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The scales of deeds and the people of the heights

الميزان وأصحاب الأعراف

Sha'rawi presents accounting by the scales as the Qur'an describes it. Those whose scales are heavy succeed and those whose scales are light lose. The people of the heights are those whose good and bad deeds are equal, and God's forgiveness comes before His wrath for them 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
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Worship and the pillars

Summary

Sha'rawi presents the reckoning by the scales as it appears in al-A'raf. Whoever's scales are heavy prospers, and whoever's scales are light has lost himself 1.

The people of the heights

He holds that the people of the heights are those whose good and bad deeds are equal. The Qur'an does not say this outright, but God's forgiveness comes before His wrath, so he reports forgiveness for them 1.

Accounting by record

He holds that God's reckoning is not by knowledge alone but by a clear record, and that each person reads his own book, citing the Isra verse 2 1.

Not yet checked

This reading of the people of the heights is Sha'rawi's and has not been checked against the tafsir books. The academic view and any non-Sunni view have not been checked.

People and things also explored

The ruling on one who abandons prayer· Ada' (performance of an obligation within its time)· Adhan (the call to prayer: its ruling, wording, conditions, recommended features and the muezzin)· Bone (adhm): purity, use and retaliation· The adornment of desires and the goods of this world· The people of the bench (ahl al-suffa)· The earth made a place of prayer and purity· Spending in the way of God (infaq)

Sources

  1. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1233
  2. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1232
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The scales of deeds and the people of the heights”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/people-of-the-heights-and-the-scales/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

The ruling on one who abandons prayer

Al-Sallabi quotes Ali: whoever does not pray is an unbeliever. He then reports from al-Nawawi the dispute over one who neglects prayer while believing it obligatory: the majority (Malik, al-Shafi'i) hold him a sinner to be asked to repent, others hold him an unbeliever, a view ascribed to Ali; Abu Hanifa and the Kufans hold him not an unbeliever but to be disciplined.