sincerity and servitude to Allah attain perfection, and [Allah] thereby forgives him major sins through it (1). This is reported by al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah, and others, [from Abdullāh ibn Amr ibn al-Ās] (2), from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said:
“A man from my nation will be summoned on the Day of Resurrection before all creation. Ninety-nine scrolls will then be unfurled before him, each stretching as far as the eye can see.
“He will be asked, ‘Do you deny any of this?’
“He will reply, ‘No, my Lord.’
“He will be told, ‘No injustice will be done to you.’ Then a card the size of a palm will be brought forth for him, bearing the testimony that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.
“He will say, ‘What weight can this card have against these scrolls?’ Then [this] (3) card will be placed in one pan of the scale and the scrolls in the other. The card will outweigh them, and the scrolls will fly up.” (4)
This (5) is the condition of one who utters it sincerely and truthfully, as this man did. Otherwise, all those guilty of major sins who entered the Fire used to say, “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah,”
(1) N reads: “so He forgives him thereby.”
(2) The text enclosed in square brackets is omitted in N and M.
(3) The word “this” is added in H and B.
(4) The hadith is narrated, with variations in wording, from Abdullāh ibn Amr ibn al-Ās—may Allah be pleased with them both—in Sunan al-Tirmidhī, 4/123–124 (Book of Faith, Chapter concerning One Who Dies While Testifying That There Is No Deity except Allah). Its opening there reads: “Allah will single out a man from my nation before all creation on the Day of Resurrection…” Al-Tirmidhī said: “This is a good but uncommon hadith.” It is also found in Sunan Ibn Mājah, 2/1437 (Book of Asceticism, Chapter on the Mercy of Allah Hoped for on the Day of Resurrection), and al-Musnad, al-Maārif ed., 11/197–200. Shaykh Ahmad Shākir—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “Its chain of transmission is sound.” He also noted that al-Hākim narrated it in al-Mustadrak, 1/529, and said: “This hadith has a sound chain of transmission, though neither al-Bukhārī nor Muslim narrated it.” Al-Dhahabī concurred. Al-Mundhirī cited it in al-Targhīb wa al-Tarhīb and said: “It was narrated by al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Hibbān in his Sahīh, al-Hākim, and al-Bayhaqī…” The word al-sijill—with the s vowelled i and the l doubled—means a large book. Ibn al-Athīr said: “A bitāqa—with the b vowelled i and the unpointed t undoubled—is a slip of paper. Egyptians call a bitāqa a ruqa.”
(5) N and M read the masculine form fa-hādhā (“Thus this”).