Surah Al-Anbiyaa (21) — Ayah 47

47. 1. Mawazin is the plural of mizan (scale). For the weighing of deeds on the Day of Resurrection, either there will be many scales or there will be only one scale. Human deeds are weightless, meaning they have no apparent existence or body, so how will they be weighed? This question may have held some importance before, but today, scientific inventions have made it possible. Now, through these inventions, even weightless things can be weighed. When man has become capable of this, then for Allah, to show the weight of these deeds, He will transform these weightless deeds into bodies and then weigh them, as there is evidence in hadith of some deeds taking on physical form. For example, for the companion of the Quran, a handsome young man will come in his form and ask, "Who are you?" He will say, "I am the Quran, which you used to recite at night (qiyam al-layl) staying awake and during the day while thirsty." Similarly, in the grave of a believer, righteous deeds will come in the form of a handsome and fragrant young man, and for the disbeliever and hypocrite, in the opposite form (Musnad Ahmad 5:287). For further details, see the footnote of Surah Al-A'raf 7. Al-qist is a verbal noun and is the attribute of al-mawazin, meaning "those that possess justice"—the just scale or scales.