Alyawma nakhtimu AAala afwahihim watukallimuna aydeehim watashhadu arjuluhum bima kanoo yaksiboon (surah Yasin: 65)

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

(36:65) Today We shall put a seal on their mouths, and their hands will speak to Us and their feet shall bear witness to what they had been doing. *55

Al-Yawma nakhtimu `alaaa afwaahihim wa tukallimunaaa aideehim wa tashhadu arjuluhum bimaa kaanoo yaksiboon

*55) This command will be given in respect of the stubborn culprits, who will refuse to confess their crimes, will belie the witnesses, and will also not acknowledge the genuineness of their conduct-book. Then will Allah Almighty conunand: "Well, stop your babbling. Just see what your own limbs say about your misdeeds. " In this connection, here only the evidence to be given by the hands and the feet has been mentioned. But at other places it has been said that their eyes and their ears and their tongues, and the very skins of their body, will tell how they had been employed in the world. "They should not forget the Day when their own tongues and their own hands and feet will bear testimony to their misdeeds.' (An-Nur: 24) "Then, when all will have reached there, their ears and their eyes and their very skins will bear witness against them concerning what they had been doing in the world." (Ha Mim Sajdah: 20). The question arises: On the one hand, Allah says: "We shall seal their mouths," and on the other, in the verse of Surah An-Nur, He says: "Their tongues will bear testimony against them." How can these two things be reconciled ? The answer is: "To seal the mouths means to deprive them of their power of speech. That is, after this they will not be able to say whatever they like with their tongue. The testimony of their tongues mans that their tongues themselves will tell how the wicked people had used them, what blasphemies and lies they had been made to utter, what mischiefs they had invented and what falsehoods they had been made to say on different occasions. "