىٰ رَبِّهِم يُحشَرونَ

Muhammad Asad

although there is no beast that walks on earth and no bird that flies on its two wings which is not [God's] creature¹ like yourselves: no single thing have We neglected in Our decree. And once again:²Unto their Sustainer shall they [all] be gathered.

Lit., "but they are [God's] creatures (umam)". The word ummah (of which umam is the plural) primarily denotes a group of living beings having certain characteristics or circumstances in common. Thus, it is often synonymous with "community", "people", "nation", "genus", "generation", and so forth. Inasmuch as every such grouping is characterized by the basic fact that its constituents (whether human or animal) are endowed with life, the term ummah sometimes signifies "[God's] creatures" (Lisan al-'Arab', with particular reference to this very Qur'an-verse; also Lane 1, 90). Thus, the meaning of the above passage is this: Man can detect God's "signs" or "miracles" in all the life-phenomena that surround him, and should, therefore, try to observe them with a view to better understanding "God's way" (sunnat Allah) - which is the Qur'anic term for what we call "laws of nature".
The particle thumma is mostly used as a conjunction indicating a sequence in time or order ("then", "thereafter" or "thereupon."), and occasionally also as a simple conjunction equivalent to "and". But in yet another usage - of which there are frequent instances in the Qur'an as well as in pre-Islamic Arabian poetry - thumma has the significance of a repetitive stress, alluding to something that has already been stated and is now again emphasized. This particular usage of thumma is best rendered by the words "and once again", followed by a colon.