7:8 The weighing that day is true.
The weighing of deeds with the scales of self-purification is true, and the weighing of states with the scales of truthfulness is just. Hapless and deprived is he whose deeds are tainted with eye service and whose states are mixed with self-admiration, for in the station of the scales these states will have no value and those deeds will have no weight. God says, “On the Day of Resurrection, We shall assign them no weight” [18:105]. Among the traditions of ʿUmar is this: “Take an accounting of yourselves before you are brought to account, weigh your deeds before they are weighed, and prepare for the Greatest Exposure.” He is saying, “Weigh your own deeds before they are weighed against you, take an account of yourself and gaze upon your own works: What have you made ready for the Greatest Exposure and the gathering place of the resurrection?” This is why the Lord of the Worlds said, “Let every soul consider what it has forwarded for tomorrow” [59:18].
A report has come that an intelligent man has four hours in which to seek his felicity and adorn his days: the hour in which he takes an accounting of himself and weighs his own deeds and states, the hour in which he whispers secretly with the Real and shows his need to Him, the hour in which he takes care of his own livelihood, and the hour in which he takes his ease in whispered prayer and in what he has been given of this world.
The weighing that day is true. The pirs of the Tariqah and the lords of recognition say that the scales are diverse. The soul and spirit have a scale, the heart and intellect have a scale, and recognition and the secret core have a scale. The scale of the soul and spirit is commands and prohibitions, and its two pans are the Book and the Sunnah. The scale of the heart and intellect is a reward, and its two pans are threats and promises. The scale of recognition and the secret core is approval, and its two pans are fleeing and seeking. Fleeing is to escape from this world and to cling to the afterworld. Seeking is to leave aside the afterworld and seek the Patron. Nothing will be found without seeking, but until you find the Real, you will not seek. This is why seekers of the Real are rare.
“O God, if anyone has found You by seeking, I indeed found seeking from You. If anyone has found You by searching, I found You by fleeing. O God, since finding You is before the seeking and the seeker, the seeker seeks because unsettledness has overpowered him. The marvel is that finding has become hard cash when seeking has not yet arisen. The Real is seen, but the curtain of exaltedness is in place.”
