All of Verses

The 365 · Verses · Day 221 · Justice


Qur'an 4:58

۞ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدُّوا۟ ٱلْأَمَـٰنَـٰتِ إِلَىٰٓ أَهْلِهَا وَإِذَا حَكَمْتُم بَيْنَ ٱلنَّاسِ أَن تَحْكُمُوا۟ بِٱلْعَدْلِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ نِعِمَّا يَعِظُكُم بِهِۦٓ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ سَمِيعًۢا بَصِيرًا

God commands you to return things entrusted to you to their rightful owners, and, if you judge between people, to do so with justice. God's instructions to you are excellent, for He hears and sees everything. (Quran 4:58)

Svenska: GUD befaller er att till den rättmätige ägaren återlämna det som ni fått er anförtrott och att, när ni dömer mellan människor, döma rättvist. Gott, ja, förträffligt är det som Gud förmanar er till. Gud hör allt, ser allt. (Koranen 4:58)

A reflection to carry

This was the verse the Prophet ﷺ recited to ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah when the keys of the Kaʿbah needed to be returned. ʿUthmān had been the keeper of the keys before Islam; on the day of the conquest of Makkah, after thirteen years of persecution, the keys came briefly into the hand of the Prophet ﷺ. Anyone else would have kept them as a prize. The Prophet ﷺ recited this verse, walked over to ʿUthmān (who at that point was not even Muslim) and gave him back the keys. Because Allah had said: return the trust to its owner. Ya akhī, ya ukhtī. What trusts has Allah placed in your hand that you have never returned? The borrowed book on your shelf for three years. The deposit from a former tenant you 'forgot.' The information someone shared in confidence that you have repeated. The position of authority you hold over an employee, a child, a student, a spouse. Every one is an amānah. Some get returned to people; some get returned to Allah at death. Either way, the verse asks: are you the kind of person who returns what was entrusted, even when you could keep it without anyone knowing? Allah is the one who hears, the one who sees.

Read the longer reflection

Yā Rabb, this verse should make me kneel. You did not begin with politics. You began with my hands. You said: every trust placed in your hand must go back to its owner. The borrowed money. The information whispered in confidence. The position of authority I hold. The body You loaned me. The children You loaned me. The spouse You loaned me. The income You loaned me. None of it is mine. All of it is an amānah, and one day all of it goes back. Ya Allāh, the Prophet ﷺ walked back across the courtyard of Makkah after thirteen years of being driven out, and the first thing he did with his authority was return a key to a man who had not yet accepted Islam, because You had said: return the amānah. He could have kept it. He chose You. Forgive me, ya Rabb, for every amānah I have kept that was not mine. Every dollar I owed and never paid back. Every secret I betrayed. Every promise I let lapse. Every position of authority I exploited even slightly. Every loan, even of a book or a tool. Bring them to my mind in the next 48 hours and let my hand return them, one by one, before You ask me about them on the Day. And then ya Rabb, the second command in this verse: judge with justice between people. Open my eyes to the small judgments I make daily: between my children, between my colleagues, between my own family members in arguments. Let me weigh them with the upright scale, not the leaning one. Because You hear everything I say while I judge. You see every weight I press onto either side. Inna Allāha kana samīʿan baṣīran. Āmīn ya Samīʿ, ya Baṣīr.

A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.

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