سورة الجاثية

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abu Basir said: I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): "What is the meaning of the verse: هذا کِتابُنا یَنْطِقُ عَلَیْکُمْ بِالحَقِّ [This is Our book that speaks against you with justice]?" He said: "The book does not speak; rather Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and Ali (peace be upon him) and his Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) are the ones who speak the Book."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Ibn al-Kawwa' asked Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) about al-Bayt al-Ma'mur and the raised roof. He said: "Woe to you! It is al-Durah, a house in the fourth heaven facing the Ka'bah, made of a single pearl. Every day seventy thousand angels enter and exit it, and they do not return to it until the Day of Resurrection. In it are the scribes of the people of Paradise, on the right side of the door, who write the deeds of the people of Paradise, and the scribes of the people of the Fire are on the left side of the door, writing the deeds of the people of the Fire with black pens. At night the two angels ascend, and from them is heard what a person has done. This is the interpretation of the word of Allah the Exalted: هذا کِتابُنا یَنْطِقُ عَلَیْکُمْ بِالحَقِّ إِنَّا کُنَّا نَسْتَنْسِخُ ما کُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ [This is Our book that speaks against you with justice; surely We wrote what you did]."

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): [O Lord!] In emphasizing Your book and the acceptance of what is in it, You said: هذا کِتابُنا یَنْطِقُ عَلَیْکُمْ بِالحَقِّ [This is Our book that speaks against you with justice], and You said: We have not neglected anything in this book. (Al-An'am/38).

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Truly this Qur'an is script written between the two covers; it does not speak with a tongue, and it inevitably needs an interpreter and translator, and it is men who speak from it.

Imam Rida (peace be upon him): Husayn ibn Bashshar said: I asked Imam Rida (peace be upon him): "Does Allah know about a thing that has not come into being — if it were, how it would be — or does He only have knowledge of what exists and will exist?" He said: "Allah the Exalted has knowledge of things before their existence. Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: إِنَّا کُنَّا نَسْتَنْسِخُ ما کُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ [Surely We wrote what you did]."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abd al-Rahim al-Qasir said: I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) about the verse: ن، سوگند به قلم [Nun. By the Pen] (Al-Qalam/1). He said: "Indeed Allah created the Pen from a tree in Paradise called al-Khuld. Then He said to a river in Paradise: 'Be ink,' and that river congealed, and it was whiter than snow and sweeter than honey. Then He said to the Pen: 'Write!' It said: 'O Lord, what shall I write?' He said: 'Write what has been and what will be until the Day of Resurrection.' So the Pen wrote on a parchment whiter than silver and purer than ruby. Then Allah rolled it up and placed it in the corner of the Throne, then sealed the tip of the Pen, and after that it did not speak and will never speak. That is the hidden Book from which all copies come. Are you not Arabs? How do you not understand the meaning of speech? One of you says to his companion: 'Copy this book for me.' Is it not the case that a copy is made from another book, and the original is that? And this is the word of Allah the Exalted, who said: إِنَّا کُنَّا نَسْتَنْسِخُ ما کُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ [Surely We wrote what you did]."

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about this verse: إِنَّا کُنَّا نَسْتَنْسِخُ ما کُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ [Indeed, We used to transcribe what you were doing]. He replied: "The first thing Allah created was the Pen, then He created the Nun, which is the inkwell, then He created the Tablets, and He wrote on them the world until its end — of creation and created beings, deeds and doings, good and evil, and whatever there is of lawful and unlawful sustenance, and every wet and dry thing; and for each thing He appointed its state: when it enters the world, how long it stays, and when it perishes. Then He assigned angels over that Book, and He also assigned angels over creation. The angels assigned to creation come to the angels assigned to that Book, and they transcribe whatever is to occur in each day and night that has been apportioned to them; then they come to oversee the people and guard them by the command of Allah, and they keep them alive according to what is in their hands of those transcripts." A man stood up and said: "O Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him)! We do not know or see this — that the angels write in every day and night?" Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "Are you not an Arab people? إِنَّا کُنَّا نَسْتَنْسِخُ ما کُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ [Indeed, We used to transcribe what you were doing] — is anything transcribed except from a book?"

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): And accordingly, the meaning of tastansikh is that the guardian angels write down what has been compiled with them of the conditions of the servants.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), in the interpretation of the words of Allah the Exalted: إِنَّا کُنَّا نَسْتَنْسِخُ ما کُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ [Indeed, We used to transcribe what you were doing], said: "What is meant is the deeds of the people of the world, of good and evil. Every morning and evening it descends from the sky; what befalls a person in that day and night — the one who is killed, the one who drowns, the one who falls from the roof of his house, the one who is hurled from the top of a mountain, the one who falls into a well, and the one who is burned by fire — all of these they record, and at night they take it up to the sky, and they find it just as it had been written in the sky in the Wise Reminder; إِنَّا کُنَّا نَسْتَنْسِخُ ما کُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ [Indeed, We used to transcribe what you were doing]."

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): [Allah] wrote in the Reminder with Him everything that would come into being; then He sent the guardian angels over Adam (peace be upon him) and his offspring. The guardian angels write down what the servants do, from the Reminder. Then he recited this verse: هذا کِتابُنا یَنْطِقُ عَلَیْکُمْ بِالحَقِّ إِنَّا کُنَّا نَسْتَنْسِخُ ما کُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ [This is Our book that speaks against you with truth; indeed, We used to transcribe what you were doing].

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Halabi said: Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: The deeds of the servants are presented to Allah every Thursday. [If it is the first of the month, respite is given,] and when the middle of Sha'ban arrives, they are presented to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) and to Ali (peace be upon him); then they are transcribed in the Wise Reminder.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Whenever a servant remembers his Lord in his heart, Allah writes that (remembrance) in a record. Then, on Thursday, He confronts (engages) the angels. [In such a way that] Allah shows them (the angels) the heart-remembrance of His servant. The angels say: 'Our Lord! We have fully counted the deeds of this servant, and we do not recognize this deed [we did not see this deed being performed by him].' The Lord says: 'My servant remembered Me in his heart, and I recorded that (remembrance) in his record.' This is the meaning of the word of Allah, who says: إِنَّا کُنَّا نَسْتَنْسِخُ ما کُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُون [Surely We wrote what you did].

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Abu Dujana said: I complained to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) that when I sleep in my bed I hear a whistling like the whistling of a mill and a buzzing like the buzzing of bees and a flash like lightning, and I lift my head and see before me a blackness which rises up to the length of my house's courtyard, and I run my hand over its skin and it is like the skin of a hedgehog, and it throws sparks of fire at my face. He said: 'This is the jinn of your house, O Abu Dujana!' Then he called for an inkpot and paper and told Imam Ali (peace be upon him) to write: 'Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim. This is a letter from the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds to the night-visitors of the dwellers and visitors, except for one who comes with good. To proceed: indeed for us and for you there is room in what is right; if he be a devoted lover, or a debauched raider, this is the Book of Allah which speaks against us and against you with truth; what you scheme [and plot], they write! (Yunus/21) Leave the bearer of this letter of mine alone and go after the idol-worshippers and those who suppose that alongside Allah there is another deity.'