Tafsir of Al-Mutaffifeen 83:18-20

"Nay! Verily, the record of the righteous..."

(Nay!) This is a reiteration of the previous deterrence in His saying, the Almighty: "Nay! Verily, the record of the wicked..." in order to follow it with the promise to the righteous, just as that was followed by the threat to the wicked, signaling that tatfif (giving short measure) and honesty are opposites. It has also been said that it is a deterrence against denial, and therefore there is no repetition.

"Verily, the record of the righteous is in ‘Illiyyun. And what will make you know what ‘Illiyyun is? A register inscribed."

The discourse here follows the same pattern as its counterpart mentioned earlier, except that they have differed regarding ‘Illiyyun in a way different from their disagreement regarding Sijjin. Many have said: It is a proper noun for the ledger of good deeds, in which is recorded everything known to the angels and the righteous of the two species (jinn and mankind). It is derived from ‘uluw (height) on the pattern of fi‘il, just as Sijjin is derived from sijn (prison). It is named as such either because it is a cause for ascent to the highest degrees of the Gardens (Paradise), or because it is elevated in the seventh heaven, or placed at the right pillar of the Throne alongside the angels brought near—peace be upon them—as an act of glorification for it.

It has also been said: It refers to elevated places; its singular is ‘aliyah. According to the rules of morphology, it should have been ‘aliyah, just as they call an upper room an ‘aliyah. But when they dropped the ta (femininity marker), they compensated for it by using the plural form with the waw and nun. This was narrated from Abu al-Fath ibn Jinni.

Others have said: It is an adjective describing the angels, and therefore it is pluralized with waw and nun. Al-Farra’ said: It is a noun constructed in the form of a plural that has no singular from its own root, such as ‘ishrin (twenty) and thalathin (thirty). When the Arabs use a plural that has no specific structure or dual, they apply it to both the masculine and feminine using the waw and nun.