Tafsir of Al-A'raf 7:8

(And the weighing), meaning the weighing of deeds and the distinction between those that are heavy, light, good, and bad. It is a subject (mubtada'), and His saying: (that day) is attached to an elided predicate, and His saying: (the truth) is its adjective. That is: the true and established weighing shall be on the day when the questioning and the settling of accounts occur. Some grammarians chose this view.

It is said that the apparent meaning is that (the truth) is the predicate and (that day) is an adverbial modifier for the "weighing," so as to avoid separation between the adjective and the qualified noun. Perhaps the reason for not choosing this is that it involves the operation of an articulated verbal noun (al-masdar al-mu'arraf), which is rare. In al-Kashf, it is stated that the meaning is not that the weighing is the truth [itself], but that the true weighing will take place on that day; does one not see His saying, the Almighty: "And We shall place the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection"?

Al-Isfahani mentioned in his commentary on al-Luma' by Ibn Jinni that (the truth) is a substitute (badal) for the hidden pronoun in the adverbial modifier, which is a sound view. However, the first view prioritizes the meaning and does not mind the separation by the predicate because it is identical to the subject in one respect, especially since there is latitude in the usage of adverbial modifiers. Abu al-Baqa' permitted that (the truth) be the predicate of an elided subject, as if it were said: "What is that weighing?" and it was said: "It is the truth," meaning the just and equitable [weighing]. He also permitted that (the weighing) be the predicate of an elided subject, meaning: "This is the weighing," and it is as you see. It was also read as "al-qist" (the equity).

Weighing, as al-Raghib said, is the knowledge of the measure of a thing; it is said "I weighed it, a weighing, a weight." What is commonly known among the masses is that which is measured by the balance (al-qistas) and the scales (al-qabban). There is a difference of opinion regarding its nature on the Day of Resurrection. The majority, as the Qadi said, hold that it is the records of deeds that are weighed by a balance that has a tongue and two pans, so that the creatures may see it, to manifest justice and silence the opponent, just as they are questioned about their deeds and their tongues and limbs confess them. We do not expose ourselves to the essence of those records; Allah, the Exalted, knows their reality best.

This is supported by what Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, al-Hakim (who authenticated it), al-Bayhaqi, and others recorded from Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-Aas, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A man from my nation will be called out before the eyes of all creatures on the Day of Resurrection, and ninety-nine scrolls will be spread out for him, each scroll extending as far as the eye can see. Then the Almighty will say: 'Do you deny any of this? Did my recording angels wrong you?' He will say: 'No, O Lord.' He will say: 'Do you have any excuse or a good deed?' The man will be terrified and say: 'No, O Lord.' He, the Majestic, will say: 'Indeed, you have a good deed with Us, and there is no injustice upon you today.' A card will be brought out for him containing: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger. He will say: 'O Lord, what is this card with these scrolls?' It will be said: 'You will not be wronged.' The scrolls will be placed in one pan and the card in another; the scrolls will become light and the card heavy, for nothing is heavier than the name of Allah."

This testimony, according to what al-Qurtubi said citing al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, is not the testimony of monotheism as such—because the nature of the scale is that something is placed in one pan and its opposite in the other, so good deeds are placed in one and bad deeds in the other, and it is impossible for one servant to be brought forth with disbelief and faith combined, so it is impossible for the testimony of monotheism to be placed in the scale [as a counterweight to disbelief]. However, after faith, the utterance of this blessed word is a good deed, so it is placed in the scale like all other good deeds. This is supported by His saying, the Almighty, in the hadith: "Indeed, you have a good deed with Us," without Him saying "a faith." It is permitted that the intent is this word if it was his final speech in this world. Others permitted that it is the word of monotheism and denied that it is necessary for the opposite to be placed in the other pan to make the impossible result follow—so ponder this.

Another report was narrated, recorded by Ibn Abi al-Dunya and al-Numayri in Kitab al-I'lam from Abdullah [ibn Amr] also, who said: "Adam (peace be upon him) will have a station from Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, in a wide space near the Throne, wearing two green garments as if he were a towering palm tree, looking at those of his descendants who are taken to Paradise and those who are taken to the Fire. While Adam is in that state, he sees a man from the nation of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) being taken to the Fire. Adam (peace be upon him) cries out: 'O Ahmad! O Ahmad!' The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) says: 'I am here, O father of mankind.' He says: 'This is a man from your nation being taken to the Fire.' He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: 'So I tighten my garment and hasten after the angels. I say: O messengers of my Lord, stop! They say: We are the stern, the severe, who do not disobey Allah in what He commands us, and we do what we are commanded. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) loses hope, he grips his beard with his left hand and turns his face toward the Throne and says: O Lord, You promised me that You would not disgrace me regarding my nation. Then a call comes from before the Throne: Obey Muhammad and return this servant to the station. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) produces a white card like the size of an ant and throws it into the right pan of the scale while saying Bismillah, and the good deeds outweigh the bad. The caller cries out: 'He is happy, and happy is his fortune, and his scales are heavy! Take him to Paradise!' He then says: 'O messengers of my Lord, stop until I ask this servant, who is noble to his Lord.' He says: 'May my father and mother be sacrificed for you, how beautiful is your face and your creation! Who are you, for you have pardoned my stumbling and had mercy on my weeping?' He (peace and blessings be upon him) says: 'I am your Prophet Muhammad, and this is your prayer which you used to send upon me; I have fulfilled it for you at the time you were most in need of it.'" (End)

Perhaps such an act—if the report is authentic—is an exaggeration in demonstrating the honor of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) before his Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, in the presence of the first and the last.

It is said that individuals will be weighed. They argued for this with what was recorded by the Two Shaykhs from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him): "A great, obese man will be brought on the Day of Resurrection who will not weigh the weight of a mosquito's wing with Allah." I do not know, according to this, what is placed in the other pan of the scale if a sinner is placed in one and a person is placed in the other. I do not see it as anything but what you see, and the report is not explicit regarding the claim, as is not hidden.

It is said: these deeds that are apparent in this life in an accidental form will appear in the next life in a substantial form suitable to them in goodness and ugliness. This was narrated from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) and authenticated by more than one. It was said: "Upon that is the belief." There are reports that support this. Ibn Abd al-Barr recorded from Ibrahim al-Nakha'i, who said: "The work of a man will be brought and placed in the pan of his scale on the Day of Resurrection, but it will be light. Then something like clouds will be brought and placed in the pan of his scale, and it will outweigh it. It will be said to him: 'Do you know what this is?' He will say: 'No.' It will be said to him: 'This is the surplus of knowledge that you used to teach people.'" Ibn al-Mubarak recorded from Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman a similar meaning.

It is said: "The weighing" is an expression for righteous judgment and just ruling. The use of the word "weighing" for this meaning is common in language and custom by way of metaphor. Mujahid, al-A'mash, and al-Dahhak said this, and the Mu'tazila leaned towards it. However, some of them permitted weighing in the conventional sense rationally, even if they did not decree its occurrence, such as al-'Allaf and Bishr ibn al-Mu'tamir. Others declared it impossible because deeds are "accidents" (a'rad), and they are things that do not remain and cannot be restored; yet they are accidents, and it is impossible to weigh accidents because they are not described as heavy or light. If we concede the possibility of weighing them, there is no benefit in that, as the goal is only the knowledge of the disparity of deeds, and Allah, the Exalted, is All-Knowing of that; and that which has no benefit, its action is ugly, and the Lord, the Exalted, is exalted above performing ugly acts. The answer to them is known from what we have presented.

They interpreted the "scale" as justice and fairness. Al-Amidi objected to this by saying that the "scale" is described as having weight and lightness, while justice and fairness are not described as such. There are reports that are explicit that the scale is physical, for al-Hakim recorded and authenticated from Salman from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) who said: "The scale will be placed on the Day of Resurrection; if the heavens and the earth were weighed in it, it would accommodate them. The angels will say: 'O Lord, who will this weigh for?' Allah, the Exalted, will say: 'For whom I wish of My creation.' The angels will say: 'Glory be to You! We have not worshipped You as You deserve to be worshipped.'" In a narration by Ibn al-Mubarak and al-Lalaka'i from him, it says: "The scale will be placed, and it will have two pans; if the heavens and the earth and whoever is in them were placed in one of them, it would accommodate them, and the angels will say: 'Who will this weigh?'"

Ibn Marduwayh recorded from Aisha that she heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Allah, the Exalted, created the two pans of the scale like the heavens and the earth." The angels said: "Our Lord, for whom do You weigh with this?" He said: "I weigh with it whom I wish." In some reports, it is stated that Allah, the Exalted, unveiled the sight of David (peace be upon him), and he saw the scale in a way that terrified him until he fainted. When he recovered, he said: "O Lord, who will fill a pan of this with good deeds?" The Majestic said: "O David, when I am pleased with a servant, I fill it with half a date that he gave in charity," along with other things of uncountable abundance. Thus, it is better, as al-Zajjaj said, to follow what has come in the authentic narrations, as there is no necessity to turn away from that.

If it is said: The accountable person on the Day of Resurrection is a believer that He, the Exalted, is Wise and exalted above injustice, so His ruling on the qualities and quantities of deeds is sufficient for him. As for the one who denies Him, he does not concede at that time that the superiority of some deeds over others is due to specifics returning to the essences of those deeds, but rather attributes it to Allah's showing him that in that manner. So what is the benefit of the weighing? It is answered that the situation will be unveiled on that day, and all things will appear in their truths as they are, with their descriptions and conditions in themselves—of goodness, ugliness, and otherwise. They will shed the borrowed images in which they appeared in the world, so no one who witnesses them will have any doubt that they are the very ones that were in the world, and that each one of them has appeared in this emergence in its true form which entails its qualities; and the contrary will not cross his mind. Some investigators said this, and Allah, the Exalted, knows best the reality of the situation.

(So as for him whose scales are heavy) is a detail of the rulings resulting from the weighing. "Scales" (mawazin) is either the plural of mizan (scale), and its pluralization—even though the famous, correct view is that the scale in general is one—is in consideration of the multiplicity of the things being weighed or the weights themselves. Likewise, if we say that each person's scale is one, then in the speech there is an implicit genitive, meaning "the pan of his scales." Or, it is the plural of mawzun (that which is weighed), and its genitive is for reference, because success is consequential to that; thus, the intent is the good deeds. Pluralization in this case is obvious, as it is if we say that for every deed there is a scale.

(Those) is a reference to the one mentioned in the relative clause in consideration of his being described by what is within the scope of that clause. Its pluralization is in consideration of its meaning, just as the singularity of the pronoun in (his scales), which returns to him, is in consideration of its wording; and it contains the meaning of distance, as has been mentioned more than once. It is a subject (mubtada'), and (they) is either a pronoun of separation, separating the predicate from the adjective, confirming the relationship, and signifying the exclusivity of the predicate to the subject; and (the successful) is the predicate.

Or it is a second subject and (the successful) is its predicate, and the sentence is the predicate of the first subject. The definition of "the successful" is to indicate that they are the people who it reached you that they are the successful in the Hereafter, or it is a reference to the reality of the successful and their characteristics, which everyone knows.