What is the sound witnesses in islam?
When the slave is brought to questioning in the Next World, there will also be witnesses with them. This is because unbelievers and transgressors will continue their denial and objections in the divine presence as they had done in the world. Allah, glory be to Him, will then seal their mouths and command their other limbs to speak.
Qur’anic verses declare:
“On the Day when their tongues, hands and their feet testify against them about what they were doing.” (An-Nur, 24:24)
“Today Day We will seal up their mouths and their hands will speak to us, and their feet bear witness to what they have earned.” (Yasin, 36:65)
“When they reach it, their hearing, sight and skin will testify against them concerning what they did. They will ask their skins: ‘Why did you testify against us?’ and they will reply, ‘Allah gave us speech as He has given speech to everything. He created you in the first place and you will be returned to Him.” (Fussilat, 41:20-21)
The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) says in this regard:
“…And Allah will say (to His slave on the Day of Judgement), ‘Did you not think that you would be meeting Us?’
…And the slave will say, ‘O, my Lord, I believed in You and in Your Books and in Your Messengers and I prayed and fasted and gave charity,’ and he will speak in good terms like this as he will be able to do.
And Allah will say, ‘Very well then, We will bring forth our witnesses against you.’
And the slave would think to himself who it was who would bear witness against him and then his mouth will be sealed, and it will be commanded to his thighs, to his flesh and to his bones to speak.
And his thighs, flesh and bones will bear witness to his deeds and it will be done so that he will be left with no excuse. This person is a hypocrite who has incurred the anger of Allah.” (Muslim, Zuhd,16)
It is stated in another narration:
“The slave will say, ‘My Lord, have you not guaranteed me protection against injustice?’
Allah will say, ‘Yes.’
Then the slave will say, ‘I do not deem valid any witness against me but my own self.’
And Allah will say, ‘Sufficient as a single witness for you on this Day is your own self against you, and as multiple witnesses, the two Noble Scribes (Kirāmun Kātibūn) who had been appointed to record your deeds.’
Then a seal will be set upon his mouth and it will be said to his hands and feet to speak and they will speak of his deeds.
Then the mouth will be left free to talk and the man will say, ‘Off with you! Woe to you! It was for you that I struggled.'” (Muslim, Zuhd, 17)
Allah reveals in a Qur’anic verse that the earth will bear witness in addition to a person’s own bodily limbs and organs:
“On that Day it will impart all its news because your Lord has inspired it.” (Az-Zilzal, 99:4-5)
The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) once recited these verses and then asked his Companions, “Do you know what its news is?”
They said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.”
He said, “Indeed its news is that it will testify against every slave, male and female, it will say that they did such and such, on such and such a day.” He said, “With this it shall be commanded.” (Tirmidhi, Qiyama 7/2429; Tafsir 99/3353; Ahmad, II, 374; Hakim, II, 281/3012)
Similarly, it is stated in another Prophetic narration:
“Beware of the earth, for it is your mother; it is the place in which you dwell and the place to which you will ultimately return. It will reveal all deeds, good and evil, that are committed on it.” (Haythami, I, 241)
On that Day, human beings will exclaim in bewilderment and complete horror, “What is the matter with the earth! How is it able to recount all this!”
On that Day, there will also be witnesses from among humanity and the angels, but the greatest of all witnesses is certainly Allah Almighty to whom not a single matter escapes.
It is declared in a Qur’anic verse:
“Every self will be paid in full for what it has done, and He knows what they do.” (Az-Zumar, 39:70)
If one can perceive this truth in its full meaning, and if a person can give up all kinds of harmful things and vice with sincerity and a due sense of shame and awe of Him, they will have no need for any witnesses except Allah, the All-Compassionate to His slaves.
As He declares in the Qur’an:
“He is with you wherever you are – Allah sees what you do.” (Al-Hadid, 57:4)
“We created man and We know what his own self whispers to him. We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.” (Qaf, 50:16)
“know that Allah intervenes between a man and his own heart, and that you will be gathered to Him.” (Al-Anfal, 8:24)
“If My slaves ask about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls on Me. They should therefore respond to Me and believe in Me so that hopefully they will be rightly guided.” (Al-Baqara, 2:186)
That is to say, Allah, who is beyond all time and space, is with His slaves at every moment, aware of our every state and witness to our every action. Consequently, as believers, we need to be in the constant awareness of this reality and rigorously avoid any state or manner that is unbecoming to the proper courtesy of the enlightened slave who knows that His Master sees him.
On that great Day of Reckoning, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) will also be brought forward as a witness to his community. The Qur’an states:
“How will it be when We bring a witness from every nation and bring you as a witness against them?” (An-Nisa, 4:41)
While even in this world it is very embarrassing to be called to account before friends for a crime, one ought to consider what the state of a person called to account in the presence of the Prophets and other witnesses will be on that Day. This is because the wrong actions that they committed in secret in this world will be divulged in the presence of many witnesses.
Owing to this, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) who was sent as a mercy for all the worlds and who is filled with compassion for his community, calls out to us in his Farewell Sermon as follows:
“…I will precede you to the hawd and I will take pride in you your numbers before the other communities. Do not make my face overcast (cause me to be ashamed by committing sin)…”[1]
Allah the exalted declares in a Qur’anic verse:
“On that day those who disbelieved and disobeyed the Messenger will wish that they were one with the level earth. They will not be able to hide a single circumstance from Allah.” (An-Nisa, 4:42)
And so, leading a life oblivious to Allah and His Messenger will lead a person to a devastating disgrace and an overwhelming calamity on that Day as to make them wish the ground would open up and swallow them whole.
[1] See Haythami, III, 271; Muhammad Hamidullah, al-Wasa’iq, p. 367.
Source: Osman Nuri Topbaş , Journey To Eternity, Erkam Publications
