He then asked, “And if I do not find you there?”
He replied, “Then at the ḥawḍ (the Prophet’s Pond).”
He said, “And if I still do not meet you?”
He answered, “Then at the mīzān (the Scale), for I never miss these three stations on the Day of Resurrection.” Related by Aḥmad and al-Tirmidhī (1).

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī said: Abū Sahl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Mihrānī informed us; Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān the jurist of Baghdad narrated to us; al-Ḥārith ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Dāwūd ibn al-Muḥabbar narrated to us; Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī narrated to us, from Jaʿfar ibn Zayd, from Anas ibn Mālik, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“A son of Adam will be brought on the Day of Resurrection and placed between the two pans of the Scale, and an angel will be appointed over him. If his scale becomes heavy, the angel will call out with a voice that all creatures can hear: ‘Lo, so-and-so has found felicity from which he will never be wretched again!’ But if his scale becomes light, the angel will call out with a voice that all creatures can hear: ‘So-and-so has incurred misery from which he will never be happy again!’”

Al-Bayhaqī then remarked: “Its chain of transmission is extremely weak.”

This report was also recorded by the two ḥāfiẓs, al-Bazzār and Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, through Ismāʿīl ibn Abī al-Ḥārith, from Dāwūd ibn al-Muḥabbar, who said: “Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī narrated to us, from Thābit al-Bunānī and Jaʿfar ibn Zayd”—al-Bazzār added: “and Manṣūr ibn Zādhān”—from Anas ibn Mālik, raising it to the Prophet, with similar wording (2).

ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak said: Mālik ibn Mighwal narrated to us, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-ʿAyzār (3), who said:

“At the Scale stands an angel. When a servant is weighed, the angel announces: ‘Behold, so-and-so, the son of so-and-so, has a heavy balance and has attained happiness from which he will never be miserable again! Behold, so-and-so, the son of so-and-so, has a light balance and has incurred misery from which he will never be happy again!’” (4)

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā said: Yūsuf ibn Mūsā narrated to us; al-Faḍl ibn Dukayn narrated to us; Yūsuf ibn Ṣuhayb narrated to us; Mūsā ibn Abī al-Mukhtār narrated to us, from Bilāl al-ʿAbsī, from Ḥudhayfah, who said:

“The custodian of the Scale on the Day of Resurrection is Jibrīl. He will turn some people away from others. On that day there will be neither gold nor silver; rather, the good deeds of the wrongdoer will be taken, and if he has no good deeds, the sins of the wronged will be taken and laid upon the wrongdoer.”

Abū Bakr Ibn Abī al-Dunyā also said: Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿIjlī narrated to us; Abū al-Aḥwaṣ narrated to us:

“The Quraysh boasted in the presence of Salmān, so Salmān said, ‘As for me, I was fashioned from a filthy drop of fluid; then I will return as a putrid corpse; then I shall be brought to the Scale—if it is heavy, I am noble, but if it is light, I am base.’”

Abū al-Aḥwaṣ added: “Do you know what it is that should truly be feared? When a servant’s scale is heavy, it will be proclaimed in an assembly comprising the first and the last: ‘Behold, so-and-so, the son of so-and-so, has attained happiness from which he will never be miserable again!’ And when his scale is light, it will be proclaimed before all creatures: ‘Behold, so-and-so, the son of so-and-so, has incurred misery from which he will never be happy again!’”