The 365 · Verses · Day 229 · Justice
Even a mustard seed of good or evil will be weighed - nothing is too small to count.
وَنَضَعُ ٱلْمَوَٰزِينَ ٱلْقِسْطَ لِيَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ فَلَا تُظْلَمُ نَفْسٌ شَيْـًٔا ۖ وَإِن كَانَ مِثْقَالَ حَبَّةٍ مِّنْ خَرْدَلٍ أَتَيْنَا بِهَا ۗ وَكَفَىٰ بِنَا حَـٰسِبِينَ
“We will set up scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection so that no one can be wronged in the least, and if there should be even the weight of a mustard seed, We shall bring it out. We take excellent account. (Quran 21:47)”
21:47 Read 21:47 with tafsir
Svenska: På Uppståndelsens dag skall Vi ställa fram rättvisande vågar och ingen skall då lida den minsta orätt. [Allt,] till och med det som väger så litet som ett senapskorn, skall Vi dra fram i ljuset. Det är Vi som bäst håller räkning på allt.
The story
This āyah lifts the theme of justice out of courtrooms and contracts and sets it on the scale of the Last Day. 'We will set up scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection.' As-Sa'di describes God's judgement here as perfectly just and even-handed: no soul, believer or unbeliever, will have a single good deed shaved off or a sin added. Ibn Kathir notes that scholars generally hold this to be a single Balance, the plural 'scales' reflecting the sheer number of deeds weighed in it. Then the āyah presses the point to its smallest possible unit: 'even the weight of a mustard seed, We shall bring it out.' As-Sa'di calls the mustard seed the tiniest and most trivial of things - and yet a grain of it, good or evil, is produced and reckoned. Ibn Kathir gathers the Qur'an's echoes of this promise: whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it, and an atom's weight of evil will see it; a mustard seed hidden in a rock or in the heavens, God will bring it forth. He also recalls the Prophet's ﷺ words that two phrases light on the tongue are heavy on the Scale and beloved to the Most Merciful: 'Subhan Allah wa bi hamdih, Subhan Allah al-'Azim.' The verse closes with quiet finality: 'We take excellent account.' As-Sa'di reads this as God naming Himself sufficient as the Reckoner - knowing every deed, preserving it, recording it, and delivering to each worker exactly what is due. This is justice at its most absolute: not one wrong overlooked, not one good forgotten, weighed by the One who cannot miscount.
In the language
The phrase is 'al-mawāzīn al-qist' - literally, 'the scales, the justice.' Grammatically you would expect an adjective: 'the just scales.' Instead the Qur'an places the abstract noun qist ('justice,' 'equity') directly where the description belongs. Az-Zamakhshari, in al-Kashshaf, offers two readings. Either it is hyperbole - the scales are not merely just, they are justice itself, so wholly identified with fairness that the quality has replaced the adjective; or there is an implied word, 'scales possessing justice' (dhawāt al-qist). Both readings push the same way: these are not ordinary balances that happen to be accurate, but instruments that embody equity in their very nature. Az-Zamakhshari adds a grammatical note on the next clause, where a feminine pronoun refers back to the 'weight' (mithqāl) of a seed - the weight taking its gender from the seed it is bound to. A Day whose scales are justice itself will not misplace even the lightest grain.
Why this verse
If the smallest good and the smallest wrong are both weighed, then nothing you do is beneath notice. This āyah answers every injustice that seemed to escape - none of it did. The scale of the Last Day misses nothing.
Bring it into today
Live as if nothing is too small to count, because this verse promises it is not. The kind word no one heard, the coin given quietly, the patience you showed when you could have snapped - a mustard seed's weight of it will be brought out and set on the Scale. And so will the small cruelties: the cutting remark, the corner cut, the right you quietly withheld. Let this reshape how you treat what feels negligible. Do the tiny good you are tempted to skip because 'it won't matter' - it will be weighed. Avoid the minor wrong you excuse because 'it's nothing' - it will be weighed too. Ibn Kathir reminds you that two light phrases, 'Subhan Allah wa bi hamdih, Subhan Allah al-'Azim,' sit heavy on that Scale. And when you suffer an injustice the world never noticed or corrected, take comfort: the One who takes excellent account has already recorded it, and will not let it pass unweighed.
A reflection to carry
We sort our deeds into the ones that matter and the ones too small to bother with - and live most of our lives in the second pile. This verse erases the line. A mustard seed, As-Sa'di says, is the most trivial thing imaginable, yet a grain of it, good or evil, is brought out and weighed. Think of what that dignifies and what it indicts: the unseen kindness was never wasted; the private meanness was never hidden. Ibn Kathir points to two light words that weigh heavy on the Scale - God's accounting does not run on our sense of size. And if you carry a wound from an injustice no one else ever acknowledged, the closing words are for you: 'We take excellent account.' Nothing real was lost; it is all still on the Scale.
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 229
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