Mizan
Mīzān (Arabic: میزان) or Measure or Scale is a Quranic concept referring to a station on the day of resurrection. In this station, people and their actions are evaluated and measured. Some people take the weight or measurement of actions figuratively, interpreting "mizan" as God's just treatment of people on the day of resurrection, whereas others take human actions to have a measurable nature on the day of resurrection, which will be measured or weighed by an appropriate Measure.
According to hadiths, the Measure of actions can be made heavier on the day of resurrection in virtue of monotheistic beliefs, love for Ahl al-Bayt (a), evasion of sins, recitation of salawat, sincere intentions for the sake of God, avoiding to hurt people, and benevolence for people.
The Notion
"Mizan" literally means a measurement device or a scale,[1] and "Mizan al-a'mal" (Measure of Deeds) is a device with which people's deeds and beliefs are measured.[2] The word, and its plural form, "Mawazin," occurs sixteen times in the Qur'an.[3] In some of these cases, it is used to mean a measurement device in transactions; in others, it refers to laws of creation;[4] and in some others, it refers to legislated laws.[5].[6]
Mizan as a Station in Resurrection
Mizan is a station in resurrection in which people's overall deeds and beliefs are measured,[7] in virtue of which their respective positions in the Heaven or the Hell will be decided.
Based on verses eight to nine of Qur'an 7,[8] good deeds make one's Measure of Deeds heavier, and sins make it lighter. Thus, it is not the case that people's good deeds are put on one pan of the scale and sins on the other.[9] Each act has its own criterion of measurement, and each act is measured in terms of its most perfect instance. For example, one's prayer is measured against a perfect prayer and one's fast is measured against a perfect fast. In other words, every person is measured against the perfect human being, and his or her actions are measured against those of the perfect human being, which is the most perfect instance of action. Thus, on the day of resurrection, "Mizan" or Measure is the perfect man.[10]
In hadiths, prophets and their successors are deemed instances of "just scales" as occurring in the verse,[11] "We shall set up just scales on the Day of Resurrection."[12] According to al-Ziyara al-Mutlaqa of Imam 'Ali (a), he is considered as a Scale of Actions: "peace be upon the Scale of Actions."[13] Thus, the scale or Mizan of each nation is their prophets and their successors.[14]
As to the Quranic verse, "and We sent down with them the Book and the Mizan," 'Allama Tabatabaʾi takes "mizan" to refer to the religion, suggesting that the religion is called "Mizan" because people's beliefs and deeds are measured against it, and on the day of resurrection, people are evaluated and rewarded or punished in accordance with the religion.[15]
Weight of Actions in Mizan
The Qur'an takes people's actions to have certain weights,[16] where by the weight of an action it means its worthiness or worthlessness as far as rewards are considered.[17] Different accounts have been offered of how actions are evaluated and weighed:
- Some people, such as al-Shaykh al-Mufid,[18] take it figuratively, interpreting it as God's just treatment of people in rewarding for righteous actions and punishing for sins.[19]
- Some take it literally, maintaining that only righteous actions have weights and sins have no weights. Thus, the lightness of one's Measure of Deeds amounts to scarcity of his righteous actions.[20] Others, such as 'Allama Tabatabaʾi, believe that righteous actions lead to heaviness of the Measure, and sins lead to its lightness, and the net weight is a result of these additions and subtractions.[21]
Factors Contributing to Heaviness or Lightness of Mizan
Certain factors contribute to the evaluation of actions on the day of resurrection, which is also known as the "weight of actions": the significance of the action in the religion, the degree of one's faith and belief, and one's sincerity in doing the action.
The most important factors leading to the heaviness of the Measure or the Scale on the day of resurrection include:
- Monotheist beliefs
- Love for Imam 'Ali (a)
- Good moral characteristics
- Sincere intentions[22]
- Pure actions[23]
- Refusal from hurting people[24]
- Benevolence for everyone[25]
- Avoidance of sins
- Patience for the death of a righteous child
- Long silence
- Teaching the Qur'an to one's children
According to hadiths, some factors lead to lightness of the Scale of Deeds on the day of resurrection, such as jealousy.
Nullification of the Action and Mizan
According to Quranic verses, God will nullify the actions of unbelievers, and thus, there will remain no actions for them to be measured.[26]
Notes
- ↑ Muṣṭafawī, al-Tahqīq fī kalimāt al-Qurʾān al-karīm, vol. 13, p. 98.
- ↑ Qāmūs-i Qurān, vol. 7, p. 208.
- ↑ Aḥmadzāda, Mizān dar dānishnāma-yi mawḍūʿī Qurān.
- ↑ He raised the heaven high and set up the balance. Quran 55:7.
- ↑ Subḥānī, Manshūr-i jāwid, vol. 5, p. 464.
- ↑ Certainly We sent Our apostles with manifest proofs, and We sent down with them the Book and the Balance, so that mankind may maintain justice; Quran 57:25.
- ↑ Ḥusaynī Tihrānī, Maʿād shināsī, vol. 8, p. 157.
- ↑ The weighing [of deeds] on that Day is a truth. As for those whose deeds weigh heavy in the scales—it is they who are the felicitous. (7) As for those whose deeds weigh light in the scales—it is they who have ruined their souls, because they used to wrong Our signs.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 8, p. 11.
- ↑ Ḥusaynī Tihrānī, Maʿād shināsī, vol. 8, p. 165-175.
- ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 7, p. 249.
- ↑ Quran 17:48.
- ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 97, p. 287.
- ↑ Subḥānī, Manshūr-i jāwid, vol. 5, p. 468.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, vol. 18, p. 54.
- ↑ Quran 7:8-9.
- ↑ Mufīd, Taṣḥīḥ al-'iʿtiqād al-imāmiyya, vol. 1, p. 114.
- ↑ Mufīd, Taṣḥīḥ al-'iʿtiqād al-imāmiyya, vol. 1, p. 114.
- ↑ Lāhījī, Guhar-i murād, p. 656.
- ↑ Ḥusaynī Tihrānī, Maʿād shināsī, vol. 8, p. 158.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, vol. 8, p. 11.
- ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 92, p. 465.
- ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 92, p. 465.
- ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 92, p. 465.
- ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 92, p. 465.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, vol. 13, p. 548.
References
- Aḥmadzāda, Kazim. Mizān dar dānishnāma-yi mawḍūʿī Qurān.
- Ḥuwayzī, ʿAbd ʿAlī b. al-Jumʿa al-. Tafsīr Nūr al-thaqalayn. Edited by Ḥāshim Rasūlī Maḥallātī. 4th edition. Qom: Ismāʿīlīyān, 1373 Sh.
- Ḥusaynī Tihrānī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Maʿād shināsī. Intishārāt-i Nūr Malakūt Qurʾān, 1423 AH.
- Karājakī, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. Maʿdan al-jawāhir wa riyāḍat al-khawāṭir. Edited by Aḥmad Ḥusaynī. Tehran: Maktabat al-Murtaḍawīyya, 1353 Sh.
- Lāhījī, Mullā ʿAbd al-Razzāq. Guhar-i murād. [n.p]. Nashr-i Sāya, 1383 Sh.
- Muṣṭafawī, Ḥasan. Al-Tahqīq fī kalimāt al-Qurʾān al-karīm. 1st edition. Tehran: Wizārat-i Farhang wa Irshād-i Islāmī, 1374 AH.
- Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. Biḥār al-anwār. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1403 AH.
- Mufīd, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-. Taṣḥīḥ al-'iʿtiqād al-imāmiyya. Edited by Ḥusayn Dargāhī. Qom: al-Muʾtamar al-ʿĀlamīyya li-Shaykh al-Mufīd, 1413 AH.
- Qurashī Bunābī, ʿAlī Akbar. Qāmūs-i Qurān. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1412 AH.
- Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. Al-Khiṣāl. Edited by ʿAlī Akbar Ghaffārī. 5th Edition. Qom: Nashr-i Islāmī, 1416 AH.
- Subḥānī, Jaʿfar. Manshūr-i jāwid. 1st edition. Qom: Muʾassisat Imām al-Ṣādiq, [n.d].
- Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Mūhammad Ḥusayn al-. Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. 3rd edition. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Aʿlamī li-l-Maṭbūʿāt and Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1393 AH.