Commentary
His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And the Day the enemies of Allah are gathered to the Fire, they will be divided." "Until when they arrive at it, their hearing, their sight, and their skins will testify against them concerning what they used to do." "And they will say to their skins, 'Why have you testified against us?' They will say, 'We were made to speak by Allah, who makes everything speak. And He created you the first time, and to Him you will be returned.'" "And you were not hiding that your hearing, nor your sight, nor your skins would testify against you. But you thought that Allah does not know much of what you do."
[And the Day] is in the accusative case due to an implied verb, which is: 'And remember the Day.' Nafi' alone, al-A'raj, and the people of Medina read: "We gather" with the letter 'n' [enemies] in the accusative case, except that al-A'raj broke the sheen. The rest read: "are gathered" with the raised 'ya' [enemies] in the nominative case. This is the reading of al-Amash, al-Hasan, Abu Raja, Abu Ja'far, Qatadah, 'Isa, Talhah, and Nafi' - as narrated from him - and its evidence is [they will be divided]. And [the enemies of Allah] are the disbelievers who oppose His command, and [they will be divided] said Qatadah and the people of language: the first of them will be restrained as a punishment upon the last of them. In the hadith of Abu Quhafah on the day of the conquest: "That is the restraint," and al-Hasan al-Basri said: The judge must have a restraint, and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, said: I do not restrain from the restraint of Allah, exalted is He.
And [until] is a limit for this mentioned gathering, and this is a description of their state in some of the times of resurrection, and that is when they reach Hell. For Allah, exalted is He, will establish them at that time upon themselves, and He will ask them a reproachful question about their disbelief. They will deny that and think that there is no witness, and they will assume the question is a question of inquiry and investigation. So Allah, exalted is He, will make their limbs speak as witnesses against them. It has been narrated from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: "Indeed, the first thing that speaks from a person is his left thigh, then the limbs will speak, and the disbeliever will say: Woe to you, O limbs, for you are the reason I used to defend myself," and in another hadith: "They will come on the Day of Resurrection with their mouths sealed, and the thigh and the hand will speak."
Then Allah, exalted is He, mentioned their dialogue with their skins in their saying: "Why have you testified against us?" meaning: and our punishment is a punishment for you. People differed on what is meant by the skins. The majority of people said: they are the known skins. And Abdullah ibn Abu Ja'far said: He used the skins as a metaphor for the private parts, and that is what he intended. And Allah, exalted is He, informed that the skins will respond to their answer by saying that Allah, exalted is He, the Creator, the Initiator, the Restorer, is the one who made them speak. And His saying, exalted is He: "Who makes everything speak" means: everything that speaks, whether it is in accordance with custom or a breaking of custom.
His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And you were not hiding﴾ can be understood as being from the words of the skins and their conversation, and it can be understood as being from the words of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, to them, or from the words of a king commanding him. As for the meaning, it can have two interpretations: one of them is that he means: And you were not protecting yourselves from sins and disbelief, fearing that it would be witnessed, or for the sake of it being witnessed. But you thought that Allah, glorified is He, does not know, so you indulged and openly committed sins. This is the view of Mujahid, and the hiding can be understood in this meaning and similar to it. Among it is the saying of the poet:
And the veil is before the immoralities and what
Meets you is without goodness from the veil.
The second meaning is that he means: And you were not able to and it is not possible for you to hide from your limbs and conceal them due to your disbelief and sins, nor do you think that they will reach this extent. This is the view of al-Suddi, as if the meaning is: And you were not able to push away by hiding and veiling that it would witness; because the limbs are bound to you. And in binding them, there is the assumption that Allah, exalted is He, does not know, binding them to disbelief and ignorance of Allah, exalted is He. And this belief leads its possessor to deny the message of the messengers and to belittle the power of Allah, the Most High, there is no lord other than Him. In the Mushaf of Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him: [But you claimed that Allah], and al-Tabari narrated from Qatadah that he interpreted " , " as
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