Ma‘mar informed us, from Bahz ibn Hakim ibn Mu‘awiyah, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, said: “You will be summoned, and a muzzle will be placed over your mouths. The first parts of each of you to be questioned will be his thigh and his hand.” (1)

Isma‘il ibn ‘Abd al-Qahir informed us; ‘Abd al-Ghafir ibn Muhammad informed us; Muhammad ibn ‘Isa al-Juludi informed us; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Sufyan informed us; Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj informed us; Abu Bakr ibn Abi al-Nadr informed us; Hashim ibn al-Qasim related to me; ‘Abd Allah al-Ashja‘i informed us, from Sufyan al-Thawri, from ‘Ubayd al-Maktab, from Fudayl, from al-Sha‘bi, from Anas ibn Malik, who said:

We were with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, when he laughed and said, “Do you know what has made me laugh?” We said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said, “It is the conversation of a servant with his Lord. He will say, ‘My Lord, did You not grant me protection from injustice?’ Allah will say, ‘Indeed.’ He will say, ‘Then I shall accept no witness against myself except one from myself.’ Allah will say, ‘Today, your own self is sufficient as a witness against you, along with the noble recording angels as witnesses.’”

He said: “Then his mouth will be sealed, and his limbs will be told, ‘Speak!’ They will speak of his deeds. Then he will be allowed to speak again, and he will say, ‘Away with you and be damned! It was on your behalf that I disputed.’” (2)

“And if We willed, We could have obliterated their eyes, and they would race to the path—so how could they see? (66) And if We willed, We could have transformed them where they stood, so that they could neither go forward nor return. (67)”

His saying, exalted is He: “And if We willed, We could have obliterated their eyes”—that is, removed their visible eyes (3), so that neither eyelid nor opening would remain. This is the meaning of obliteration, as Allah, exalted is He, says: “And if Allah had willed, He could have taken away their hearing and their sight” (al-Baqarah 2:20). That is: just as We blinded their hearts, had We willed, We could have blinded their outward sight. “And they would race to the path”: they would hasten toward the road. “So how could they see?” How could they see the way when We had blinded their eyes? That is, had We willed, We could have led them astray from guidance and left them wandering about blindly; how, then, could they see the way? This was the view of al-Hasan and al-Suddi.

Ibn ‘Abbas, Qatadah, Muqatil, and ‘Ata’ said: Its meaning is that, had We willed, We could have removed the eyes of their misguidance, thereby blinding them to their error, and turned their sight away from misguidance toward guidance, so that they would see their right course. How, then, could they see, when I did not do that for them?

“And if We willed, We could have transformed them where they stood”: that is, in their place. It means: had We willed, We could have made them apes and swine.