He was asked:
“Does the Scale mean justice, or does it have two pans?”

He replied:
“The Scale” is that by which deeds are weighed; it is distinct from justice, as the Quran and Sunnah indicate. For example, Allah Most High says:
“Whoever’s scales are heavy,”
and:
“Whoever’s scales are light.”
He also says:
“We shall set up the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection.”

In the two Sahīh collections, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is reported to have said:
“Two phrases are light on the tongue, heavy in the Scale, and beloved to the Most Merciful: ‘Glory and praise be to Allah; glory be to Allah, the Magnificent.’”

He also said of the two legs of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd:
“They are heavier in the Scale than Mount Uhud.”

Al-Tirmidhī and others relate the hadith of the card, which al-Tirmidhī, al-Hākim, and others graded authentic. It concerns a man who is brought forward, and ninety-nine records are spread out for him, each extending as far as the eye can see. They are placed in one pan, and a card is brought for him bearing the testimony that none is worthy of worship except Allah. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“Then the records proved light, and the card heavy.”

This and similar reports make clear that deeds are weighed in scales that show whether good deeds outweigh evil deeds or vice versa. The Scale is thus the means by which justice becomes manifest. The purpose of weighing is justice, as with the scales of this world. As for the precise nature of those scales, it is on the same footing as the nature of all the other matters of the unseen about which we have been told.