of punishment. Yet My word is irrevocable regarding those who denied My messengers and defied My command: I shall surely fill Hell with every last one of them.

O Adam, know that I will not chastise in the Fire any of your descendants—nor admit any of them to it—except those whom I know, in My eternal knowledge, that were I to return them to the world they would revert to the very evil they were upon and never repent.

O Adam, today you stand as a just arbiter between Me and your offspring. Take your place at the Scale and see what of their deeds returns to you. Whoever’s good outweighs his evil by even the weight of a mustard seed, for him is Paradise—so that you may know I punish none but every wrongdoer. (1)

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā said: Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb narrated to us; from Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Abū Umāmah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“When the Day of Resurrection comes, a company of people will rise, filling the horizon; their light will be like the light of the sun. It will be asked, ‘Who are these?’ and the reply will come, ‘The nation of the Unlettered Prophet.’ Every prophet will hope that they are his community, but it will be said, ‘This is Muhammad and his nation.’

Then another company will rise, filling the space between the horizons; their light will be like the light of the full moon. Again it will be asked, ‘Who are these?’ and the reply will be, ‘The nation of the Unlettered Prophet.’ Every prophet will hope that they are his community, but it will be said, ‘Muhammad and his nation.’

Then another company will rise whose light is like that of every star in the sky. It will be asked, ‘Who are these?’ and the reply will be, ‘The nation of the Unlettered Prophet.’ Every prophet will hope that they are his community, but it will be said, ‘Muhammad and his nation.’

Then the Lord—Exalted be He—will come and say, ‘This is for you from Me, O Muhammad, and this is for you from Me, O Muhammad.’ Thereafter the Scale will be set up and the reckoning will begin.” (2)

[Section]

Al-Ṭabarī transmitted from some scholars that the Scale has two immense pans; were the heavens and the earth placed in either one of them, they would fit. The pan for good deeds is light, while the other is darkness. It stands before the Throne; to its right is Paradise with the pan of light on that side, and to its left is Hell with the pan of darkness on that side.

He further said: The Muʿtazilah denied the Scale, saying, “Deeds are non-substantial accidents—how, then, can they be weighed?” He added: It is related from Ibn ʿAbbās that Allah will create those accidents as tangible bodies, and they will be weighed. He concluded: What is correct is that the books recording a person’s deeds will be weighed.

I (the author) say: Earlier evidence has already been presented for the first view, for the second, and for the position that the doer himself will be weighed together with his deeds.

Al-Qurṭubī said: It has been reported from Mujāhid, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, and al-Aʿmash that “the Scale” here means justice and judgment, and that the mention of weighing is metaphorical, as when one says, “These words weigh as much as those.”

I say: It is likely that they interpreted it so in connection with His words, “And the heaven He raised and set up the balance, so do not transgress within the balance; establish weight with justice and do not make the balance deficient” (Q 55:7-9). In that context the balance denotes that He has set justice among His servants and commanded them to deal with one another accordingly. As for the actual Scale that will be set up on the Day of Resurrection, its mention has reached the level of multiple-attested reports (tawātur).