on the Scale, as stated in the ḥadīth recorded by Ibn Abī al-Dunyā:

Abū Khaythamah, Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān and others told us: Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from Ibn Abī Mulaykah, from Yaʿlā ibn Mamlak, from Umm al-Dardāʾ, from Abū al-Dardāʾ, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:

“The heaviest thing to be placed on the Scale is good character.”

Ahmad likewise transmitted it through Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah with this chain, and again through Ghundar and Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Shuʿbah, from al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazzah, from ʿAṭāʾ al-Kaykharānī, from Umm al-Dardāʾ, from Abū al-Dardāʾ: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Nothing is heavier on the Scale than good character.” Ahmad also related it through al-Ḥasan ibn Muslim, from ʿAṭāʾ; Abū Dāwūd recorded it through Shuʿbah with the same chain, and al-Tirmidhī through Muṭarrif, from ʿAṭāʾ al-Kaykharānī (1).

Ahmad further said: “ʿAffān narrated to us; Abān narrated to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Zayd, from Abū Sallām, a freedman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

‘Glad tidings, glad tidings for five things—how heavy they are on the Scale: lā ilāha illā Allāh, Allah is greatest, subḥānallāh, al-ḥamdu lillāh, and a righteous child whose parents lose him yet count the loss with Allah.’

He also said:

‘Glad tidings, glad tidings for five: whoever meets Allah fully convinced of them will enter Paradise—belief in Allah, the Last Day, Paradise, the Fire, resurrection after death, and the Reckoning.’”

This wording is unique to Ahmad (2).

Another authentic ḥadīth states:

“Surat al-Baqarah and Āl ʿImrān will come on the Day of Resurrection like two clouds, or two vast canopies, or two flocks of birds in ranks, pleading on behalf of the one who recited them.” (3)

The meaning is that the reward of reciting the two sūrahs will assume that form on the Day of Resurrection, though some have said that the sūrahs themselves will intercede, not merely their reward.

The second way is that the deed is weighed by placing the scroll on which it is recorded, so the deed is weighed together with its parchment, as in the ḥadīth of the Card—and Allah knows best.

It has also been reported that the doer himself is weighed, as al-Bukhārī said: “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh told us; Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam told us; al-Mughīrah told us; Abū al-Zinād related to me, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said:

‘A huge, corpulent man will be brought on the Day of Resurrection, yet he will not weigh with Allah even the wing of a mosquito.’

He then said, ‘Recite if you wish: “So We shall assign no weight for them on the Day of Resurrection” (al-Kahf 18:105).’”

Al-Bukhārī added: “It was likewise reported by Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr, from al-Mughīrah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Abū al-Zinād, with the same wording.”