Surah Al-A'raf 7:9
ﲓ ﲔ ﲕ ﲖ ﲗ ﲘ ﲙ ﲚ ﲛ ﲜ ﲝ
And those whose scales are light - they are the ones who will lose themselves for what injustice they were doing toward Our verses.
Tafsir of Al-A'raf 7:9
Tafsir
Ruh al-Ma'ani
Verse range: 7:9
And whoever’s scales are light—it is they who have lost their souls
[That is] by wasting the primordial nature of Islam, which every newborn is born upon, or the primordial nature of goodness which is the foundation of innate disposition.
For what they used to wrong Our verses
[This] is linked to "have lost," and ma (what) acts as a masdar (infinitive particle). "Our verses" is linked to "wrong," and it was brought forward [before the verb] for the sake of the rhyming interval (fasilah). The act of wronging is associated with the particle bi (by/in) because it implies the meaning of denial or rejection. Combining the past and present tense forms serves to indicate the continuity of wrongdoing in the world.
The apparent meaning of the noble arrangement is that the weighing is not exclusive to Muslims; rather, the deeds of the disbelievers—which are not contingent upon Islam—are also weighed. Some have leaned toward this, and al-Qurtubi claimed that the correct view is that it alleviates their punishment even if those deeds are not weighty, as has been reported regarding Abu Talib.
Many others have maintained that the weighing is exclusive to the Muslims, whereas the deeds of the disbelievers are nullified, whatever they may be. This is one of the two positions regarding His saying: "And We will not assign them any weight on the Day of Resurrection," and [in this view] their punishment is not alleviated by them in the slightest. As for what has been reported regarding the alleviation for Abu Talib, al-Sakhawi said that the accepted view is that it is specific to him. Based on this, one must resort to departing from the apparent meaning of the verse.
In both interpretations, the verse remains silent on the state of those whose good deeds and evil deeds are equal; these are the People of the Heights (al-A’raf) according to one opinion. From here, some have used this as evidence for the non-existence of this category [of people], a claim countered by the fact that they may be included in the first category, due to His saying: "They have mixed a righteous deed with another that was evil; perhaps Allah will turn to them in forgiveness," and "perhaps" from Allah, the Exalted, denotes certainty, as they have explicitly stated. In this, there is some scrutiny.