Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 41 Fussilat, Ayat 20-21

حَتّٰٓى اِذَا مَا جَآءُوۡهَا شَهِدَ عَلَيۡهِمۡ سَمۡعُهُمۡ وَاَبۡصَارُهُمۡ وَجُلُوۡدُهُمۡ بِمَا كَانُوۡا يَعۡمَلُوۡنَ‏ ﴿41:20﴾ وَقَالُوۡا لِجُلُوۡدِهِمۡ لِمَ شَهِدْتُّمۡ عَلَيۡنَا​ ؕ قَالُوۡۤا اَنۡطَقَنَا اللّٰهُ الَّذِىۡۤ اَنۡطَقَ كُلَّ شَىۡءٍ وَّهُوَ خَلَقَكُمۡ اَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَّاِلَيۡهِ تُرۡجَعُوۡنَ‏ ﴿41:21﴾

(41:20) and when all have arrived, their ears, their eyes, and their skins shall bear witness against them, stating all that they had done in the life of the world.25 (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.


Notes

25. The explanation of this given in the Hadith is that when a stubborn culprit will go on denying his crimes, and will even belie all the witnesses, then the limbs of his body will bear the witness, one after the other, by the command of Allah, and will tell what offenses he had committed through them. This thing has been reported by Anas, Abu Musa Ashari, Abu Said Khudri and Ibn Abbas from the Prophet (peace be upon him), and traditionists like Muslim, Nasai, Ibn Jarir, Ibn Abi Hatim, Bazzar and others have related these in their books. (For further explanation, see (E.N. 55 of Surah YaSeen).

This verse is one of those many verses which prove that the Hereafter will not only be a spiritual world but human beings will be resurrected with the body and soul as they are now in this world. Not only this: they will be given the same body in which they live now. The same particles and atoms which composed their bodies in the world will be collected on the Day of Resurrection, and they will be resurrected with the same previous bodies in which they had lived and worked in the world. Evidently, the limbs of man can bear the witness in the Hereafter only in case they are the same limbs with which he committed a crime in his previous life. This subject is borne out decisively and absolutely by the following verses of the Quran: (Surah Bani-Israil, Ayats 49-51, 98); (Surah Al-Muminun, Ayats 35- 38, (82-83); (Surah An-Noor, Ayat 24); (Surah As-Sajdah, Ayat 10); (Surah YaSeen, Ayats 65, 78, 79); (Surah As-Saafat, Ayats 16-18); (Surah Al-Waqiah, Ayats 47-50); (Surah An-Naziat, Ayats 10-14).

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). (verses 2-5).