The 365 · Verses · Day 221 · Justice
The key to the Kaʿba, handed back to the man who locked it out.
۞ 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.
The story
According to Ibn Kathīr, this āyah has a famous occasion of revelation. On the day Makkah was conquered, ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥa - keeper of the Kaʿba's key - had locked its door and refused to hand the key over. The Prophet ﷺ took it, entered, prayed inside, and then, reciting this verse, gave the key back to its rightful holder. ʿUmar reported he had never heard the Prophet ﷺ recite the āyah before that moment. Al-Zamakhsharī adds that Jibrīl then descended to confirm the custodianship would remain in ʿUthmān's descendants. Power had just changed hands, and the first thing revelation demanded was: return the trust to its owner. Yet Ibn Kathīr stresses the ruling is general, not tied to one key. Ibn ʿAbbās said it applies to 'the righteous and the wicked' alike. Al-Saʿdī widens it further: amāna is everything a person is entrusted with - offices of authority, wealth, secrets - and it must be returned complete, undiminished, undelayed, and only to its true owner or their agent. On the second command, to judge with justice, Ibn Kathīr reports the early view that it addresses those in authority, and cites the ḥadīth, 'Allah is with the judge as long as he does not commit injustice; when he does, Allah leaves him to himself.' Al-Saʿdī notes this justice reaches blood, wealth and honor, for near and far, friend and foe. Returning the key was where trust and justice met in a single act.
In the language
The praise clause - 'niʿimmā yaʿiẓukum bihi,' rendered 'excellent is that which He admonishes you with' - is grammatically compact, and al-Zamakhsharī unpacks it. 'Niʿimmā' fuses niʿma, the verb of praise, with mā. That mā can be read as an indefinite noun ('what an excellent thing He admonishes you with') or as a relative pronoun ('excellent is the thing which He admonishes you with'), and in either case the specifically-praised item is left unstated. Its identity, al-Zamakhsharī explains, is exactly what precedes: the commanded duties of rendering trusts and judging justly. The omission is deliberate rhetoric - by not naming the praised object, the verse lets the two commands themselves fill the blank, so the reader supplies 'trust' and 'justice' as the very things God calls excellent.
Why this verse
Trust and justice are paired here as the twin pillars of any society: give people back what is theirs, and rule between them fairly. The verse frames both as commands from a God who hears and sees every breach.
Bring it into today
Think of the amānāt that pass through your hands in a normal week: a password a friend shared, a colleague's admission told in confidence, money held for someone, a role you were given on behalf of others. Al-Saʿdī's rule is exacting - return each one complete, on time, and to its actual owner, not to whoever is convenient. If you manage anyone's affairs, the second half is yours too: when you settle a matter between two people, judge as though friend and foe carried equal weight, because the ḥadīth Ibn Kathīr cites warns that the moment a judge tilts, he is left to himself. Before you close out a responsibility today, ask one question: have I handed this back exactly as it was entrusted to me?
A reflection to carry
Notice what the Prophet ﷺ did with the Kaʿba's key. He had every worldly reason to keep custodianship in Muslim hands on the day of victory - and instead handed it back to the man who had just locked him out. Ibn Kathīr and al-Zamakhsharī preserve this scene because it makes the command concrete: a trust belongs to its owner regardless of their faith or your power over them. Al-Saʿdī reminds us the same principle governs every office and secret we carry. The measure of your integrity is the trust you return when you could keep it.
Sources: Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī, al-Zamakhsharī (al-Kashshāf). 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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