The 365 · Verses · Day 231 · Justice
Qur'an 55:8
أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا۟ فِى ٱلْمِيزَانِ
“So that you may not exceed in the balance. (Quran 55:8)”
Svenska: för att inte ni människor skulle missbruka mått och vikt. (Koranen 55:8)
A reflection to carry
Allah named the purpose of the cosmic balance in one line: allā taṭghaw fī al-mīzān. So that YOU do not transgress in the balance. He installed the sky on a mīzān so that human beings, seeing the precision He uses with stars, would mirror that precision in their own commerce, speech, and judgment. Ṭughyān is the verb of pharaoh in Sūrat al-Nāziʿāt (79:17). It is the same root used for tyranny, for transgression, for exceeding the limit. Allah is saying: the same word I used for Firʿawn I use for the merchant who tilts the scale. The same root that names the worst tyrant of history names the small everyday cheating of a few grams. Because to Allah, the architecture of justice cares as much about the cashier as the king. Ya akhī, ya ukhtī, the verse is calling out a tendency in every human chest: the pull to shave a gram in your favor. The slightly inflated invoice. The slightly altered timesheet. The slightly exaggerated CV. The slightly trimmed story when telling your spouse about your day. Each is a small ṭughyān in the mīzān. The sky is over your head. The Engineer is watching. Do not tilt the scale.
Read the longer reflection
Yā Rabb, You named the purpose in the simplest phrasing. Allā taṭghaw fī al-mīzān. I built the sky's balance so that you would not transgress in yours. And You used the verb of tyranny. Ṭughyān. The same word You use for Firʿawn, the same word You use for those who go beyond every limit. As if to say: I do not have a different word for the cashier who tilts a scale by a gram and the tyrant who oppresses a people. To Me, both are ṭughyān. Both are violations of the same architecture. Forgive me, ya Allāh, for every small ṭughyān my hand has performed. The expense report with a slightly inflated mile. The recommendation letter that omitted a real concern. The conversation where I narrated my version with my thumb on the scale. The receipts I asked for when I planned to claim more than I spent. The salary negotiation where I exaggerated a counter-offer. Each one was a small Firʿawn-shadow in me, by Your own naming. Strip them, ya Rabb. Train my hand to write the honest number even when no one would know. Train my tongue to narrate the just version even when the listener was already on my side. Train my chest to feel the sky and remember that its Engineer is watching mine. And ya Allāh, in the public sphere, where the powerful tilt scales against the weak (food prices on the poor, wages of the laborer, justice for the orphan), make me a voice for the mīzān. Not a passive watcher of ṭughyān in my industry, my city, my ummah. Place me on the side of those who lift the depressed pan of the scale. Āmīn ya Qawiyy ya Matīn.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
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