YaAAlamoona ma tafAAaloon (surah Infitar: 12)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(82:12) who know what you do. *7

Ya`lamoona ma taf`aloon

*7) That is, "whether you deny the meting out of rewards and punishments, belie it, or mock it, the reality cannot change. The reality is .that your Lord has not left you to your self in the world, but has appointed over each one of you honest and upright guardians, who are recording objectively and faithfully all your good and evil acts, and none of your acts is hidden from them, whether you commit it in darkness, or in private, or in far off jungles, or in secret when you are fully satisfied that whatever you have done bas remained hidden from human eye. For these guardian angels Allah has used the words kiram-an katibin, i.e. writers who are honorable and noble They are neither attached in personal love with somebody, nor are inimical to anybody, so that they would prepare a fictitious record on the basis of their favouring one man and disfavouring another unduly. They are neither dishonest that without being present on duty they would make wrong entries by themselves; nor are they bribable so that they would take bribes and make false reports in favour of or against somebody. They are far above these moral weaknesses. Therefore, both the good and the bad people should be fully satisfied that each man's good acts will be recorded without any omission, and no one will have an evil act recorded in his account which he has not done. Then the second quality that has been mentioned of these angels is: "They know whatever you do " That is, they are not like the secret, intelligence agencies of the world, from which, despite all their search and scrutiny, many things remain hidden. They are fully aware of everyone's deeds. They accompany every person, at all places, under all conditions, in such a way that he himself does not know that someone is watching him, and they also know with what intention has somebody done a certain thing. Therefore the record prepared by them is a complete record in which nothing has been left un-recorded. About this very thing it has been said in Surah Al-Kahf 49: "Woe to us! What sort of a book it is, it has left mothing unrecorded of our doings, small or great. They will see before them everything, whatever they had done."