Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, to Him belong the endowments and proper commendations. May Allah increase the honor of Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, raise his rank, and protect his nation from what he fears for it.
Thereafter, it was said:
On the Day of Judgment, there will be a Balance. It is a real instrument similar to the balance in this life having two bars connected at the fulcrum with two pans. One of the pans will be for the good deeds, and the other will be for the bad deeds. The deeds of each person will be weighed in this Balance. This Balance is huge, much bigger than the usual Balance you see in this life. God said in the Qur’an that the weighing on that Day is very accurate and just.
Some scholars interpret from the texts that on that Day, God turns the deeds into objects and these objects will be placed in the pans. Other scholars interpret that the books written by the two angels will be the things that are weighed. Whether is it the one way or the other, definitely the deeds of all the people will be weighed in the Balance.
The two special angels of high rank, Gabriel (Jibril) and Michael (Mika’il), will be the ones controlling this weighing of the deeds on the Day of Judgment. The ones whose good deeds have more weight will be safe. Those who have equal good and bad deeds will have a status lower than those first ones. The ones with equal good and bad deeds will have a higher status than the ones whose bad deeds outweigh their good deeds. All those who have more bad deeds than good deserve torture, but God will forgive some of them.
The Muslims with more good deeds than bad deeds will enter Paradise without torture. They will not be in need of intercession from any creation. Also, the ones with equal good and bad deeds will not be tortured, but are not of the highest level. They will have to remain on a wall for a period of time. This wall surrounds Paradise. It is a very wide wall. They will wait for the first type to enter Paradise. Then they will be admitted into Paradise.
Those Muslims whose bad deeds outweigh their good deeds will be the ones who died without repenting of enormous sins. They deserve to be tortured by God. They are under the Will of God. If God does not forgive them, they will be tortured in Hellfire. Some will receive intercession and get out of Hellfire before the time they deserved to get. Some will not get intercession and will receive severe punishment in Hellfire. It is known for sure that some of the Muslims will suffer in Hellfire before entering Paradise. However, no one who dies as a Muslim will remain forever in Hellfire.
Some Muslims on the Day of Judgment would be “bankrupt”. Those are the Muslims who did some obedience, but wronged other Muslims. Those wronged Muslims will take from his rewards. If he runs out of rewards for the people to take, the sins of those wronged Muslims will be added to his sins. He will fall in Hellfire, and be one of the Muslims who will first suffer in Hellfire before entering Paradise. Ibn Hibban and Muslim narrated this from the Prophet, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam.
There is a hadith saying, that on the Day of Judgment, a person will not remember any good deeds that he did. Then the angels will bring a tablet with the Shahadatan written on it and put it in his pan of good deeds. This is because the person was a Muslim, having said and believed the Shahadatan. Just this tablet will outweigh all of the bad deeds of this person, even though this was not a pious person. (Of course this does not happen for every Muslim because some Muslims will suffer in Hellfire before going to Paradise.)
The blasphemer will not have any good deeds in the pan of good deeds. God already compensated any good deed that he did in his life in his earthly life. God gives him food and water during his earthly life because of the good deeds that he did. However he will not get reward in the Hereafter because he neglected the first obligation: to believe in God and His Messenger.
All the reward that God gives is from God’s mercy. It is not an obligation on God to reward the obedient people. Once the Prophet said, “No one’s deeds admit him into Paradise.” The Prophet was asked, “Even you O Messenger of God?” The Prophet said, “Even me, except if God endows His mercy on me. Seek the correct path.” God rewards whomsoever He wills out of His generosity, and punishes whomsoever He wills out of His justice. God promises to reward the believers, but God is not obligated to reward them.
May Allah guide us and enable us to perform the best deeds. Ameen. May Allah make us among the pious ones, who will have only happiness and enjoyment in our graves and in the Hereafter. Ameen.
