Tafsir of Ya seen 36:65

Translation of Mafatih al-Ghayb (Surah Ya-Sin, Verse 65)

Verse: {Today We set a seal upon their mouths...} (Ya-Sin: 65)

There are several perspectives on the sequence described:

1. First View: When they hear the Almighty’s saying, {Because of what they used to conceal} (Ya-Sin: 64), they will want to deny their disbelief, just as they claimed when they said, {By God, we did not associate partners [with Him]} (referring to a similar denial elsewhere). Therefore, God seals their mouths so they cannot deny it. Instead, God makes their limbs speak, and they confess their sins.

2. Second View: When God asked them, {Did I not take a covenant from you?} (Ya-Sin: 60), they had no answer, so they remained silent and mute. Their limbs spoke instead of their tongues.

Regarding the sealing of the mouths, the strongest explanation is that God silences their tongues so they cannot utter speech, while their limbs testify against them. This is easy for God to achieve: silencing is obvious, and making other parts speak is possible because the tongue is a moving organ with a specific motion; just as it can move that way, God can move other parts similarly. God is capable of all possible things.

3. Another View: They will not speak because their excuses are exhausted and their secrets are exposed. They will stand hanging their heads in despair, finding no excuse to offer and no opportunity to seek forgiveness.

The speaking of the hands signifies the clear manifestation of matters such that denial is impossible, leading the hands and eyes to speak. This is like the saying, "The walls weep for the owner of the house," indicating the manifestation of sorrow.

The first view is the soundest, and it contains subtle linguistic and conceptual points.

A. Linguistic Subtleties

1. Attribution of Action: God attributed the act of sealing to Himself ({We set a seal}), but attributed speech and testimony to the hands and feet. If God had said, "We seal their mouths, and their hands speak," there would be a possibility that this was done by compulsion (Jabr). Confession under compulsion is not accepted. Thus, He said, {and their hands will speak to Us, and their feet will testify}—meaning, by their own volition after God enables them to speak—to make the sin more clearly attributable to them.

2. Specific Roles: God said, {and their hands will speak to Us, and their feet will testify}. He assigned speech to the hands and testimony to the feet because actions are attributed to the hands (e.g., {and what their hands have earned} [Ya-Sin: 35]; {and do not throw yourselves with your own hands} [Al-Baqarah: 195]). The witness testifying against the doer should ideally be something other than the doer itself. Therefore, the feet and skins are made part of the witnesses because actions are less directly attributed to them.

B. Conceptual Subtleties

1. Acceptability of Testimony: On the Day of Judgment, the testimony accepted comes from those close to God (Muqarrabun) and the righteous (Siddiqin). However, on that Day, everyone is an enemy to the criminal. Testimony from an enemy against an enemy is not accepted, even if the witness is just. Furthermore, the testimony of disbelievers and sinners (other than the righteous) is not accepted. Therefore, God made the witnesses against them from them.

One might object: The hands and feet also committed sins, so they are sinners, and their testimony should not be accepted. We reply: Accepting their testimony is a way of refuting it. If they lie on that Day, the sin has already occurred through them on that Day. A sinner on that Day, with matters fully revealed, must have been a sinner in the world. If they speak the truth on that Day, the sin has occurred in the world.

This is analogous to someone telling a sinner: "If you lie today, my slave is free." If the sinner says, "I lied today," the slave is freed. Why? If he is truthful in saying "I lied today," the condition (lying) is met, and the consequence (freedom) is due. If he is lying in saying "I lied today," then he has indeed lied today, so the condition is met. This differs from saying on the second day, "I lied on the day I tied my slave's freedom to your lie."

The sealing is necessary for the disbelievers: in this world, it is upon their hearts; in the Hereafter, it is upon their mouths. When the seal was on their hearts, their speech came from their mouths, as God says, {That is their saying with their mouths} (At-Tawbah: 30). When the seal is also placed on their mouths, their speech must then come from their limbs, because a person possesses nothing other than the heart, the tongue, and the limbs. If the heart and mouth are incapacitated, the limbs and extremities must speak.

{And if We willed, We could have obliterated their eyes, and they would have rushed to the path, but how would they see? * And if We willed, We could have deformed them in their places, so they could neither proceed nor return.}