His words, Exalted is He:

Woe to the defrauders!

He said:

They are the hypocrites and those who take on their characteristics, stinting in their prayer. Thus did Salmān^{1The printed edition, as well as MSS, Z515, f. 130a and F3488, f. 312b all have Sulaymān; however MS F638, f. 63b has Salmān, and it is presumably Salmān al-Fārisī (d. 35/655) who is meant, and this is confirmed by Bayhaqī’s Shuʿab al-īmān (see following note for reference).} [al-Fārisī] رضي الله عنه say, ‘The prayer is the balance (mikyāl); whoever deals faithfully will be rewarded his due, but as for whoever stints — you already know what God, Exalted is He, has said concerning the defrauders (muṭaffifūn): Will you bid others to piety and forget yourselves...? [2:44]. You vilify them for the slips they make that are typical of the faults of men, and yet you commit similar misdeeds and those which are more abominable still.’^{2This tradition is listed in Bayhaqī, Sunan, vol. 2, p. 291, and in Ibn Abī Shayba, al-Muṣannaf, vol. 1, p. 209. With a different wording the tradition is also listed in Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-īmān, vol. 3, p. 147.} No one looks upon the slips of [other] people except an ignorant wrongdoer, and no one [may] make known that which he has looked upon [of the faults of others] except God.^{3Translating wa lā yahtiku sitr mā iṭṭalaʿa ʿalayhi illā’Llāh, according to all three MSS, Z515, f. 120a, F638, f. 63b and F3488 f. 312a, instead of lā yahtiku sirr mā iṭṭalaʿa ʿalayhi illā’l-malʿūn in the printed edition.} Indeed it has been related that God spoke to David عليه السلام through inspiration the words, ‘I complain of My servants to you, O David!’ He asked, ‘And why is that, my Lord?’ He replied, ‘It is because they sin in secret and repent in public, and truly I do not wish anyone to look upon the sin of my servant besides Me.’

ʿUmar b. Wāṣil said that he had asked Sahl about God’s words, Nay, on that day they will be veiled from their Lord [83:15]. He replied:

In this life they are veiled from the Commander (al-Āmir) and the Restrainer (al-Zājir). Thus it was related in a report, ‘Happy is the one whose heart acts for him as an admonisher and whose intellect as a restrainer.’ So if a person wants something from which God is absent, they [the heart and intellect] will hold him back from it.^{4All three MSS (Z515, f. 130a, F638, f. 63b and F3488, f. 312b) have: ʿaqlihi the second time instead of qalbihi. The sentence that follows is not clear either in the published edition or in the MSS, with Z515 and F3488 having idhā arāda amr Allāh fīhi…and F638 having idhā arāda amran li-Llāh fīhi...F638 only has manaʿāhu ʿanhu which seems to make more sense than maʿnā ʿanhu.} — [But as for those mentioned in the verse], in the Hereafter they are veiled from the [divine] mercy, and from being able to behold God, Mighty and Majestic is He, and are deprived of His looking upon them with His good pleasure (riḍā) and satisfaction (riḍwān) when He questions them. Just as He has said, But [first] stop them, for they must be questioned [37:24] about [their] religion (diyāna), and they will not be able to shake off the evidence against them, so He will put them into the Hellfire.

Then vantage points will be opened for the believers to watch them being burned in the Hellfire and tortured with different kinds of punishment. This will be a source of delight for them and they will laugh at them just as [the disbelievers] had laughed at the believers in this world. Then these vantage points will be blocked and they will be covered over, and with that God will erase their names, and their memory will leave the hearts of the believers. And He says:

His words, Exalted is He:

Nay, the record of the pious is in ʿIlliyyūn.^{1ʿIlliyūn (or ʿIlliyīn) being the book in which the deeds of the righteous are recorded, though the word is also used to refer to the highest reaches of Paradise. On ʿIlliyyīn, see also Ghazālī’s Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, Kitāb Dhikr al-mawt, trans. Winter, p. 137 and 237, n. A.}

He said:

The record in its outward meaning in both of the two verses [18 and 19] is a reference to the [record of] deeds, the good and the evil. In its inner meaning it refers to the spirits of the believers and the spirits of the disbelievers. The spirits of the believers are gathered at the lote tree beyond which none may pass, in the form of green birds which fly freely in Paradise until the Day of Resurrection, stamped (marqūm) with [seal] of [God’s] good pleasure (riḍā) and satisfaction (riḍwān).^{2Compare a ḥadīth of the prophet cited by Ṭabarī in his commentary on 3:169, according to which in Paradise, the martyrs (shuhadāʾ) will live in the bodies of green birds who drink from the rivers of Paradise and eat of its fruits and betake themselves to (i.e. their nests are in) golden lamps beneath the shade of the Throne. A similar ḥadīth is listed in Muslim, ‘Kitāb al-Imāra.’} On the other hand the spirits of the disbelievers are gathered at Sijjīn beneath the lowest earth,^{3Sijjīn is described in 83:7 and 8 as the book in which man’s evil deeds are recorded. However, according to various traditions, it is also believed to be ‘a rock beneath the seventh earth, under which the book of the unbeliever is placed’, or ‘a rock in Hell to which the spirits of the wicked are brought’. Again, see Ghazālī’s Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, Kitāb Dhikr al-mawt, trans. Winter, p. 138, n. A.} under the cheek of Satan, may God curse him, branded with hostility (ʿadāwa) and wrath (ghaḍab).^{4All MSS (Z515, f. 130b, F638, f. 63b and F3488, f. 312b) have ghaḍab instead of baghḍāʾ.}

Have the disbelievers been requited for what they did? ^{1The question in this verse may be what is asked by the believers as they watch, or it may be a rhetorical question from God.}

[Concerning these words Sahl also] said:

In this verse there is a clear proof confirming that the vision [of God] (rūʾya) will be exclusively for the believers.