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al-yawma nakhtimu ʿalā ʾafwāhihim wa-tukallimunā ʾaydīhim wa-tashhadu ʾarjuluhum bi-mā kānū yaksibūna
Today We shall seal their mouths, and their hands shall speak to Us, and their feet shall bear witness concerning what they used to earn.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Ya-Sin - Verse 65
65. “Today we set a seal on their mouths, and their hands speak to Us, and their feet bear witness as to what they have been earning.”
The mention of the head and of the feet, are as an example, because in other verses of the Qur’an we recite that, the ear, the eye, and the heart will be questioned of, too, and even the skin will bear witness. In this verse, the Qur’an hints to the witnesses on the Day of Hereafter. These are some witnesses that are as parts of the man’s body and there is no room for denying their words. It says:
Yes, on that Day the man’s limbs are not submitted to his wishes any more. They will separate their account from the entire entity of man and will submit to Allah and obey Him only, the Sacred Essence, and by their witness they make the facts manifest. What a wonderful court it is, where its witnesses are the limbs of the man’s body. They are the means by which they have committed the sins. Perhaps, the witness of the limbs is for the sake that when these sinners are told their recompense is Hell for the deeds they did, they deny them thinking that it is the worldly court and they can deny the facts by tricks.
Here, the bearing witness of the limbs will begin and wonder accompanied with terror will overcome their entity thoroughly, and all the ways of escape will ilat, No. 41, verse 20 says:
And Surah An-Nur, No. 24, verse 24 says:
This point is also noteworthy that in one place the Qur’an says ‘their tongues testify’ (like Surah An-Nur), and in the verse under discussion He says:
This meaning may be for the sake that at first on the man’s tongue will be set a seal and his limbs will begin to bear witness. When he sees the witness of the limbs, his tongue will start speaking, and since there is no room for denials the tongue will confess the truth, too. There is also this probability that the objective meaning of the witness of the tongue is not the ordinary speaking, but it is a speech like the speech of other limbs which comes from its inside not from its outside.
Concerning the number of witness in that great Court and that how they will testify, we will explain it in more details when commenting on Surah Fussilat, No. 41, verses 19-23, Allah willing. The final word is that the witness of the limbs is about the pagans and sinners; otherwise, the account of the believers is clear. Imam Baqir (as) in a tradition says:
“The limbs of a believer do not testify against him, but they testify against the one on whom the command of punishment has been decreed.
As for the believer, his record (of deeds) will be given to his right hand, (and he will recite it himself), as Allah has said:
Footnotes