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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Is the Scale on the Day of Resurrection one or multiple?

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Question : Is the Scale one, by which all deeds are weighed? Or does every nation have a Scale, because nations differ in reward? Or does every person have a Scale?

Answer : There are also differing opinions among the scholars on this. Some said that every person has a Scale. Some said that every nation has a Scale, and some said that the Scale is one. Let us return to the evidence.
The evidence includes, first,
And the weighing [of deeds] that Day will be the truth. So those whose scales are heavy - it is they who will be the successful.وَالْوَزْنُ يَوْمَئِذٍ الْحَقُّ فَمَن ثَقُلَتْ مَوَازِينُهُ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ
[Al-A'raf 7:8]
This evidence does not indicate plurality or singularity, because it says "the weighing," but there are other evidences that mention the Scales. It says, "And We place the Scales of justice"
the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrectionالْمَوَازِينَ الْقِسْطَ لِيَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ
[Al-Anbya 21:47]
. And in the hadith,
Two words are beloved to the Most Merciful and heavy in the Scale.كلمتان حبيبتان إلى الرحمن ثقيلتان في الميزان
Sahih Ibn Hibban 7:226
the Scale is singular, and "We place the Scales" is plural. So do we say what the plural implies? And do we say that the Scale in the phrase "heavy in the Scale" refers to the genus? Or do we say that the Scale is one, and the plural is considered with respect to what is weighed? Yes.
And the first, one says the first and one says the second, so it appears to me, and Allah knows best, that the Scales are according to the nations, because the nations differ in deeds. And if they differ in deeds, it is necessary that the Scales of their deeds be different. For this reason, even among people with tangible things, and we say this by way of approximation, not by way of definition, the Scales for gold are not the Scales for feed, right or not?
Yes, the Scales for gold are very sensitive and precise, while the Scales for wood may be off by half a weight or more, meaning it does not matter. In any case, what appears to me, and knowledge is with Allah, is that the Scales are multiple, but with respect to the nations. For this reason, this nation, and praise be to Allah, and we thank Allah that He made us of it, and we ask Allah that we die upon it, this nation is the most honorable of seventy nations in the sight of Allah the Exalted and Majestic. And it is the shortest in time and the greatest in reward. Its time is from the afternoon prayer to sunset. And they are given their reward twice. So it is not possible that the Scale of these is like the Scale of the others, whose duration is longer and whose reward is less. So what appears to me is that the Scales are multiple according to the nations. Now, does the preponderance of good deeds mean that the scale pan rises or that it descends? Yes, the weight of the elevated and the hadith of the card: the records were light, they rose. So on this, the weighing is like the manner of weighing in this world. And some of them say its meaning is if it rises, that is the weight. This is not correct; this is contrary to the tangible. We ask Allah to make their Scales and the Scales on the Day of Resurrection... there is none, the mention of good ended.
Source قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، [448] هل الميزان يوم القيامة واحد أم متعدد؟ - ابن عثيمين — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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