The Scales of Justice in the Quran, with Stunning Precision

Surat Al-Rahman 55:7 introduces the concept of the Scales of Justice in the Quran as follows:

And He raised the heaven and He established the balance.

The scales of justice are mentioned in a number of places, and in the process of analyzing suras that contain them, I noticed a distinct pattern regarding the scales, indicative of Allah’s justice and mercy enacted on Judgment Day, when the “balance” will be a measure of how people’s deeds will be judged. Here I’ve used word and letter counts, where the words represent Allah the Exalted’s “input” which would be decrees or commands, such as the word “Kun” in Arabic or “Be!” is a word-command mentioned in the Quran for creation. His “words” are then commands or decrees unlimited as per this aya from 31:27: “And if all the trees on earth were pens, and all the oceans were ink (with seven more such oceans to help), the Words of Allah would not be exhausted.” Letters, then, could represent our input, in this case the human deeds that are being weighed. And throughout the entire Quran, mentions of the Justice Scales used on Judgment Day to weigh good and bad deeds follow a precise pattern.

A Simple, Consistent Pattern Showing Justice and Mercy

Using this understanding, I have shown below how the various scales of justice in the Quran follow the same consistent pattern. Sometimes the “scale” is located within a part of an aya, whose other elements are separate, and sometimes an entire aya is basically about the scales, or includes the consequences or judgment that follows while maintaining that pattern consistently.

All these “scales” of justice on the Hereafter in the Quran are calibrated the same way, following the same pattern to achieve an equivalence for the good and bad scales by adding a word of mercy to count bad deeds, which are short one deed, thus giving an equivalent total. 

Only one Arabic word can do this, and not everyone recognizes it as a word, and that is the single one-letter word/letter waw, which looks like this و  and means “and.” The scholar Dr. Abdeldaem Al-Kaheel studied letter-counts as well as word-counts in the Quran in the course of his Quranic studies, and in an effort to use a consistent word/letter distinction — as a calligraphic script, Arabic is like cursive writing in English – determined that waw is a distinct and separate word as well as a letter. Using his consistent and well-researched perimeters for all word and letter counts in the Quran, I have discovered unique and valuable textual interrelationships, further validating his methods.

The pattern, summarized: both good and bad deeds scales have the same total, but the good deeds scale has one more letter/deed than the evil deeds scale which has one more word/mercy than the good scale. The word waw is counted twice (once as a word, once as a letter) to get the equivalent total. This is given as a mercy from Allah to add “weight” (in this case, a good thing) to the otherwise deficient “bad deeds” scale.

The Pairs of Scales: Good (Heavy) and Bad (Lightweight)

These are the scales; notice the pattern mentioned above. Also, for ayat 23:102-3, the first pair shows the scales only as identical to those of 7:8-9, and the second pair shows the entire aya for each follows the same pattern as well, even though the numbers are different and there is added text for the consequences. How precise the Quran is in expressing such things is quite significant.

7:8-9 Al-‘Araf (The Scales section only)

فَمَن ثَقُلَتۡ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ

So those whose scales are heavy

Al-‘Araf 7:8

3 words, 13 letters, total 16

وَمَنۡ خَفَّتۡ مَوَٰزِينُهُ

And those whose scales are light 

Al-‘Araf 7:9

4 words, 12 letters, total 16

23:102-103 Al-Mu’minoon (The Scales section only)

فَمَن ثَقُلَتۡ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ

And those whose scales are heavy [with good deeds]

Al-Mu’minoon 23:102

3 words, 13 letters, total 16

وَمَنۡ خَفَّتۡ مَوَٰزِينُهُ

But those whose scales are light

Al-Mu’minoon 23:103

4 words, 12 letters, total 16

99:7-8 Al-Zalzala

‎فَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ

So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it,

Al-Zalzala 99:7

6 words, 22 letters total 28 

‎وَمَن يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ

And whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it.

Al-Zalzala 99:8

7 words, 21 letters total 28

101:6 Al-Qari’a

فَأَمَّا مَن ثَقُلَتۡ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ

Then as for one whose scales are heavy [with good deeds],

Al-Qari’a 101:7

4 words – 16 letters, total 20

وَأَمَّا مَنۡ خَفَّتۡ مَوَٰزِينُهُۥ

But as for one whose scales are light,

Al-Qari’a 101:8

5 words – 15 letters, total 20 

And finally, in another interesting configuration, Allah promises us there will be no injustice on Judgment Day, and in fact far more mercy. But for those who deserve punishment, their punishment will be equitable and no one will quibble about this on that Day.

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَظۡلِمُ مِثۡقَالَ ذَرَّةٍۖ وَإِن تَكُ حَسَنَةً يُضَٰعِفۡهَا وَيُؤۡتِ مِن لَّدُنۡهُ أَجۡرًا عَظِيمًا

Indeed, Allah does not do injustice, [even] as much as an atom’s weight; while if there is a good deed, He multiplies it and gives from Himself a great reward.

An-Nisa’ 4:40

5 words 20 letters total 25 – the section describing Allah’s justice in bold

11 words, 34 letters total 45 – the section describing His mercy & reward

16 words, 54 (6•9) letters, total 70!

The total of 70 is certainly an amazing number, also mentioned significantly in the Quran. Bearing in mind the significance of 7, notice that the aya in surat Al-Rahman introducing the Balance scale is aya 7. And this is no coincidence: the placement in Quranic architecture of surat Al-Rahman is in the 7th “chamber” position, associated with Libra, the “Balance Scales.” Quite literally showing us both the architecture and meaning are closely aligned. Even the number of the sura, 55, or two 5’s, is like two “hands” (hands symbolized by the number 5), one that did “good deeds” and one that did “bad deeds” whose actions are being weighed on the Scale of Justice. And this position on the “chart” of the nautilus architecture, the 7th “chamber” or “house,” is also associated with the Hijri calendar month Rajab :whose name means “respected” or “raised in stature,” the Balance being “raised up” in 55:7 making it a “signature” or significantly identifying aya in surat Al-Rahman. And who will preside over that Judgment with that Scale? Al-Rahman, of course, the Almighty Allah, The Wisest of the Wise, the All-Knowing.