The 365 · Verses · Day 218 · Justice
You may sometimes walk away from judging - but never judge unjustly.
سَمَّـٰعُونَ لِلْكَذِبِ أَكَّـٰلُونَ لِلسُّحْتِ ۚ فَإِن جَآءُوكَ فَٱحْكُم بَيْنَهُمْ أَوْ أَعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ ۖ وَإِن تُعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ فَلَن يَضُرُّوكَ شَيْـًٔا ۖ وَإِنْ حَكَمْتَ فَٱحْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِٱلْقِسْطِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُقْسِطِينَ
“They listen eagerly to lies and consume what is unlawful. If they come to you, Prophet, for judgement, you can either judge between them, or decline. If you decline, they will not harm you in any way, but if you do judge between them, judge justly: God loves the just. (Quran 5:42)”
Svenska: de som ivrigt lyssnar till lögner och frossar i förbjudna ting. Om de nu kommer till dig [och ber dig döma], har du [valet att] antingen döma mellan dem eller att vända dig ifrån dem. Om du vänder dig ifrån dem, [skall du veta att] de inte kan vålla dig skada; men om du [väljer att] döma, döm då mellan dem med rättvisa. Gud älskar dem som gör rättvisa.
The story
This āyah addresses the Prophet ﷺ about people who, Ibn Kathīr explains, 'listen eagerly to lies' and 'devour suḥt' - which Ibn Masʿūd and others gloss as bribes. They came to him for judgment not seeking truth but a ruling that matched their desires. God gives the Prophet ﷺ a choice: judge between them, or turn away. Here the two mufassirūn part. Ibn Kathīr reports that many of the salaf - Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid, ʿIkrima and others - held this choice was later abrogated by the command 'judge between them by what God has revealed.' Al-Saadi disagrees outright: this āyah, he says, is not abrogated; a judge faced with litigants who only want a ruling that flatters their whims keeps the option to decline, and from it he derives a fiqh principle - a scholar who knows the questioner will reject any unfavorable answer is not obliged to rule or issue a fatwā at all. But the two agree completely on what happens if you do judge: 'judge between them with justice.' Al-Saadi presses that even if they are oppressors and enemies, that must not stop you from ʿadl; Ibn Kathīr says the same - be fair even toward those who are themselves unjust. The āyah seals it with a line that turns a duty into a love: inna Llāha yuḥibbu l-muqsiṭīn, God loves those who deal justly. Justice is not merely commanded here; it is something God is said to love.
In the language
Al-Saadi stops on the word sammāʿūn - literally 'listeners.' The hearing meant here, he notes, is not the ear's passive reception but samʿ istijāba, the hearing of compliance: to 'listen to lies' is to answer them, to take them up and act on them. The intensive pattern sammāʿ (avid, habitual listeners), paired with akkālūn - voracious devourers - of suḥt, paints not people who occasionally slip but people whose whole posture is bent toward falsehood and unlawful gain; Ibn Kathīr renders the same force as those who 'listen much and eagerly.' It is a precise diagnosis of why their request for judgment is hollow: a person who 'hears' only to comply with his appetites is not seeking a ruling, only a rubber stamp - which is exactly why the āyah lets the Prophet ﷺ walk away.
Why this verse
5:42 adds a subtle layer to Justice: the freedom, sometimes, to decline to judge at all - but never the freedom to judge crookedly. It is the day the theme meets real courtrooms and real bad-faith litigants, and still refuses to bend. And it ends by telling you God loves this.
Bring it into today
You are a 'judge' more often than you think - settling a dispute between two friends, a manager weighing two employees' accounts, a parent between siblings. This āyah gives you two lessons. First, al-Saadi's permission: if the people asking only want you to bless a conclusion they have already chosen, you are sometimes free to decline the role rather than be used as cover - you are not obliged to arbitrate for someone who will only accept a verdict in his favor. Second, the non-negotiable: if you do step in, rule by the facts even when both sides are behaving badly, and even when the fairer ruling favors the person you like less. Do not let their bad faith lower your standard to theirs. And keep the closing line where you can feel it - God loves the just - so that fairness becomes not a grim obligation but something you reach for because the One you love, loves it.
A reflection to carry
5:42 refuses to be flattened. Ibn Kathīr relays the majority view that the Prophet's ﷺ freedom to judge or turn away was abrogated; al-Saadi holds that it stands, and reads from it a principle: no one is obliged to rule for a questioner who only wants his bias confirmed. Yet both close on the same non-negotiable - if you judge, judge with qisṭ, even toward oppressors and enemies. And the āyah does something rare: it moves justice from law to love. God loves the muqsiṭīn.
Sources: Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
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