41 Fussilat (Clearly Spelled Out/Expounded)
Mecca Period 61 [54 ayats]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَمَا
كُنتُمْ
تَسْتَتِرُونَ
أَنْ
يَشْهَدَ
عَلَيْكُمْ
سَمْعُكُمْ
وَلَا
أَبْصَارُكُمْ
وَلَا
جُلُودُكُمْ...
41:22. "Ye did not seek to hide yourselves, lest your hearing, your sight, and your skins should bear witness against you!
C4489. The limbs and faculties will say:
"You did not seek to hide your evil from us: in fact you used us for your evil, because we were in your power.
Did you not know that Allah knew everything and that our knowledge would be evidence against you?"
...وَلَكِن ظَنَنتُمْ أَنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَعْلَمُ كَثِيرًا مِّمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٢٢﴾
But ye did think that Allah knew not many of the things that ye used to do!
وَذَلِكُمْ
ظَنُّكُمُ
الَّذِي
ظَنَنتُم
بِرَبِّكُمْ
أَرْدَاكُمْ...
41:23. "But this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction,
C4490. "You now see the situation! We were given for your use and service. You misused us, to your own utter and irretrievable destruction!"
...فَأَصْبَحْتُم مِّنْ الْخَاسِرِينَ ﴿٢٣﴾
and (now) have ye become of those utterly lost!"
وَيَوْمَ
يُحْشَرُ
أَعْدَاء
اللَّهِ
إِلَى
النَّارِ
فَهُمْ
يُوزَعُونَ
﴿١٩﴾
41:19. On the Day that the enemies of Allah will be gathered together to the Fire, they will be marched in ranks.
C4486. "Marched in ranks": to show their further humiliation: for they will be like prisoners going to Punishment.
حَتَّى
إِذَا
مَا
جَاؤُوهَا
شَهِدَ
عَلَيْهِمْ
سَمْعُهُمْ
وَأَبْصَارُهُمْ
وَجُلُودُهُمْ...
41:20. At length, when they reach the (Fire), their hearing, their sight, and their skins will bear witness against them,
C4487. All the members of their bodies and the faculties of their minds, which they misused, will bear witness against them.
Similarly, in 36:65, their hands and their feet bear witness against them.
The "skin" not only includes the sense of touch (which is so often misused in sex), but also the sense of taste and the sense of smell, which are specialized forms of the organ of touch. All the sensory organs, and all their intellectual and emotional counterparts advance us by their use and pull us down by their misuse. They become tell-tale witnesses against us if abused.
...بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٢٠﴾
as to (all) their deeds.
وَقَالُوا
لِجُلُودِهِمْ
لِمَ
شَهِدتُّمْ
عَلَيْنَا...
41:21. They will say to their skins: "Why bear ye witness against us?"
C4488. A new phase of their existence will now dawn on them.
They used to think that if they concealed their evil deeds from the rest of the world, nothing would happen to them! But Allah can give "tongues to trees", and can make every fact in life, known and unknown to the world, contribute to the elucidation of truth and justice. When we succumb to evil, our limbs and faculties themselves betray us.
...قَالُوا أَنطَقَنَا اللَّهُ الَّذِي أَنطَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ...
They will say:
"Allah hath given us speech, (He) Who giveth speech to everything:
...وَهُوَ خَلَقَكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ ﴿٢١﴾
He created you for the first time, and unto Him were ye to return.
Asad’s Version:
41:19
Hence, [warn all men of] the Day when the enemies of God shall be gathered together before the fire, and then shall be driven onward,
(41:20) till, when they come close to it, their hearing and their sight and their [very] skins will bear witness against them, speaking of what they were doing [on earth].
41:21 And they will ask their skins, "Why did you bear witness against us?" [and] these will reply: "God, who gives speech to all things, has given speech to us [as well]: for He [it is who] has created you in the first instance - and unto Him you are [now] brought back.
(41:22) And you did not try to hide [your sins] lest your hearing or your sight or your skins bear witness against you: nay, but you thought that God did not know much of what you were doing
(41:23) and that very thought which you thought about your Sustainer has brought you to perdition, and so now you find yourselves among the lost!"