Chapter Five: The Body — What It Was Worn Out In
The hand at the end of the hour
After two hours: stiff fingers, the mark of the desk edge on the forearm, and a back that will not straighten until you have stood up slowly. The body was the instrument of the examination the whole time, holding the pen, keeping the paper still, propping up the head; and it was not the one being examined, nor the mark, nor the question.
Then he is asked about the instrument itself: this strength that was in your arm on the day standing up cost you nothing, and this sight that could read by a dim light, and the hearing, and the back that did not bend — what did you wear them out in, until they were worn out?
Its form in the hall you see: this is a question that is not printed on any paper, and yet every candidate knows it. The man who was up all night on something other than revision comes into the hall with a shaking hand and an eye that reads each line twice. The hall does not ask him: what did you spend your night on? But his paper answers for him without his being asked.
And its form in the greater hall: about your body — what did you wear it out in? A question about a tool you were given whole and handed back short: in what work did its health go, on what road was its strength spent, and what is left of the tiredness you tired yourself with?
And of all the items the body stands in the strangest place: it is the witness and the thing witnessed, the instrument the paper was written with and an item on that paper at one and the same time. Its owner is asked about it while he is standing in it, and is shown what he did with it while he looks at it with the very eye he is being asked about.
And its evidence: the fourth item of the hadith already quoted. And on what is looked at being neither the outward shape nor the belongings: “God does not look at your outward forms or your wealth; He looks at your hearts and your deeds.” (meaning; Sahih Muslim 2564 — Abu Hurayra, sound (sahih) — Muslim)