In this excerpt from his book on the afterlife and eschatology, Muḥāsibī describes the unveiling of the scrolls in which angels have recorded each person’s deeds on the Day of Judgment. According to Muḥāsibī, on that day each resurrected person holds a written record that leaves nothing out. The person will then read it “with a weary tongue, citing pointless arguments.” In his chapter comparing earthly justice with heavenly justice in the early Islamic imagination in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Christian Lange draws on this source to elucidate the procedures of the heavenly court as imagined by exegetes, highlighting God’s use of written evidence.
This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.