The 365 · Verses · Day 223 · Justice
One man is a dead weight; the other commands justice. God asks: are they equal?
وَضَرَبَ ٱللَّهُ مَثَلًا رَّجُلَيْنِ أَحَدُهُمَآ أَبْكَمُ لَا يَقْدِرُ عَلَىٰ شَىْءٍ وَهُوَ كَلٌّ عَلَىٰ مَوْلَىٰهُ أَيْنَمَا يُوَجِّههُّ لَا يَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ ۖ هَلْ يَسْتَوِى هُوَ وَمَن يَأْمُرُ بِٱلْعَدْلِ ۙ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ صِرَٰطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ
“God presents another illustration: two men, one of them dumb, unable to do anything, a burden to his carer; whatever task he directs him to, he achieves nothing good; can he be considered equal to one who commands justice and is on the straight path? (Quran 16:76)”
16:76 Read 16:76 with tafsir
Svenska: Och Gud framställer liknelsen om två män, varav en är stum och inte kan reda sig själv och är en börda för sin beskyddare; vilket uppdrag denne än ger honom, misslyckas han. Kan han jämställas med den som föreskriver rättvisa [förhållanden mellan människor] och själv följer rättens raka väg?
The story
This is the second of two parables in the passage, and Ibn Kathīr, following Mujāhid, reads it as a contrast between a lifeless idol and the true God. One man is described as mute and utterly incapable - he can produce nothing, and he is a sheer burden on the one who cares for him; 'wherever he directs him, he brings no good,' meaning he never succeeds at any task. Set against him is a man who 'commands justice and is on the straight path' - one, says Ibn Kathīr, whose words are true and whose deeds are upright. Al-Saʿdī sharpens the human picture before drawing the lesson. The first man is deficient from every angle: he cannot even serve himself, so his master must serve him. The second not only walks the straight path himself but calls others to justice - 'his speech is justice and his actions are upright.' Then al-Saʿdī turns the parable to its target: just as these two can never be equal, neither can a powerless object of worship be set up as a rival to the One who says nothing but truth and does nothing but what deserves praise. The comparison is the theme's quiet argument. Justice is not a static label; the one worthy of the higher station is the one who both stands on the straight path and actively commands fairness to others. As the track on justice closes, the āyah leaves a portrait rather than a rule: the just person is the one whose life is useful, whose word can be trusted, and who summons others to what is right.
In the language
Al-Zamakhsharī defines the key word abkam precisely: not merely someone silent, but one born mute, who 'neither understands nor is understood' (lā yafhamu wa lā yufhamu). The disability is doubled - communication fails in both directions, so the man is sealed off from the exchange that makes cooperation possible. He then reads kall - 'a burden on his carer' - as literally a dead weight and a dependent, someone whose whole existence rests on another's shoulders. Notice the rhetorical build: mute, incapable, unproductive ('wherever he is sent he brings no success'), and finally a burden. The verse stacks four incapacities before it even introduces the just man, so that by the time the question 'can he be equal?' arrives, the answer is already overwhelming. The one who 'commands justice' is, by contrast, all outward benefit - competent, trustworthy, and guiding others - the exact inverse of the sealed-off, dependent figure.
Why this verse
Closing the justice track, this āyah refuses to treat fairness as a mere label. The person of true worth both walks the straight path and actively commands justice to others - useful, trustworthy, the opposite of dead weight.
Bring it into today
This parable quietly measures you against two poles. Ask honestly where your presence falls: are you, in your family or team, mostly a weight others carry - reachable by no good direction, contributing nothing they can use - or someone whose word is reliable and who actively nudges others toward what is fair? The verse does not praise the man who merely avoids wrong; it praises the one who 'commands justice.' So look for one place this week where fairness is quietly failing - a group chat piling on someone, a split that is unbalanced, a rule applied to the weak but not the strong - and be the voice that names it. Being on the straight path yourself is half of it; calling others to justice is what the āyah honors.
A reflection to carry
It is telling that the justice track ends not with a command but a portrait. On one side, a man so incapacitated that al-Zamakhsharī calls him doubly cut off, unable to understand or be understood, and a burden on all around him. On the other, a man who both walks the straight path and 'commands justice.' The parable's target, al-Saʿdī explains, is the idol versus the true God, but its human surface teaches its own lesson: the higher figure is not merely innocent, he is generative. Being right is the floor, not the ceiling.
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.
Also on Day 223
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