41.Surah Fussilat
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
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 [Ali]. 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.
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!
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!"
41:24 And then, [even] if they endure [their lot] in patience, the fire will still be their abode; 22 and if they pray to be allowed to make amends, they will not be allowed to do so: 23
(41:25) for [when they became oblivious of Us,] We assigned to them [their own evil impulses as their] other selves, 2 ' and these made appear goodly to them whatever lay open before them and whatever was beyond their ken. 25 And so, the sentence (of doom] will have fallen due upon them together with the [other sinful] communities of invisible beings 24 and humans that passed away before their time: verily, they
[all] will indeed be lost!
22 Sc., "unless God wills to reprieve them": see the last paragraph of 6:128 and the corresponding note 1 1 4 ; also the hadith quoted in note 1 on 40 : 1 2 .
23 Lit., "they will not be of those who are allowed to make amends": an allusion to the request of the doomed, on the Day of Judgment, to be granted a "second chance" on earth, and to God's refusal of this request (cf. 6:27-28 and 32:12).
24 Or: "soul-mates" (cf. 4:38). The verb qarana, from which the noun qarm is derived, signifies "he linked" or "intimately associated" or "yoked together [one thing with another]". Cf. 43:36 - "as for anyone who chooses to remain blind to the remembrance of the Most Gracious, to him We assign an [enduring] evil impulse [lit., "a satan"], to become his other self".
25 Lit,, "that which was between their hands and that which was behind them" : i.e., their own
26 For this rendering - and the meaning - of the term jinn, see Appendix III evil impulses (which had become their "other selves", as it were) made alluring to them the unrestrained enjoyment, without any moral discrimination, of all the worldly attractions which lay open before them, causing them, at the same time, to dismiss as an illusion the idea of resurrection and of God's judgment - thus giving them a false sense of security with regard to something that was beyond their ken.