In the context of the ancient Egyptian death process, the term "justified" relates to the "Weighing of the Heart" ceremony, a pivotal judgment scene in the afterlife as depicted in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
This ritual involved Maat, the goddess of truth, justice, and cosmic order, who played a central role in determining the fate of the deceased.
During the "Weighing of the Heart," the heart of the deceased was placed on a scale and weighed against Maat's ostrich feather, which symbolized truth and righteousness. The heart was considered the seat of the soul, intellect, and morality—essentially, the record of a person’s deeds in life. The god Anubis typically oversaw the weighing, while Thoth, the scribe god, recorded the outcome. If the heart balanced with the feather, it indicated that the individual had lived a life in accordance with ma'at—the principle of truth, balance, and moral order that Maat personified.
In this case, the deceased was deemed "justified" (sometimes translated as "true of voice" or maa-kheru), meaning they were found worthy and granted passage to the afterlife, often to the Field of Reeds, a paradise-like existence.
If the heart was heavier than the feather—burdened by sin, deceit, or immoral actions—it was devoured by Ammit, a fearsome creature with the head of a crocodile, body of a lion, and hindquarters of a hippopotamus. This resulted in the annihilation of the soul, a fate known as the "second death," with no hope of an afterlife.
Thus, to be "justified" in this context meant that the deceased had been judged as righteous, their life aligning with the ethical and cosmic standards embodied by Maat. It was a declaration of moral purity and a passport to eternal life in ancient Egyptian belief.
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