The Attribution and Meaning of the Saying: “Account for yourselves before you are accounted for”
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: To whom does this saying belong, O Shaykh? And what is its meaning?
Answer:
This is from the words of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), the Commander of the Faithful: “O people, account for yourselves before you are accounted for. Account for yourself regarding your actions and what has come from you, and repent to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) before you are held accountable on the Day of Resurrection for your evil deeds from which you did not repent. Weigh them, meaning with the scale, for there are scales on the Day of Resurrection.[Al-Anbya 21:47] The deeds of the servants are weighed, and indeed the servant himself is weighed with his deeds on the Day of Resurrection. [Al-A'raf 7:8]
[Al-A'raf 7:9]
He says: To whom does this saying belong, O Shaykh?
Account for yourselves before you are accounted for, weigh them before they are weighed, and prepare for the greatest presentation.
حاسبوا أنفسكم قبل أن تحاسبوا، وزنوها قبل أن توزنوا، وتهيؤوا للعرض الأكبرAnswer:
This is from the words of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), the Commander of the Faithful: “O people, account for yourselves before you are accounted for. Account for yourself regarding your actions and what has come from you, and repent to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) before you are held accountable on the Day of Resurrection for your evil deeds from which you did not repent. Weigh them, meaning with the scale, for there are scales on the Day of Resurrection.
And We place the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection, so no soul will be treated unjustly at all. And if there is [even] the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it forth. And sufficient are We as accountant.
وَنَضَعُ الْمَوَازِينَ الْقِسْطَ لِيَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ فَلَا تُظْلَمُ نَفْسٌ شَيْئًا وَإِن كَانَ مِثْقَالَ حَبَّةٍ مِّنْ خَرْدَلٍ أَتَيْنَا بِهَا وَكَفَىٰ بِنَا حَاسِبِينَSo those whose scales are heavy - it is they who will be the successful.
فَمَن ثَقُلَتْ مَوَازِينُهُ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَAnd those whose scales are light - they are the ones who will lose themselves for what injustice they were doing toward Our verses.
وَمَنْ خَفَّتْ مَوَازِينُهُ فَأُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ خَسِرُوا أَنفُسَهُم بِمَا كَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا يَظْلِمُونَ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [4476] صاحب مقولة: "حاسبوا أنفسكم قبل أن تُحاسَبوا..." ومعناها - صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.