Al-Israa (The Night Journey)

14. “(It will be said to him): ‘Read your book; your own self suffices today as a reckoner against you’.”

Man will be told to read his own book of records on the Day of the Hereafter. Those people, who did not know how to read in this world, will be enabled to read then and there.

The verse says:

“(It will be said to him): ‘Read your book; your own self suffices today as a reckoner against you’.”

In a tradition, Imam Sadiq (as) is quoted as saying:

“On that day, will one remember all of what he has done and is registered in his record. It seems as if he has done all those in just the same moment. Therefore, the culprits, voice is being heard loud and clear as to what type of letter of record it is in which no minor offences are missed just in the same way that the major ones are not missed.”

Fakhre-Razi is of the opinion that the objective by ‘the book of record’ is here the ‘spiritual scroll’ on which man’s acts leave an impact, and by ‘reading’ is here meant the comprehension and understanding of it¹ . In Tafsir Al-Mizan, ‘book’ has been commented upon as ‘the acts in themselves’.

In numerous quotations, man is recommended that before the Resurrection he had better see to his own accounts and records.

For example:

“Reckon your own account before you will be reckoned.”2

Such calculations pave the ground for man’s awakening, and the lack of them are often signs of his own negligence. An Islamic tradition indicates that he who keeps record of his own deeds in this world will be at ease with his records in the Hereafter.

Therefore, one must read his own record of actions in this world in order to reform, amend, wipe out his weaknesses or compensate for them, repent and add up to his scroll of decent acts.²