A Deliberation on the Meaning of the Word Mawāzīn (Scales) in its Qur’anic Functions

The word mīzān with its other derivatives has beend used in the Qur’an twenty three times. The function of this word in various contexts indicates its “bidimentionality” in the two arenas of the world and the Hereafter. Most interpreters have resorted to dispersed speeches by confusion of the concept and referent of mīzān on one hand and non-distinction between setting mawāzīn (scales) and the way they are measured, on the other. Nevertheless, with an etymological and interogative approach in the instances of applying the word mawāzīn, this article clarifies its difference with other Qur’anic applications and also in a process consistent with Imāmiya traditions, it not only introduces the Infallibles as criteria and reality of mawāzīn in the domain of the Resurrection but also considers the weightiness and lightness of people’s scales as the outcome of the consistency of human dimentions – either ideological, value, and functional – with the criteria of measurement. Thus, by bringing up the theory of semantic extention concerning the concept of mīzān, it regards its application to the Infallibles as leading to the adoptation of a realistic approach.