Man’s skin, according to the Quran, will testify against him on the Day of Judgement:
“On the Day when God’s opponents are gathered together they will be driven into the Fire. So that when they reach it, their ears, their eyes and their very skins will testify to their deeds. ‘Why did you speak against us?’ they will say to their skins, and their skins will reply: ‘God, who gives speech to all things, has made us speak. It was He who in the beginning created you, and to Him you shall all return. You did not hide yourselves, so that your eyes and ears and skins could not observe you. Yet you thought that God did not know much of what you did. It is this illusion concerning your Lord that has ruined you, so that you are now among the lost.” (41:19-23)
Until recently the idea of skin being capable of ‘speaking’ was very difficult for man to understand. Recent progress in scientific research, however, has made it much easier to see how this will happen. A UPI news release, printed in The Times of India (May 30, 1984), disclosed this startling discovery:
“‘Skin speech’—communicating through vibrations on the skin offers promise as a future alternative to hearing aids or surgical implants for those with impaired hearing, a speech and hearing scientist has said. Dr Arlene Carney, audiologist at the University of Illinois, said on Monday (May 28, 1984) that ‘skin speech’ involves the use of tactile devices that electronically create speech patterns in vibrations on the skin. Patients receiving the experimental therapy learn to interpret the vibrations and sort them into speech patterns, said Dr. Carney.”
It is well-known that words emitted through the mouth are preserved in the atmosphere in the form of sound waves. This sound actually originates in vibrations, much the same as the vibrations that cause skin speech, which are transmitted in the form of wave motions through a material medium such as air. These waves remain in the atmosphere. Though they cannot be seen, they do not disappear. They are there, and, were the apparatus available, could be played back like a tape on which sounds have been recorded.
If this is the case with vibrations that cause sound speech, then it is clearly true of the vibrations that cause skin speech also. The vibrations are also preserved in the atmosphere. Man, even in this world possesses the ability to play back sounds recorded on a disc or tape, should have no difficulty in understanding this power being extended by God in the next world to cover all vibrations, whether of sound or skin speech, which have been imprinted in the atmosphere in the form of waves.
Man is being tested in this world. No scientific discovery reveals the exact nature of divine truth for, were it to do so, man would have no choice but to accept it: there would be no test involved. However, advances in the field of science do make it easier for us to understand certain concepts, such as skin speech, which was difficult to fathom in the past. If the fast-accumulating evidence in support of truths expounded in the Quran is not sufficient to make man take heed, then he will have to wait for actual occurrences before he will come to his senses. But then it will be too late; for then there will be no choice but to listen to the evidence of everything—even our skins—and accept the fate to which it condemns us.
No Paradise without giving up self and possessions
Bashir Ibn Khasasiya came to the Prophet to swear allegiance.
“To what am I swearing allegiance?” he asked the Prophet. The Prophet stretched out his hand and said: “Bear witness that there is no other god with Allah, and that Mohammad is His servant and Prophet. Pray the five prayers, at their proper times. Pay the poor-due. Fast in Ramadhan, and perform the pilgrimage to Makkah, and struggle for the cause of God.” “I will do all this, Messenger of God,” Bashir replied, “but two things are beyond me. Zakat is one. To tell you the truth, I only have ten she-camels. My family lives off them. They provide us with milk, bear our burdens and carry us. Secondly jihad. I am a nervous person. People say that he who retreats from the battle-field earns the rage of God. I am afraid that if I have to engage in battle, I will panic and flee, thus deserving the rage of God.” The Prophet said: “Bashir, without charity and jihad, how will you enter paradise?”
