Divine Balance and Justice in Life

Last time in this Surah Ar-Rahman series and don't you think that the universe is so big God will be busy with other things so I can just do my thing, it's okay Allah has got other things to worry about I'm sure there's a volcanic eruption somewhere in some planet somewhere that He has to deal with so I can get away with my thing. No, He says, وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ "He put down the scale." He's directly concerned with you. If He can be directly concerned with - He can observe the blade of grass doing sajda and the tree doing sajda and every star doing sajda - you think you're going to get away? You think you're not being watched? You're not being observed? SubhanAllah, it's a really powerful statement.

Ar-Rahman, Allama al-Qur'an. To help you follow along and reflect more deeply we've created a companion workbook for this series. Download it at bayyina.com forward slash rahman.

The Connection Between the Universe and Human Justice

In ayah number 8 there's this amazing connection. أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ Let me just put it to you in the most simple ways. Imagine that we didn't have the Qur'an for a moment. Imagine that we didn't know about the final revelation. You know what Allah is saying here? Allah is saying if you can just pay attention to the sky and you know how harmonious it is and how much balance there is in it just by observing the sky you would know whoever put this together loves balance - he loves balance - and you'd reach the conclusion that he's made me too and if he loves balance all over the universe the only place that's out of balance is this planet and the only place that's out of balance is my life and my behavior - everything else is in balance so I'm pretty sure he expects me to live according to what? some kind of balance.

I'll bring it closer to home - imagine that there's a guy back in the day thousands of years ago he's selling bananas. So he's got bananas on this side he's got the weight on this side and he's trying to cheat his customer a little bit so he gives them one less banana. You could rig the scale a little bit, right? And you know what? Allah is saying if you just looked up at the sky and you saw how much balance there is in the sky you wouldn't be messing with your banana sales. You'd act differently.

Now where am I getting all this from? from this ayah. The previous ayah was he elevated the sky, put down a scale all for what? so that you don't violate when it comes to scales so you don't violate. So there's a connection now being made between the galaxies and the orbits and the universe with who? me. With me directly. I'm directly connected to the skies. I don't need a khutbah on fairness. I don't need a khutbah on justice. You know what the khutbah on justice is? the sky. It's as if Allah has the right to ask me on judgment day if I say, ya Allah, I didn't know I shouldn't be cheating. Allah, I didn't know I shouldn't be stealing. Allah has the right to say, what, you never saw the sky? you never saw the sky?

The Designer's Signature

Think of it another way. You know a manufacturer has a certain design. Designers have a certain design. How many people study architecture here? anybody study architecture? one or two? ok, alhamdulillah. So if you study architecture you can pass by a building and you can say I know that style. If you know your stuff you can even say I know who the architect is. I bet you who they learned from or who they are. You can tell the design - from the design you can tell who the architect is.

Some of you are into fashion. You see a pair of shoes from a distance - Chanel's right? you can see a purse from a distance - bootleg right? you know it's real or fake. Some people are into sneakers. That's their thing. That's what Allah created them for is sneakers. That's like a 1998 Jordan's limited edition - what are you smoking bro? Some people are into watches. They can tell from a distance that's a Tudor, that's a Rolex, that's a this, that's a that, that's you know that's a Patek Philippe or whatever. They can tell. Some people are into cars. They can look from a distance oh I know what that is, that's a Mercedes. Oh wait that's a Hyundai - they copied Mercedes. Okay yeah right?

What am I trying to get at? when you understand the designer the designer - when you sign a document you have a signature but sometimes the design itself is a signature isn't it? Sometimes the design itself you can see the painting - I know whose painting this is. I know whose architecture this is. I know whose fashion design this is. I know whose bag this is. The brand has its own signature. People can see like Apple products from a distance - oh that's probably an Apple product right? they have a design.

Allah has a signature in his design. Allah designed the universe. He also has a signature. What is his signature in the universe? it's balance. That's his signature. And then I look at myself and I seem to have balance in the way I can stand. I seem to have balance in the way I can move. I seem to have balance in the way my limbs are proportionate. I see balance in everything that he does and the only thing out of balance is the way I behave. That's the only thing. So he says he raised the sky and he laid down the balance so that you don't violate the balance. You don't violate the scale. You see the connection now? And that's a profound realization any human being should have arrived at.

Three Levels of Knowing Allah

This leads me to this other really interesting conclusion here from where we started in this surah. The greatest way to know who Allah is is Allah's own words. The greatest way - we started with that - Ar-Rahman, Allama Al-Quran. There's no way you can know Allah better than Allah telling you himself. That's Allah telling you himself. It's as if you met the architect - you really know the architect.

Okay, what's the next best thing? you've studied the architectural designs and their work right? If I've studied the buildings that this architect made I know some things about this architect. Do I know everything about this architect? I don't know their personality. I don't know their likes and dislikes but I know some things about them. I know enough about what their design is like. Observing the universe can it teach you something about God even if you don't know about religion? It can. It can teach you there's someone behind this mechanism that loves balance. But do you know everything about him? you don't. But you do get somewhere. You do get somewhere.

Now you'll appreciate - so the first layer, the highest level of getting to know Allah is his own words. The next level of getting to know Allah, the next best thing is at least paying attention to what? the skies. Then you get to know that Allah loves balance. Allah loves justice. Allah loves fairness. Allah loves things in due proportion. That's the next conclusion you reach and there's gonna be a third conclusion. Some people don't have time to look at the sky. They're just busy on earth. You gotta have time to look at the sky, right? So then people that are busy on earth at least, even if they're busy on earth can they see that things here are beautiful and made to make life easier for us in so many ways? So even if you don't arrive at the conclusion of justice which is the higher conclusion, at least you should arrive at the conclusion that you should be grateful for what you've been given right?

So now I've given you three levels. What's the highest level? Allah telling you himself. What's the second level? the skies that lead you to a conclusion that there's someone who's just and balanced behind all of this. What's the third conclusion? okay, even if I observe the world around at least I should know someone is caring for me and I should at least be what? grateful. I should at least be grateful, right? These are the three levels, and we're gonna see these three levels manifest in this opening passage and that's when you really appreciate what the first one is because in that first one we don't just learn about Allah's balance. We don't just learn about Allah's blessings. We learn so much more about Allah - like you really get to know Allah beyond just these glimpses of Allah. Without the Quran we would have glimpses of God. We wouldn't have the whole picture the ones he wants us to have. And that's what makes it ar-rahmanu allama al-quran such an added rahma from Allah that he taught us that.

The Threefold Mention of the Scale

Okay, so let's move forward a little bit through this ayah and the next one which is all related to the scale. أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ can be what's called tafsiriyah meaning Allah made that sky so he's telling you don't violate scales - he's actually issuing a command. Another way to look at it is la naafiyah - he made that balance in the universe that you can't mess with. You're not gonna be able to mess with the balance in the universe. You're not gonna be able to make the sun rise from the west. You're not gonna be able to make the moon change its phases by your whim. He put something in place that you have no power over. That you may not be able to violate. As if Allah is saying you make enough of a mess on earth. You make enough of a mess on earth but you can't mess with what I've created in the sky. I've given you some room to play on earth and to make a mess but it doesn't go beyond that.

So if that's the case, أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ why use the word al-mizan? Imam Razi asked the question why use the word al-mizan? Because the word mizan is actually a tool like literally the scale that you hold and you put items on both sides. That's actually called a mizan. So the use of that word actually suggests that you don't shortchange someone else and you don't take advantage of yourself whether you're the buyer or the customer. Either way you're going to remain fair. So that's an added benefit that comes from the word mizan.

But now we get to the conclusion of this: وَأَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْطِ وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانَ. Now the third time mizan is coming and establish the weight with justice and so maintain all values justly and don't shortchange when it comes to the scale. Scale, scale, scale three times. وَالسَّمَاءَ رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ وَأَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْطِ وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانَ But all three mean three different things. The first one was about the harmony of the universe. The second one was about you not being able to mess with it. You can't mess with that harmony and you better not mess with the scales in this life. But then the third one he doesn't use the word mizan he uses the word al-wazn.

The Practical Application of Balance

This is where instead of getting into commentary let me get practical with you. What does this mean? Wazn actually means weight. Wazn means what? weight. And iqamah means to preserve or to maintain or to give value. Now let's instead of speaking philosophically let's speak practical terms. Let's just take the example of marriage - inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'oon - of all the examples I could have chosen oh god okay.

So in a marriage relationship there are some fundamental rights and responsibilities. Some things are absolutely the right of a wife and some things are absolutely the right of a husband and responsibilities on both sides okay that's what makes the marriage a marriage. Then on top of that there are some other things you can do for each other that are extra. Extra credit assignments. You can do some bonus features. Those are additional but there's the main course - this is what makes the marriage a marriage - and then there's the additional stuff. What has more weight? what has more weight? the main responsibilities and rights. That's what has the true weight. Then you can beautify the marriage with these additional things.

Now imagine someone who says oh this main stuff is a little heavy I would rather do all my focus on what? the extra stuff and I think it's good enough. And you know what happens then? chaos happens. Chaos happens. Why? because you did not establish the right weight fairly. You understand? something else deserves more weight. You put weight on the wrong place. Allah is not just talking about trade. The word wazn is used in Arabic in the Quran actually for all the deeds.

The weight on that day will be real weight of what? weight of every deed. Weight of every single deed. So we have to in life we have to decide how much weight to put on what. Another way that this concept is described in the Quran is:

Human beings will be informed of what things they put ahead and what things they set back. What are their priorities? What's your priority gets more weight. Weight can also be what gets more time. What gets more attention. What gets more focus. What gets more effort. What gets more money. You know what gets - who gets - in justice it's not just who has more rights or who has to make more payment. This is actually about every transaction whether it's financial or it's emotional or it's spiritual. Everything has a weight.

Weight in Our Relationship with Allah

Think about our relationship with Allah. There's a fundamental relationship I have with Allah. Fundamental and basically practically speaking on a daily basis it boils down to five prayers minimum. If I have a minimum relationship with Allah he expects from me to meet with him privately five times right? That's the expectation. But I say no but I can sit next to a window and talk to God and cry so I don't have to - you know the prayer - yeah I don't pray but I have this deep spiritual connection to Allah.

Your deep spiritual connection that you wanna - and the only time you - by the way when somebody says that they sit by a window and cry - then I can guarantee you they don't sit by a window and cry unless there's a camera on and they can take a selfie of themselves sitting by a window and crying and then posting about it as I can remember Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Sorry I called you out. I'm sorry if you recently posted a spiritual meme of yourself.

There's something that's been given weight by Allah. The prayer's been given weight. Your personal spiritual journey doesn't have that much weight. You know then people hide behind all kinds of lame excuses. You know I really wanna pray but I'm working through it right now. Really? working through it how? It's a process. Okay working through it process. Now we've got two words. What's this process? It's just a lot. Okay now we've got three words - working through it, process and it's a lot. So how is it a lot? It's just really difficult. Can you explain how it's difficult? It's just I can't even - you know what? you're causing me anxiety. You're committing an act of violence against me with these questions.

Now what we've done we've given these empty words - these are empty words - and what have we done? We've given them a lot of what? weight. You've given them and they have no weight. They have no weight. These are empty excuses. I'm working through something? working through what? You know you just can't? Allah expects you to surrender. I have a lot of anxiety right now - you know my feelings have now developed - you know what Allah calls feelings by the way? He calls them Hawa. Hawa and you know what? Hawa is also synonymous with? air. And you know what? how much weight air has? none. None.

And this is now we've created an entire currency where feelings have the most weight and truth has no weight because instead of truth you just have my truth. You just replace the two. There's truth and then there's your feelings which you call my truth and I have my truth and you have your truth. This nonsense is actually أَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْطِ. Allah says put the weight where it belongs. Be fair with the weight. Don't hide behind excuses.

You know and then وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانَ and don't shortchange others in the scale. Don't show - and others actually one tafseer of this was also وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ فِي الْمِيزَانِ - make sure you give the right things weight because not only will you not be shortchanging others but you will end up shortchanging yourself on judgment day when the actual weight is being established and your deeds have no weight because you put the weight on the wrong things. So he says وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانَ.

The Universal Balance

This entire sermon is just coming from pay attention to the sky because man the moon has a certain weight. Mass. If it had any more mass it would smash into the earth. The earth has just the right amount of weight. The earth has just the right amount of mass and weight. The sun has just the right amount of weight and they have just the right amount of distance and what is that teaching me? everything in my life needs to have the right kind of weight. The right kind of balance.

You know every relationship has limits. Every relationship has limits. Every action has limits. Every transaction has limits. Actually all this is istihara in the Quran. Obviously the idea of scale and weight has to do with trade right? buying and selling goods. Allah is using that as an analogy to talk about all of life. All of life is a series of transactions. My entire relationship with my mother and my father is a series of transactions. My entire relationship with my children is a series of transactions. Not financial but emotional transactions. Communication transactions. And in every one of those transactions I have to have the right kind of scale.

The True Meaning of Qist (Justice)

وَأَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْطِ One thing you should know about the word qist. One thing you should know about qist. Qist is actually to make sure you don't do wrong. It's actually justice is adl and qist is from - actually aqsat means to make sure you don't do wrong. In Arabic it's really cool. Qasit is an unfair person and muqsit is a fair person. So aqsit the verb - af'ala pattern - actually means to be fair and qasata means to be unfair. Therefore aqsit actually means to make sure you're not being unfair. To make sure you're not being unfair.

You know what that means? That means that Allah is saying you and I have a very strong tendency that our default is that we will end up being what? unfair. We will end up - we have a very high likelihood of falling into unfairness towards ourselves, towards others and we have to go out of our way to hold up the right balance to make sure we don't fall into unfairness. And by the way the idea of holding something up is that exhausting or no? Yeah. Allah is saying fairness is not on autopilot. Allah is saying fairness you have to exhaust yourself and hold it up and just because you held it up yesterday doesn't mean you're holding it up today.

So when people say you know I'm like a really fair person - that must be your zodiac sign. I think you're a really fair person. Really? because Allah says the rest of the universe is on autopilot when it comes to fairness. Human beings are not. They have to be told. You have to do it. أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ وَأَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْطِ وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانَ. Three times over? Three times over. Why would we be told that? because that's the really hard thing for us to do. It's a really hard thing for us to do.

Justice According to the Quran

Last comment on this and I'll give you guys your break. Just what is justice according to the Quran? Fairness according to the Quran? It's actually very politically incorrect. Fairness in the Quran is very politically incorrect and what do I mean by that? There are things in culture - every culture - that you are made to feel guilty about that Allah doesn't want you to feel guilty about. The culture put a lot of negative weight on something and Allah has put zero negative weight on it. And there are things in culture where the culture wants you to celebrate something or put a lot of positive weight on it and the Quran puts zero weight on it or even negative weight on it. You understand that?

Our definition of what is fair and unfair, what should be celebrated? what should be condemned? what should I feel guilty about? what should I not feel guilty about? all of that should come from where? that should come from Allah. And I don't have to compare us to the kuffar and to other - let's talk in house for a moment. Just in house. Are there situations where we are made to feel guilty about something within the Muslim family? within the Muslim family we're made to feel guilty about something that Allah would never make us feel guilty about?

I'm just telling you a scenario - this has nothing to do with any of you personally so don't start looking around like who told you. There's a married couple and the guy's mother doesn't like his wife - don't look at me - doesn't like his wife. And then she says to her son if you come over to our house I don't want you to bring her. Just bring my grandchild and you. I don't want to see her. And then she then insults his wife to her son and says all kinds of terrible things and then she says Islam says you have to be the best to your mother and she knows the song. And then the dad from the other bedroom goes what about your father?

But the point is she now humiliates this guy's wife and she says she can do so because she's what? So in your mind are the angels that are recording these deeds they're like oh wait she can say that she's his mother let's cross that out. One of the angels was writing it down no no no bro it's mom you don't write that. Slander, humiliation, hurting another person - you know humaza, lumaza - they don't count for a mother. Allah is not - because every mother has an immunity box on judgment day where they're not going to be asked anything because they're a mother. Is that how it works? No.

But you know what for a lot of people they can take something from the Quran like okay you know what I'm going to take and I'm going to put a lot of weight on it and I'm going to put a lot of weight on it. And now all of the ayaat about ifk, slander, all the ayaat about hurting someone with your tongue, all the ayaat about looking at someone in a condescending way, all of those ayaat we can ignore now. They don't have any weight because this has a lot of weight. Is that possible? does that ever happen? Yeah. Not in New Jersey it only happens in New York it doesn't happen here.

The point is when Allah says don't mess with your religion folks. Don't take a part of your religion that serves you and then you leave everything else out. And it's not just a mother who can do it. A wife can do it. A husband can do it. A child can do it. Anyone can do it. And all of this boils down to one thing - you're putting weight on the wrong thing.

Developing True Balance

If you and I become real students of the Quran it's not just that you're going to have interesting facts. It's not just that you're going to have some obscure knowledge or you're going to be able to drop some Arabic quotes to somebody and they're going to be like Mashallah you know so much Arabic. That's not the goal. What is the Quran teaching us? What is the goal?

You're going to develop a real sense of balance. So when somebody is saying something out of balance, you can catch it and say, No, no, no, no, no. Can't do that. And when you're doing something out of balance, you can catch yourself. So you don't violate your own scale. You don't mess up your own scale on Judgment Day. You can find balance.

It's profound. It's absolutely profound. And I pray we can bring that into our lives. And we can - you know qist is inside justice and outside justice. Justice when nobody is watching, not just justice in a courtroom. Justice in a courtroom is adal. Justice in private and public, that's qist. أَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْطِ. So sometimes people are watching, other times people aren't watching. But you better maintain your standards of justice. May Allah azza wa jal make us from the muqsitin.

Barak Allahu li wa lakum. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Coming up next time in this Surah Ar-Rahman series. With the sky, you get to be in awe of Allah. Afraid of Allah. Mindful of Allah. And with the earth, you become in love with Allah. Grateful to Allah. Appreciative of Allah. There are two dimensions of our relationship with Allah. One of them is we have to fear Allah. We have to worry about the day of judgment. The other one is we have to love Allah and appreciate Allah. You see what Allah did? The khutbah for fearing Allah is in the sky. And being mindful of Allah. That khutbah is in the sky. And the khutbah of loving Allah and appreciating Allah and being grateful to Allah is where? On earth. And we live here. Subhanallah.