for a scale into which nothing but falsehood is placed is bound to be light.

These people will have their deeds weighed against one another, considering whatever good or evil they contain, whether they were performed sincerely for Allah or not, and whether they conformed to His command or not. The weighing will lay bare the nature, quantity, and quality of every act—whether it holds any truth that would entitle its doer to reward or not. It is like a man who is said to owe certain dues: he is told, “Bring what you have so that we may weigh it and assay it.” Each time he produces something it proves to be debased, until nothing remains that can be counted in his favor.

For this reason some scholars have said that the unbelievers will not be “taken to account,” meaning they will not undergo an accounting in which their good deeds are displayed alongside their misdeeds. Rather, they are called to account only in the sense that their actions are enumerated and recorded, yet each of those deeds, when placed on the scale, only makes the scale lighter. This balance has no counterpart in the balances of this world, for none of our scales grows lighter for the physical objects placed upon it, whatever they may be.

Hence some have said: the intended meaning of the balances is justice. In explanation of the Almighty’s words,

“And the weighing on that Day will be true” ⦗Q 7:8⦘,

Mujahid said, “The judgment on that Day is justice.” Others have said: “Everything has a balance by which it is reckoned (1); appointed times have their measures, measured areas have their measures, and goods sold by volume have their measures.”