Ya-Sin · Makki · ayah 65 of 83

Ya-Sin 36:65

ٱلْيَوْمَ نَخْتِمُ عَلَىٰٓ أَفْوَٰهِهِمْ وَتُكَلِّمُنَآ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَتَشْهَدُ أَرْجُلُهُم بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَكْسِبُونَ

“That Day, We will seal over their mouths, and their hands will speak to Us, and their feet will testify about what they used to earn.”

Saheeh International

Essence

On the Day the talking stops, the mouth that argued for the body is sealed, and the body itself takes the stand.

A reflection

The end of the argument

Most people carry a private picture of the Day of Judgement without ever saying it aloud. It is a hearing. You will be asked questions, and you will answer them. You will give context, and explain what you were going through. You will point to your intentions, and the pressures, and the people who did worse. Somewhere in that picture, you are still talking.

This ayah removes that picture in its first three words. Today We seal their mouths.

The commentaries say why. Those addressed had been denying. The concise commentary quotes their own oath from another surah: by Allah, our Lord, we were not those who associated others with Him. Another explains that this is the moment when they deny their disbelief and their rejection of the messengers. An early authority puts the whole scene in one line. There had been disputes and talk, and this was the end of it.

Sahih Muslim adds the most uncomfortable detail. A man is reminded of the favours he was given, and then a third man is brought forward. He says: I believed in You, and in Your Book and Your Messenger. I prayed, I fasted, I gave in charity. He praises himself as well as he can. He is told: shall We not send Our witness against you? He wonders to himself who could testify against him. Then his mouth is sealed, and his thigh, his flesh and his bones are told to speak. They tell what he did. That, the hadith says, is the hypocrite, and it is done so that no excuse is left to him.

The Day is not a debate the eloquent can win. It is the moment the talking stops.

The full entry has 7 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.