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Surah Fussilat — 41:21

وَقَالُوا۟ لِجُلُودِهِمْ لِمَ شَهِدتُّمْ عَلَيْنَا ۖ قَالُوٓا۟ أَنطَقَنَا ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنطَقَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ وَهُوَ خَلَقَكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ

Wa qaaloo lijuloodihim lima shahittum 'alainaa qaaloo antaqanal laahul lazeee antaqa kulla shai'inw wa Huwa khalaqakum awwala marratinw wa ilaihi turja'oon

They will say to their skins, ‘Why did you testify against us?’ and their skins will reply, ‘God, who gave speech to everything, has given us speech- it was He who created you the first time and to Him you have been returned-

And they will say to their skins, "Why did you testify against us?" They will answer, "God gave us speech — the one who gave speech to all things. He created you the first time, and to him you are returned."

Reflection

Antaqa is the verb for granting articulate speech, the root behind logic and behind the speech of birds elsewhere in the Qur'an, so the reply comes from something newly given a case to make. What it offers is a reminder of origin, redirecting the question past itself to the one who made the questioner. Some early commentators took julūd as a discreet way of naming another part of the body.

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