Qisṭ and ʿAdl in the Qurʾan

Qisṭ and ʿadl are not twin words but two scales: qisṭ weighs what is shared out among people in the open, ʿadl weighs the evenness of the heart; equity is complete only when an even intention is joined to a just deed.

By Dr. Ahmed Muhammad Ali Abouseif, President of the American Imams Academy (AIA)

In those verses of Sūrat al-Raḥmān that draw the cosmos before they draw the human being, the passage runs in this order:

﴿وَالسَّمَاءَ رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ، أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ، وَأَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْطِ وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانَ﴾ (55:7–9)

“And the heaven He raised and set up the balance, that you not transgress in the balance. And establish weight with equity (bi-l-qisṭ) and do not make the balance deficient.”

The heaven is raised, and the balance is set in the cosmos as the stars are set in their orbits. Then the verse descends suddenly from the heights of the sky to the hand of the merchant weighing a sack of grain in the market. The balance by which the orbits of the celestial spheres are weighed is the very one that man is required to hold up with his own hand when he weighs for his neighbor. This is the verse that makes qisṭ, and not ʿadl, the word of choice when it speaks of the sensible pan of the scale: the justice that is seen by the eye, weighed by the hand, and written in a deed.

This careful distinction between two words that seem to be synonyms is the subject of this article. The Qurʾan does not use ʿadl and qisṭ in one identical manner, but distributes them across two different contexts in a pattern that is almost unvarying. Even when they come together in a single verse, as happens more than once, their meeting is one of complementarity, not repetition.

Delimiting the Word and Counting Its Occurrences

The root q-s-ṭ occurs in the Qurʾan twenty-five times,^[4] in five forms. The Form IV verb aqsaṭa occurs three times in its verbal forms (4:3, 49:9, 60:8). The elative aqsaṭ, “more equitable,” occurs twice (2:282, 33:5). The noun qisṭ occurs fifteen times, mostly in the construction bi-l-qisṭ, inseparable from verbs of judging, fulfilling and weighing (among them 3:18, 4:135, 5:42, 6:152, 55:9, 21:47). The active participle of the simple triliteral verb, al-qāsiṭūn, occurs twice (72:14–15). The active participle of Form IV, muqsiṭīn, occurs three times (5:42, 49:9, 60:8).

The root ʿ-d-l occurs twenty-eight times, in only two forms: fourteen times as a past and present verb from the simple triliteral ʿadala/yaʿdilu, mostly in the sense of acting justly (among them 4:3, 4:129, 5:8, 6:152, 42:15), and fourteen times as the noun ʿadl (among them 2:282, 4:58, 5:95, 6:115, 16:90).

The two figures, twenty-five and twenty-eight, are close, and this alone is a linguistic indication that the Qurʾan does not use one of the two words in place of the other without distinction. It needs both in nearly equal measure to convey two complementary meanings, as will become clear.

The Linguistic Root: Equalization and Share

In the origin of the language, ʿadl revolves around the meaning of equalizing and making even. Taʿdīl, “adjustment,” is to make a thing level and equal on both sides, and from it comes the ʿidl of a thing: its like and counterpart, equal to it in value. Qisṭ, by contrast, revolves around the meaning of a share. Al-qisṭ is the just portion that belongs to each person with a right in a thing, and from it comes al-muqsiṭ, one who gives each person with a right his right without diminishment.

In his al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurʾan, al-Rāghib al-Aṣfahānī pointed to a precise difference between the two words that accords with this origin: qisṭ is outward justice, perceived by the senses and practiced in dealings among people, while ʿadl is more general, since it embraces the outward and the inward together.^[1]

This linguistic difference lies between a word that weighs the outward distribution among two parties or more, and a word that weighs the inner evenness of the heart and the moral balance in general. It is on this difference that the Qurʾan builds its actual use of the two words, as the Qurʾanic examples will show.

This origin is supported by what the lexicographers say of the derivation of the two roots. For ʿadl, according to Ibn Fāris in Maqāyīs al-Lughah, returns to a single origin indicating “evenness and a middle course”; hence iʿtidāl, a thing's being level between two opposing sides, whether in the balance of the heart or the balance of the body. Qisṭ, on the other hand, returns to an origin indicating “a part of a thing, a portion,” and then came to be used of justice because the just person gives each person with a right his portion, with no increase and no decrease. ʿAdl, from this origin, is an act of balance and evenness; qisṭ is an act of distribution and giving. They are two neighboring meanings, but not one meaning repeated under two names.

The Central Structure: An Outer Scale and an Inner Scale

When the occurrences of qisṭ in the Qurʾan are traced, it is seen that it always accompanies a context involving more than one party, in which something is to be divided, weighed or witnessed: measure and balance in the market (6:152, 55:9); the rights of orphans in the division of property (4:3); reconciliation between two disputing parties (49:9); testimony and judgment among people (5:42, 7:29). Qisṭ, in this sense, is an external scale set up between two parties, and its effect shows in the transaction itself: a measure not shortened, an inheritance not curtailed, a judgment that did not lean.

ʿAdl, however, widens to take in what does not fall directly under the senses. It covers the evenness of the self in its creation:

﴿الَّذِي خَلَقَكَ فَسَوَّاكَ فَعَدَلَكَ﴾ (82:7)

“[He] who created you, proportioned you, and made you balanced.”

It covers the words of God in their completeness and truthfulness:

﴿وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَتُ رَبِّكَ صِدْقًا وَعَدْلًا﴾ (6:115)

“And the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and in justice.”

And, graver still, it covers the false equating into which the idolater falls when he sets God and other than God on a level. This is the only sense in which the verb yaʿdilūn is used negatively in the Qurʾan:

﴿ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِرَبِّهِمْ يَعْدِلُونَ﴾ (6:1)

“Yet those who disbelieve equate [others] with their Lord.”

and

﴿وَهُمْ بِرَبِّهِمْ يَعْدِلُونَ﴾ (6:150; 27:60)

“and they equate [others] with their Lord.”

Here the deep secret appears of why ʿadl is a verb that carries the very root of equalizing. Justice between one creature and another is a virtue; but when it is meant to level the creature with the Creator, it becomes the greatest deviation conceivable, because it equates what may never be equated.

Conversely, the root qisṭ has a deviation of its own, a subtle linguistic one. While the Form IV verb aqsaṭa/yuqsiṭu means to establish justice, the simple triliteral qasaṭa means precisely the opposite: to act unjustly and swerve from the straight path. From this triliteral comes the Qurʾan's description of a company of the jinn as al-qāsiṭūn:

﴿وَأَنَّا مِنَّا الْمُسْلِمُونَ وَمِنَّا الْقَاسِطُونَ… وَأَمَّا الْقَاسِطُونَ فَكَانُوا لِجَهَنَّمَ حَطَبًا﴾ (72:14–15)

“And among us are those who submit, and among us are the deviators… As for the deviators, they will be firewood for Hell.”^[5]

The added letter, the hamzah in aqsaṭa, is what corrects the deviation latent in the root's origin and turns it into uprightness, just as ʿadl becomes idolatry when its original meaning is misapplied. Each of the two words thus carries, in its very linguistic makeup, an indication that a balance, any balance, can be set upright and can be tilted.

Two Further Images: Testimony and Ransom

The same distribution appears in two other chapters of the Qurʾan. The first is the chapter of testimony. When the Qurʾan commands that debts be recorded, it says:

﴿وَلْيَكْتُبْ بَيْنَكُمْ كَاتِبٌ بِالْعَدْلِ﴾ (2:282)

“And let a scribe write [it] between you in justice.”

Later in the same verse it asks for “two witnesses from among your men,” and elsewhere for:

﴿ذَوَا عَدْلٍ مِنْكُمْ﴾ (5:95; 65:2)

“two just men from among you.”

Here ʿadl describes the person of the witness and his inward trustworthiness before it describes his act, because testimony is built first of all on confidence in the integrity of the heart, and not on procedure alone.

The second chapter is that of ransom and compensation. The Qurʾan repeatedly expresses the impossibility of accepting any substitute on the Day of Resurrection with the word ʿadl, and not qisṭ:

﴿وَلَا يُقْبَلُ مِنْهَا عَدْلٌ وَلَا تَنْفَعُهَا شَفَاعَةٌ﴾ (2:123)

“And no compensation will be accepted from it, nor will intercession benefit it.”

﴿وَإِنْ تَعْدِلْ كُلَّ عَدْلٍ لَا يُؤْخَذْ مِنْهَا﴾ (6:70)

“And if it should offer every [possible] ransom, it will not be taken from it.”

The ʿidl here is the equal counterpart presented as a substitute for the self. This use goes straight back to the word's linguistic origin, equalization and likeness, and not to the sense of distribution that qisṭ carries. The Qurʾan's choice of ʿadl here, and not qisṭ, is exact: what is wanted at that moment is a counterpart equal in value to the self, not a share divided among parties.

When the Two Words Meet in One Verse

The most eloquent witness that the two words are not synonyms is that the Qurʾan brings them together in one context more than once, which it does not ordinarily do with words that are entirely identical in meaning. In the verse on reconciling two fighting groups of believers it says:

﴿فَإِنْ فَاءَتْ فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَهُمَا بِالْعَدْلِ وَأَقْسِطُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُقْسِطِينَ﴾ (49:9)

“But if it returns, then make peace between them with justice, and act equitably. Indeed, God loves those who act equitably.”

Reconciling two parties needs ʿadl, that is, the evening of the heart and the removal of any inward leaning toward either group. It then needs qisṭ as well: this inner evenness must be translated into an outward, equitable act in which the right is shared out between the two parties in a way that can be seen.

In another verse, after commanding the believers to be upholders of equity in their testimony, there comes the warning against being swayed by hatred of a people away from justice:

﴿وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ عَلَىٰ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا اعْدِلُوا هُوَ أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ﴾ (5:8)

“And let not hatred of a people lead you to be unjust. Be just; that is nearer to God-consciousness.”

Upholding equity here describes a settled, institutional stance: testimony and judgment are to rest on a structurally fair foundation. The command to be just (iʿdilū) is a momentary psychological act, addressing the instant when hatred in the heart stirs to turn the witness away from the truth. Qisṭ is the structure that has been set up; ʿadl is steadfastness in it when caprice blows to bring it down.

The Prophetic Witness

The Prophet ﷺ brings the two words together in a single hadith, in the same Qurʾanic pattern, when he describes the standing of the people of justice on the Day of Resurrection:

«إِنَّ الْمُقْسِطِينَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ عَلَى مَنَابِرَ مِنْ نُورٍ، عَنْ يَمِينِ الرَّحْمَنِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ، وَكِلْتَا يَدَيْهِ يَمِينٌ، الَّذِينَ يَعْدِلُونَ فِي حُكْمِهِمْ وَأَهْلِيهِمْ وَمَا وَلُوا»

“Those who act with equity will be with God upon pulpits of light, at the right hand of the Most Merciful, Mighty and Majestic (and both His hands are right): those who are just in their judgment, their families, and in whatever they are charged with.”^[2]

The hadith begins by describing them as al-muqsiṭīn, those who perform the outward equitable act. It then explains the description with the verb yaʿdilūn, which extends to take in public judgment, family and particular authority together, that is, the outward and the inward, the public relationship and the intimate one. This order, with qisṭ first as the outward name and ʿadl next as an explanation reaching to what is not seen, is a direct echo of the linguistic difference al-Rāghib grounded.

Two Readings in Light of the Higher Objectives (Maqāṣid)

In his Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah al-Islāmiyyah, Ibn ʿĀshūr treated justice as a universal objective of legislation and not merely an individual virtue. He saw justice in the Qurʾan as a governing principle that embraces the relations between individuals, between ruler and ruled, and between a nation and other nations, citing the generality of the command in the words of God:

﴿إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ﴾ (16:90)

“Indeed, God commands justice and excellence.”

as a comprehensive verse not confined to one chapter of human dealings.^[3]

On another front, the majority of the exegetes, in treating verse 49:9, held that the pairing of the command to reconcile with justice and the separate command to act with equity is no rhetorical repetition. It indicates that true reconciliation has two stages: correcting the inner intention first, then translating it into a real and equitable distribution of rights. One without the other is an incomplete reconciliation. Justice without equity is a fine feeling that never becomes action; equity without justice is a cold procedure that may lack sincerity of intention.

The Contemporary Application

Anyone responsible for his family, his institution or even a small work team meets this distinction daily without naming it. He may share out tasks and resources in a way that is formally and visibly equal (that is qisṭ), while his heart leans, without his noticing, toward one of the parties (that is the absence of ʿadl). Or he may feel an equal love for all (the justice of the heart), yet fail to turn that feeling into an equitable decision when resources are contested (the absence of qisṭ). The verse that joined the two in the context of reconciliation reminds us that complete fairness needs both together, neither standing in for the other: an even intention in the heart, and a weighed act in the hand.

Perhaps the clearest present-day example of the two words coming apart is what happens in some workplaces: procedures that look fair, such as written allocation rules, published promotion criteria and uniform pay scales, while the person who applies them keeps a hidden bias in choosing who is put forward for those criteria in the first place, or in how they are interpreted when applied. This is qisṭ without ʿadl: a fair structure through which an unchanged favoritism is run. The reverse also happens. A man may truly feel an equal love for his children or his employees, yet neglect to document the division or record the decision, and so leave wide room for suspicion that demolishes the effect of his good intention.

The two verses in which the words appear together (49:9 and 5:8) offer a practical remedy for both failings. First correct the intention when caprice blows (“Be just; that is nearer to God-consciousness”), then fix that justice in an outward procedure that every party can see and verify.

In an age when the tools of measurement and transparency are at hand, such as written contracts, digital records and published evaluation criteria, it is possible today to achieve qisṭ with a precision unavailable before: a measure not shortened, an account without error. Yet these same tools may be used as a cover for the absence of ʿadl, a procedure just in form used to justify a decision already made out of inner inclination. Perhaps the verse that joins the cosmic balance to the balance of the market (“and establish weight with equity”) reminds us that the precision of the instrument does not excuse us from uprightness in the hand that holds it. Technology can regulate qisṭ, but it cannot produce ʿadl, because ʿadl is a matter of the heart that no machine reaches.

Conclusion

The Qurʾan weighs justice and equity with two scales, not one. An inner scale weighs intention, the heart, and the affirmation of God's oneness, in an evenness that sets none beside Him. An outer scale weighs rights and shares among people, in a weighing from which nothing is withheld. When the two scales meet, as they met in the verse of reconciliation and in the hadith of those who act with equity, fairness is complete: an even intention in the breast, and an equitable deed that the eye can see. And God, the Exalted, knows best; He is the Guardian of success.