41:22 Fussilat (Explained in detail)

{ وَمَا كُنْتُمْ تَسْتَتِرُونَ أَنْ يَشْهَدَ عَلَيْكُمْ سَمْعُكُمْ وَلَا أَبْصَارُكُمْ وَلَا جُلُودُكُمْ } أي: وما كنتم تختفون عن شهادة أعضائكم عليكم، ولا تحاذرون من ذلك. { وَلَكِنْ ظَنَنْتُمْ } بإقدامكم على المعاصي { أَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَعْلَمُ كَثِيرًا مِمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ } فلذلك صدر منكم ما صدر، وهذا الظن، صار سبب هلاكهم وشقائهم .

وقوله تعالى "وما كنتم تستترون أن يشهد عليكم سمعكم ولا أبصاركم ولا جلودكم" أي تقول لهم الأعضاء والجلود حين يلومونها على الشهادة عليهم ما كنتم تكتمون منا الذي كنتم تفعلونه بل كنتم تجاهرون الله بالكفر والمعاصي ولا تبالون منه في زعمكم لأنكم كنتم لا تعتقدون أنه يعلم جميع أفعالكم ولهذا قال تعالى "ولكن ظننتم أن الله لا يعلم كثيرا مما تعملون وذلك ظنكم الذي ظننتم بربكم أرداكم" أي هذا الظن الفاسد وهو اعتقادكم أن الله تعالى لا يعلم كثيرا مما تعملون هو الذي أتلفكم وأرداكم عند ربكم "فأصبحتم من الخاسرين" أي في مواقف القيامة خسرتم أنفسكم وأهليكم. قال الإمام أحمد حدثنا أبو معاوية حدثنا الأعمش عن عمار عن عبدالرحمن بن يزيد عن عبدالله رضي الله عنه قال كنت مستترا بأستار الكعبة فجاء ثلاثة نفر قرشي وختناه ثقفيان - أو ثقفي وختناه قرشيان - كثير شحم بطونهم قليل فقه قلوبهم فتكلموا بكلام لم أسمعه فقال أحدهما أترون أن الله يسمع كلامنا هذا؟ فقال الآخر إنا إذا رفعنا أصواتنا سمعه وإذا لم نرفعه لم يسمعه فقال الآخر إن سمع منه شيئا سمعه كله - قال- فذكرت ذلك للنبي صلى الله عليه وسلم فأنزل الله عز وجل "وما كنتم تستترون أن يشهد عليكم سمعكم ولا أبصاركم ولا جلودكم - إلى قوله - من الخاسرين" وهكذا رواه الترمذي عن هناد عن أبي معاوية بإسناده نحوه وأخرجه أحمد ومسلم والترمذي أيضا من حديث سفيان الثوري عن الأعمش عن عمارة بن عمير عن وهب بن ربيعة عن عبدالله بن مسعود بنحوه ورواه البخاري ومسلم أيضا من حديث السفيانين كلاهما عن منصور عن مجاهد عن أبي معمر عبدالله بن سخبرة عن ابن مسعود رضي الله عنه به وقال عبدالرزاق حدثنا معمر عن بهز بن حكيم عن أبيه عن جده عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم في قوله تعالى "أن يشهد عليكم سمعكم ولا أبصاركم ولا جلودكم" قال "إنكم تدعون يوم القيامة مفدما على أفواهكم بالفدام فأول شيء يبين عن أحدكم فخذه وكفه".

On the Day of Judgement, the Sinners' Limbs will testify against Them

وَيَوْمَ يُحْشَرُ أَعْدَآءُ اللَّهِ إِلَى النَّارِ فَهُمْ يُوزَعُونَ

(And (remember) the Day that the enemies of Allah will be gathered to the Fire, then they will be driven.) means, remind these idolators of the Day when they will be gathered to the Fire and they will be driven, i.e., the keepers of Hell will gather the first of them with the last of them, as Allah says elsewhere:

وَنَسُوقُ الْمُجْرِمِينَ إِلَى جَهَنَّمَ وِرْداً

(And We shall drive the criminals to Hell, in a thirsty state) (19:86). n

حَتَّى إِذَا مَا جَآءُوهَا

(Till, when they reach it,) means, when they stand at its edge,

شَهِدَ عَلَيْهِمْ سَمْعُهُمْ وَأَبْصَـرُهُمْ وَجُلُودُهُم بِمَا كَانُواْ يَعْمَلُونَ

(their hearing (ears) and their eyes and their skins will testify against them as to what they used to do.) means, all their deeds, earlier and later; not a single letter will be concealed.

وَقَالُواْ لِجُلُودِهِمْ لِمَ شَهِدتُّمْ عَلَيْنَا

(And they will say to their skins, "Why do you testify against us") they will blame their limbs and their skins when they testify against them, at which point their limbs will answer:

قَالُواْ أَنطَقَنَا اللَّهُ الَّذِى أَنطَقَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ وَهُوَ خَلَقَكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ

(They will say: "Allah has caused us to speak -- as He causes all things to speak, and He created you the first time,) means, and He cannot be opposed or resisted, and to Him you will return. Al-Hafiz Abu Bakr Al-Bazzar narrated that Anas bin Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ laughed and smiled one day, and said:

«أَلَا تَسْأَلُونِّي عَنْ أَيِّ شَيْءٍ ضَحِكْتُ؟»

(Will you not ask about why I laughed)" They said, "O Messenger of Allah, why did you laugh" He said:

«عَجِبْتُ مِنْ مُجَادَلَةِ الْعَبْدِ رَبَّهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يَقُولُ: أَيْ رَبِّي أَلَيْسَ وَعَدْتَنِي أَنْ لَا تَظْلِمَنِي، قَالَ: بَلَى، فَيَقُولُ: فَإِنِّي لَا أَقْبَلُ عَلَيَّ شَاهِدًا إِلَّا مِنْ نَفْسِي، فَيَقُولُ اللهُ تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى: أَوَلَيْسَ كَفَى بِي شَهِيدًا وَبِالْمَلَائِكَةِ الْكِرَام الْكَاتِبِينَ قال : فَيُرَدِّدُ هذَا الْكَلَامَ مِرَارًا قال : فَيُخْتَمُ عَلى فِيهِ وَتَتَكَلَّمُ أَرْكَانُهُ بِمَا كَانَ يَعْمَلُ، فَيَقُولُ: بُعْدًا لَكُنَّ وَسُحْقًا، عَنْكُنَّ كُنْتُ أُجَادِل»

(I was amazed at how a servant will dispute with his Lord on the Day of Resurrection. He will say, "My Lord, did You not promise me that you would not treat me unjustly" Allah will say, "Yes." The man will say, "I will not accept any witness against me except from myself." Allah will say, "Is it not sufficient that I and the angels, the noble scribes, are witnesses" These words will be repeated several times, then a seal will be placed over his mouth and his organs (or limbs) will speak about what he used to do. Then he will say, "Away with you! It was only for your sake that I was arguing!")" It was recorded by him and Ibn Abi Hatim. It was also recorded by Muslim and An-Nasa'i. Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that Abu Burdah said that Abu Musa said, "The disbeliever or the hypocrite will be called to account and his Lord will show him his deeds, but he will deny them and say, `O Lord, by Your glory, this angel has written about me something that I did not do.' The angel will say to him, `Did you not do such and such on such and such a day in such and such a place' He will say, `No, by Your glory O Lord, I did not do it.' When he does that, a seal will be placed over his mouth." Al-Ash`ari, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "I think that the first part of his body to speak will be his right thigh." Allah's saying:

وَمَا كُنتُمْ تَسْتَتِرُونَ أَن يَشْهَدَ عَلَيْكُمْ سَمْعُكُمْ وَلاَ أَبْصَـرُكُمْ وَلاَ جُلُودُكُمْ

(And you have not been hiding yourselves (in the world), lest your ears and your eyes and your skins should testify against you;) means, their organs and skins will say to them, when they blame them for testifying against them, `you did not hide from us what you used to do, on the contrary, you openly committed disbelief and sin, and you claimed that you did not care, because you did not believe that Allah knew about all your deeds.' Allah says:

وَلَـكِن ظَنَنتُمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يَعْلَمُ كَثِيراً مِّمَّا تَعْمَلُونَوَذَلِكُمْ ظَنُّكُمُ الَّذِى ظَنَنتُم بِرَبِّكُمْ أَرْدَاكُمْ

(but you thought that Allah knew not much of what you were doing. And that thought of yours which you thought about your Lord, has brought you to destruction;) meaning, `this evil thought, i.e., your belief that Allah did not know much of what you were doing, is what has caused you to be doomed and has made your losers before your Lord.'

فَأَصْبَحْتُمْ مِّنَ الُخَـسِرِينَ

(and you have become of those utterly lost!) means, `in the place of Resurrection, you have lost your own selves and your families.' Imam Ahmad recorded that `Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "I was hiding beneath the covering of the Ka`bah, and three men came along -- a man from the Quraysh and two of his brothers-in-law from Thaqif, or a man from Thaqif and two of his brothers-in-law from the Quraysh. Their bellies were very fat, and did not have much understanding. They said some words I could not hear, then one of them said, `Do you think that Allah can hear what we are saying now' The other said, `If we raise our voices, He will hear it, but if we do not raise our voices, He will not hear it.' The other said, `If He can hear one thing from us, He can hear everything.' I mentioned this to the Prophet , then Allah revealed the words:

وَمَا كُنتُمْ تَسْتَتِرُونَ أَن يَشْهَدَ عَلَيْكُمْ سَمْعُكُمْ وَلاَ أَبْصَـرُكُمْ وَلاَ جُلُودُكُمْ

(And you have not been hiding yourselves (in the world), lest your ears and your eyes and your skins should testify against you) until;

مِّنَ الْخَـسِرِينَ

(of those utterly lost!) This is how it was recorded by At-Tirmidhi. A similar report was also narrated by Ahmad (through a different chain), Muslim and At-Tirmidhi, and Al-Bukhari and Muslim also recorded (a different chain).

فَإِن يَصْبِرُواْ فَالنَّارُ مَثْوًى لَّهُمْ وَإِن يَسْتَعْتِبُواْ فَمَا هُم مِّنَ الْمُعْتَبِينَ

(Then, if they bear the torment patiently, then the Fire is the home for them, and if they seek to please Allah, yet they are not of those who will ever be allowed to please Allah.) means, whether they bear it patiently or not, they are in the Fire and they will have no escape or way out from it, and even if they try to please Allah and offer excuses, nothing of that will be accepted from them. Ibn Jarir said, "The meaning of the Ayah,

وَإِن يَسْتَعْتِبُواْ

(and if they seek to please Allah,) is: They will ask to go back to this world, but this plea will not be answered. This is like the Ayah:

قَالُواْ رَبَّنَا غَلَبَتْ عَلَيْنَا شِقْوَتُنَا وَكُنَّا قَوْماً ضَآلِّينَ - رَبَّنَآ أَخْرِجْنَا مِنْهَا فَإِنْ عُدْنَا فَإِنَّا ظَـلِمُونَ - قَالَ اخْسَئُواْ فِيهَا وَلاَ تُكَلِّمُونِ

(They will say: "Our Lord! Our wretchedness overcame us, and we were (an) erring people. Our Lord! Bring us out of this. If ever we return (to evil), then indeed we shall be wrongdoers." He will say: "Remain you in it with ignominy! And speak you not to Me!")" (23:106-108).

And you did not use to conceal yourselves when you used to commit lewd acts lest your hearing or your eyes or your skins should bear witness against you because you were never certain about the truth of resurrection; but you thought when you used to conceal yourselves that God did not know most of what you did.

وَمَا كُنتُمْ تَسْتَتِرُ‌ونَ أَن يَشْهَدَ عَلَيْكُمْ سَمْعُكُمْ (And you had not been hiding your selves [ when committing sins ] because of [ the apprehension ] that your ears and your eyes and your skins would bear witness against you,….41:22) This verse means that if anyone wants to commit a sin or a crime, he may hide it from others, but how can he hide it from his own limbs and organs? When it is known that our ears, eyes, hands, feet, skin and hair are not ours, rather they are witnesses of the state against us, and when they would be questioned about our deeds, they would give true evidence, then there is no way to hide the commitment of a crime or a sin. The only way to avoid the disgrace is to keep away from sin. Although it is not expected from the deniers of Oneness of Allah and of prophethood, that it would enter their minds that their organs and limbs would speak up before Allah Almighty and give evidence against themselves, yet any intelligent person could have understood that it is totally impossible that the One who has created him from a lowly matter, given him ability to hear and see, brought him up and made him young, will not fully know his deeds and state of affairs. But you had thought, against this evident matter, that Allah Almighty had no knowledge of many of your deeds. This false assumption encouraged you to commit ` shirk' and ` kufr'. This is the meaning of Verse 23 where it is said, ' وَذَٰلِكُمْ ظَنُّكُمُ الَّذِي ظَنَنتُم بِرَ‌بِّكُمْ أَرْ‌دَاكُمْ "And this thought of yours that you conceived about your Lord brought you to ruin..."

The Evidence of Man's Limbs and organs after Resurrection

According to a narration reported in Sahih of Muslim Sayyidna Anas ؓ says, "One day we were with the Holy Prophet ﷺ when he started laughing. Then he asked us whether we knew why he was laughing. We said that Allah and His Rasul ﷺ knew best. Then he said "What made me laugh was the dialogue a slave will have with his Lord on the Day of Resurrection. The slave will say, "0 my Lord! Did you not give me protection from injustice?" Allah Almighty will say, ` No doubt, I did.' Then this slave will say, ` Since this is so, I would not be satisfied with any evidence in the matter of my accountability, except that some part of my own being stands up as witness.' Allah Almighty will say, كَفَىٰ بِنَفْسِكَ الْيَوْمَ عَلَيْكَ حَسِيبًا ` Your own being is enough today to take your account. (17:14) ' Then his mouth will be sealed, and his limbs and organs will be asked to tell about his deeds. Every organ would speak up and give true evidence. After that his mouth will be unsealed, and then he will say to his own organs in displeasure, بُعداًلَّکُم وسُحقاً فَعَنکُنَّ اُنَاضِلُ ` May you be ruined. May you be destroyed; whatever I had done in the world was only to make you comfortable', (whereas you have stated to furnish evidence against me.)

And according to another narration by Sayyidna Abu Hurairah ؓ ، this person's mouth will be sealed, and his thigh will be called to speak and tell about his deeds. Then his thigh, its flesh and bone will all give evidence of his deeds. (Muslim, Mazhari)

Sayyidna Ma'qil Ibn Yasar ؓ has narrated that the Holy Prophet ﷺ has said that every new day calls the humans saying, ` I am a new day, and I shall be a witness to whatever you do today. So you should do some good deed before I come to an end, in order that I may give evidence, because once I am gone, you will never find me again. Similarly, every night gives the same call.' (Al-Qurtubi, with reference to Abu Nu'aim)

(Ye did not hide yourselves lest your ears and your eyes�) [41:22]. Master Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi informed us> Isma�il ibn Nujayd> Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Sa�id> Umayyah ibn Bistam> Yazid ibn Zuray�> Rawh> al-Qasim> Mansur> Mujahid> Abu Ma�mar> Ibn Mas�ud who said regarding this verse: �Two men from Thaqif were one day sitting with their sons-in-law from Quraysh (or it was two men from the Quraysh who were sitting with their sons-in-law from Thaqif) in a house, when they said to each other: �Do you think that Allah hears our intimate talk and conversation?� Some of them said: �He can hear only part of it�. Some said: �If He can hear part of it, He can hear all of it!� This verse was revealed about this (Ye did not hide yourselves lest your ears and your eyes�)�. This was narrated by Bukhari from al-Humaydi and by Muslim from Ibn Abi �Amr; and both related it from Sufyan who related it from Mansur. Muhammad ibn �Abd al-Rahman al-Faqih informed us> Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn �Ali al-Hiri> Ahmad ibn �Ali al-Muthanna> Abu Khaythamah> Muhammad ibn Hazim> al-A�mash> �Abd al-Rahman ibn Yazid> �Abd Allah who said: �I was hiding behind the cloth of the Ka�bah when three men came along; their bellies were fat and their understanding very limited. It was one man from Quraysh and his two sons-in-law, or it was one man from Thaqif and his two sons-in-law from Quraysh. They said something I did not understand. One of them said: �Do you reckon Allah can hear what we say now?� Another said: �He will hear us if we raise our voices, but if we lower them, He will not hear us�. One of them said: �If He can hear part of it, He can hear all of it�. I mentioned this to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, and this verse was then revealed (Ye did not hide yourselves lest your ears and your eyes and your skins�) up to His words (and ye find yourselves (this day) among the lost) [41:23]�.