قِسط اور عدل قرآن کریم میں

In the last of the verses of Sūrat al-Raḥmān that draw the cosmos before they draw the human being, the verse comes in this order: "And the heaven He raised and set up the balance, that you not transgress in the balance. And establish the weighing with justice (bi-l-qisṭ) and do not fall short in the balance." The heaven is raised, and the balance is set up in the cosmos as the stars are set up in their orbits; then the verse suddenly descends from the reaches of the sky to the hand of the merchant as he weighs a sack of grain in the market. The balance by which the orbits of the celestial spheres are weighed is the same one that man is required to establish with his hand when he weighs for his neighbor. This is the verse that makes "qisṭ" — not "ʿadl" — the chosen word when speaking of the sensory pan of the balance: the justice that is seen by the eye, weighed by the hand, and written in a deed.

This precise distinction between two words that seem synonymous is the subject of this article. For the Qurʾan does not use "ʿadl" and "qisṭ" in one identical usage, but distributes them over two different contexts in a distribution that is almost consistent, so that even when they gather in a single verse — which happens more than once — their gathering is complementarity, not repetition.

Delimiting the word and the count

The root "q-s-ṭ" occurs in the Qurʾan twenty-five times^[4], distributed over five forms: three times the imperative of the form-IV verb "aqsiṭū" [4:3, 49:9, 60:8], twice the elative "aqsaṭ" in the sense of "more just" [2:282, 33:5], fifteen times the noun "qisṭ" — most of them in the construction "bi-l-qisṭ" inseparable from the verbs of judging, fulfilling, and weighing (among them 3:18, 4:135, 5:42, 6:152, 55:9, 21:47) — twice the active participle from the bare triliteral "al-qāsiṭūn" [72:14–15], and three times the active participle from the form-IV "muqsiṭīn" [5:42, 49:9, 60:8].

And the root "ʿ-d-l" occurs twenty-eight times, in only two forms: fourteen times as a past and present verb from the triliteral "ʿadala / yaʿdilu" mostly in the sense of doing justice (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).

These two numbers — twenty-five and twenty-eight — are close, and this alone is a linguistic indicator that the Qurʾan does not use one of the two words as a substitute for the other without distinction, but needs both in a nearly balanced measure to convey through them 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 equalization and evening: "adjustment (taʿdīl)" is to make a thing even, equal on both sides, and from it "the ʿidl of a thing": its like and equivalent that equals it in value. But "qisṭ" revolves around the meaning of share: al-qisṭ is the just portion that belongs to every possessor of a right of it, and from it "al-muqsiṭ": the one who gives every possessor of a right his right without diminishment. And al-Rāghib al-Aṣfahānī, in his book *al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurʾan*, pointed to a precise difference between the two words consistent with this origin: that qisṭ is an outer justice perceived by the senses and practiced in dealings among people, while ʿadl is more general than it, for it comprises the outer and the inner together^[1].

This linguistic difference — between a word that weighs the outer distribution between two parties or more, and a word that weighs the inner evening in the heart and the moral balance in general — is what the Qurʾan built its actual use of the two words upon, as will become clear from the Qurʾanic models.

And this origin is supported by what the lexicographers mentioned in the derivation of the two roots: for "ʿadl," according to Ibn Fāris in *Maqāyīs al-Lughah*, returns to a single origin indicating "evenness and mediation" — and from it the balancing of a thing when it is even between two opposing sides, whether that be in the balance of the heart or the balance of the body. But "qisṭ" returns to an origin indicating "a portion of a thing and a share," then it was used for justice because the just one gives every possessor of a right his share without increase or decrease. So ʿadl, from this origin, is an act of mediation and evening, and qisṭ is an act of distribution and giving — and they are two adjacent meanings, but not a single meaning repeated under two names.

The central structure: an outer scale and an inner scale

When the occurrence of "qisṭ" in the Qurʾan is traced, it is observed that it always accompanies a context in which there is more than one party, and in which there is something to be divided, weighed, or witnessed: measure and balance in the market [6:152, 55:9], the rights of orphans in division [4:3], reconciliation between two disputing groups [49:9], testimony and judgment between people [5:42, 7:29]. Qisṭ, in this meaning, is an external balance established between two parties, and its effect appears in the dealing itself: a measure not diminished, an inheritance not shortchanged, and a judgment that did not lean.

But "ʿadl" widens to comprise what does not fall directly under the senses: the evening of the self in its creation ("who created you, proportioned you, and balanced you (fa-ʿadalak)," [82:7]), and the words of God in their completeness and truthfulness ("and the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice (ʿadlan)," [6:115]), and more grave than that: the false equating that the polytheist falls into when he equates between God and other than Him, which is the only meaning in which the verb "yaʿdilūn" is used in a negative usage in the Qurʾan: "Then those who disbelieve equate [others] with their Lord" [6:1], and "and they equate [others] with their Lord" [6:150, 27:60]. Here the deep secret of "ʿadl" being a verb that carries the very root of equalization is disclosed: for justice when it occurs between one creature and another is a virtue, and when the equating of the creature with the Creator is intended by it, it becomes the greatest deviation conceivable — because it equates between what may not be equated.

And in contrast, the root "qisṭ" has its own deviation too, and it is a subtle linguistic deviation: for while the form-IV "aqsaṭa / yuqsiṭu" means to establish justice, the bare triliteral "qasaṭa" means the exact opposite — to be unjust and deviate from the straight path. And from this triliteral came the Qurʾan's description of a group of the jinn as "al-qāsiṭūn": "And among us are those who submit, and among us are the deviators (al-qāsiṭūn)… And as for the deviators, they will be firewood for Hell" [72:14–15]^[5]. So the added letter — the hamzah in "aqsaṭa" — is what corrects the deviation latent in the origin of the root and makes it uprightness, exactly as ʿadl becomes associating partners when its original meaning is misapplied. Each of the two words, then, carries in its very linguistic composition an indication that the balance — any balance — is capable of being established and capable of being tilted.

Two other images: testimony and ransom

This same distribution appears in two other chapters of the chapters of the Qurʾan. The first chapter is the chapter of testimony: when the Qurʾan commands the documentation of debt it says: "and let a scribe write [it] between you in justice (bi-l-ʿadl)" [2:282], then later requests in the same verse "two witnesses from among your men," and in another place "two just persons (dhawā ʿadl) from among you" [5:95, 65:2]. Here "ʿadl" is used as a description of the person of the witness and his inner trustworthiness before it is used as a description of his act, because testimony is built essentially upon trust in the integrity of the heart, not upon the procedure alone.

And the second chapter is the chapter of ransom and compensation: the Qurʾan recurrently expresses the impossibility of accepting any substitute on the Day of Resurrection with the word "ʿadl," not "qisṭ": "and no compensation (ʿadl) will be accepted from it, nor will intercession benefit it" [2:123], and "and if it should offer every [possible] ransom (ʿadl), it will not be taken from it" [6:70]. So the ʿidl here is the equal like that is presented as a substitute for the self, and it is a usage that returns directly to the linguistic origin of the word — equalization and likeness — not to the meaning of distribution that "qisṭ" carries. The Qurʾan's choice of the word "ʿadl" here, rather than "qisṭ," is precise: for what is required in that moment is a like that equals the self in value, not a share divided among parties.

When the two words gather in a single verse

The most eloquent witness that the two words are not synonyms is that the Qurʾan gathers them together in a single context more than once, which it does not usually do with words entirely identical in meaning. For in the verse of reconciliation between the two fighting groups of the believers it says: "But if it returns, then reconcile between them with justice (bi-l-ʿadl) and act equitably (aqsiṭū). Indeed, God loves those who act equitably (al-muqsiṭīn)" [49:9]. For reconciliation between the two parties needs "ʿadl" — that is, the evening of the heart and the removal of the inner leaning toward one of the two groups — then it also needs "qisṭ," that is, that this inner evening be translated into an outer equitable act in which the right is distributed between the two parties in a perceptible distribution.

And in another verse, after commanding that the believers be "maintainers of equity (qawwāmīna bi-l-qisṭ)" in their testimony, comes the warning against being turned by the hatred of a people away from justice: "and do not let the hatred of a people lead you to not being just. Be just (iʿdilū); that is nearer to God-consciousness" [5:8]. So maintaining equity here is a description of a fixed institutional stance — that testimony and judgment be built on a structurally equitable basis — while "be just (taʿdilū)" here is a momentary psychological act, addressing the moment in which the hatred of the heart moves to turn the witness away from the truth. Qisṭ, then, is the established structure, and ʿadl is the steadfastness upon it when caprice blows to remove it.

The Prophetic witness

The Prophet ﷺ gathers the two words in a single hadith, in the very Qurʾanic pattern, when he describes the standing of the people of justice on the Day of Resurrection: "Indeed, those who act equitably (al-muqsiṭīn) 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 (yaʿdilūn) in their judgment, and their families, and what they are given charge over"^[2]. So the hadith begins by describing them as "al-muqsiṭīn" — the possessors of the outer equitable act — then explains this description with the verb "yaʿdilūn," which extends to comprise general judgment, family, and particular authority together, that is, the outer and the inner, the public relationship and the intimate relationship. This ordering — qisṭ first as the outer name, then ʿadl as an explanation extending to what is not seen — is a direct echo of the linguistic difference that al-Rāghib grounded.

Two objective-based (maqāṣidī) readings

Ibn ʿĀshūr, in his book *Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah al-Islāmiyyah*, attended to justice as a universal aim of the aims of legislation, not a mere individual virtue, and saw that justice in the Qurʾan is a governing principle that widens to comprise the relationship between individuals, the relationship of the ruler with the ruled, and the relationship of the nation with other nations, citing the generality of the command in the words of God "Indeed, God commands justice and excellence" [16:90] as a comprehensive verse not particular to a single chapter of dealings^[3].

And on another side, the majority of the exegetes held, in treating verse [49:9], that the pairing of the command to reconcile with justice, then the independent command to act equitably, is not a rhetorical repetition, but an indication that true reconciliation needs two stages: correcting the inner intention first, then translating it into an actual equitable distribution of rights second — and that one without the other is a deficient reconciliation: justice without equity is a good feeling that does not turn into an act, and equity without justice is a cold procedure that may be devoid of the truthfulness of intention.

The contemporary applied dimension

Whoever takes charge of the affair of his family, or his institution, or even a small work team, experiences this distinction daily without naming it: he may distribute tasks and resources in an outwardly equal formal distribution (and this is qisṭ), while his heart remains inclined toward one of the parties without his feeling it (and this is the absence of ʿadl); or he feels an equal love for all (the justice of the heart), but is remiss in translating this feeling into an actual equitable decision when resources are contested (the absence of qisṭ). The verse that gathered the two matters together in the context of reconciliation reminds us that complete equity needs both matters together, not one as a substitute for the other: an evened intention in the heart, and a weighed act by the hand.

And perhaps the clearest contemporary example of the separation of the two words is what occurs in some work environments of "equitable procedures" in their outward appearance — written distribution policies, announced promotion criteria, unified wage tables — while the one who applies them continues to practice a hidden bias in choosing who is nominated for these criteria in the first place, or in interpreting them upon application. This is qisṭ without ʿadl: an equitable structure through which an unchanged favoritism is managed. And the reverse occurs too: one who truthfully feels an equal love for his children or his employees, but neglects documenting the division or recording the decision, so he leaves a wide space for suspicion that demolishes the effect of his good intention. And the two verses in which the two words gathered together [49:9 and 5:8] propose a practical remedy for both faults: correcting the intention first when caprice blows ("Be just; that is nearer to God-consciousness"), then fixing this justice in an outer procedure that every party can see and verify.

And in a time in which the tools of measurement and transparency are available — written contracts, digital records, announced evaluation criteria — it has become possible today to achieve "qisṭ" with a precision that was not available before: a measure not diminished, and a reckoning in which no error is made. But these very tools may be used as a cover for the absence of "ʿadl": an outwardly just procedure used to justify a decision already taken with an inner leaning. And perhaps the verse that gathers the cosmic balance with the market balance ("and establish the weighing with justice") reminds us that the precision of the tool does not dispense with the uprightness of the hand that holds it; for technology regulates qisṭ, but it does not make ʿadl, because ʿadl is a matter of the heart that no machine reaches.

Conclusion

The Qurʾan weighs justice (ʿadl) and equity (qisṭ) with two scales, not with a single scale: an inner scale that weighs the intention, the heart, and the affirmation of God's oneness in an evening that associates none with Him, and an outer scale that weighs rights and shares among people with a weighing from which nothing is diminished. And when the two scales gather — as they gathered in the verse of reconciliation, and in the hadith of those who act equitably — equity is completed: an even intention in the breast, and an equitable act that the eye sees. And God, the Exalted, knows best; He is the Guardian of success.