Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 576

Ata' narrates: I was with Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) when a man came to him and said: "O Abu Abbas! What is your opinion about me?" Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: "What could I possibly say about you?" He said: "I am a man who works with the pen." Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "On the Day of Resurrection, the man of the pen will be brought in a coffin made of fire, locked with locks made of fire. Then his pen will be examined to see in what he used it. If he used that pen in the obedience of Allah and in what pleases Him, he will be released from the coffin; and if he used that pen in disobedience to Allah Almighty, he will keep falling (into Hell) in that coffin for seventy years, even the one who sharpens the pen and the one who prepares the inkwell."
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat and al-Mu'jam al-Kabir. Its chain mentions that Ayyub al-Jizi narrated it from Isma'il bin Ayyash, and it appears that the root defect of this hadith is al-Jizi, because al-Tabarani said in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat: al-Jizi is alone in narrating it.