Transliteration:( Wa qaaloo lijuloodihim lima shahittum 'alainaa qaaloo antaqanal laahul lazeee antaqa kulla shai'inw wa Huwa khalaqakum awwala marratinw wa ilaihi turja'oon )
And they will say to their skins: “Why did you bear witness [54] against us?” They will say: “Allah made us speak, He Who bestowed speech [55] to everything.” And He created you the first time, and towards Him are you to return [56].
On the Day of Judgement, the tongue of the disbeliever will lie in an attempt to defend itself.
But the rest of the body—skin, hands, eyes, ears—will testify truthfully, exposing all sins.
In frustration and disbelief, the disbeliever will ask his own skin why it testified against him.
Despite his protest, all these limbs will be thrown into Hell, because they participated in the sin, even if under the command of the person’s tongue or desire.
This scene also teaches us that the court of Allah does not require witnesses out of ignorance, but sometimes such testimony is used to silence the criminal and expose him fully, just as the Prophet ﷺ sought witnesses in the worldly investigation regarding Hazrat Aisha (رضي الله عنها), which did not imply a lack of knowledge.
The verse means exactly what it says—the limbs will literally speak with Allah-given eloquence.
Allah, Who gave the tongue the power of speech, is also capable of granting speech to hands, feet, skins, and even trees.
In this world too, special servants of Allah have heard the speech of trees and inanimate objects, proving that such miracles are within divine capacity.
The body parts will remind the soul that Allah created it the first time, and now it is being returned to Him, to face the very punishment it used to deny in the world.
They will be shown the Hellfire that they arrogantly rejected, and its reality will now be undeniably clear.
The tafsir of Surah Fussilat verse 21 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Fussilat ayat 19 which provides the complete commentary from verse 19 through 24.
(41:21) They will ask their skins: “Why did you bear witness against us?” The skins will reply: “Allah gave us speech,[26] as He gave speech to all others. He it is Who created you for the first time and it is to Him that you will be sent back.
26. This shows that not only man’s own limbs will bear witness on the Day of Resurrection, but every such thing before which man would have committed any crime will also speak out. The same thing has been said in Surah Al- Zilzal, thus: The earth will cast out all the burdens, which lie within it, and man will say: what has befallen it? On that Day shall it relate whatever had happened (on it), because your Lord will have commanded it (to do so). (Surah Fussilat, ayat 2-5).
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