The 365 · Verses · Day 236 · Justice
Two commands, one breath: guard the orphan's gold, and guard your tongue in court.
وَلَا تَقْرَبُوا۟ مَالَ ٱلْيَتِيمِ إِلَّا بِٱلَّتِى هِىَ أَحْسَنُ حَتَّىٰ يَبْلُغَ أَشُدَّهُۥ ۖ وَأَوْفُوا۟ ٱلْكَيْلَ وَٱلْمِيزَانَ بِٱلْقِسْطِ ۖ لَا نُكَلِّفُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۖ وَإِذَا قُلْتُمْ فَٱعْدِلُوا۟ وَلَوْ كَانَ ذَا قُرْبَىٰ ۖ وَبِعَهْدِ ٱللَّهِ أَوْفُوا۟ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ وَصَّىٰكُم بِهِۦ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ
“Stay well away from the property of orphans, except with the best intentions, until they come of age; give full measure and weight, according to justice; We do not burden any soul with more than it can bear; when you speak, be just, even if it concerns a relative; keep any promises you make in God's name. This is what He commands you to do, so that you may take heed. (Quran 6:152)”
6:152 Read 6:152 with tafsir
Svenska: Och rör inte den faderlöses egendom - om det inte är fråga om att föröka den - innan han har nått myndig ålder. Och mät och väg med fulla mått [i allt vad ni företar er] såsom rättvisa och rimlighet kräver - Vi lägger inte på någon en tyngre börda än han kan bära. - Och när ni yttrar er, yttra er med opartiskhet, även om det gäller en nära anhörig. Och håll fast vid förbundet med Gud." Detta är vad Han befaller er; kanske lägger ni det på minnet.
The story
This āyah is a chain of duties that runs from the counting-house to the courtroom, and the Qurʾān links them as if they were one muscle. Ibn Kathīr opens with the orphan: do not approach the orphan's wealth except in the way that is best, until adulthood. He records how scrupulous the first Muslims became - guardians separating the orphan's food and drink from their own until the child's portion sometimes spoiled - until relief came in another āyah permitting them to mix affairs honestly, as brothers. Al-Saʿdī sharpens the principle: a guardian may act in the orphan's wealth only in the manner that improves it, never in a way that harms, and never even in a way that is neither harm nor benefit; his authority is a trust that ends the moment the child reaches sound judgment. Then the verse pivots to the market - give full measure and weight with justice - and Ibn Kathīr ties it to the terrible warning against the muṭaffifīn, the skimpers, over whom an entire nation was destroyed. Between these duties God slips a mercy: We burden no soul beyond its capacity. Ibn Kathīr and al-Saʿdī read it the same way - one who genuinely strives to weigh justly and falls into an honest, unintended shortfall is forgiven. Finally the tongue: when you speak, be just, even against a relative. Al-Saʿdī applies it to the judge and the witness, who must give truth its due whether they love or hate the person before them - fairness, he says, even in a mere glance. Orphan, scale, and speech: three arenas, one justice.
In the language
Both al-Zamakhsharī and al-Saʿdī pause on a clause that seems, at first, out of place. Right after the demand to give full measure and weight, God adds, 'We burden no soul beyond its capacity.' Why insert a mercy clause into a command about scales? Al-Zamakhsharī's answer is precise: hitting the exact point of qisṭ - the line with no excess and no shortfall - is genuinely hard, the kind of thing a person can strain at and still miss by a hair. So the command to reach one's utmost capacity is paired with an assurance that whatever lies beyond that capacity is pardoned. Al-Saʿdī draws the same conclusion and notes that the uṣūlī scholars cited this very āyah to establish that God never obligates anyone with what they cannot do. The rhetoric is doing pastoral work: it forbids the deliberate thumb on the scale while refusing to crush the honest hand that trembles. Justice is demanded to the edge of ability, and mercy begins exactly where ability ends.
Why this verse
Because injustice hides in the gap between what you owe and what you can get away with - an orphan who cannot audit you, a customer who cannot re-weigh, a rival you can smear in speech. This āyah closes all three gaps at once.
Bring it into today
Look for the person in your life who cannot check your work - the equivalent of the orphan. A younger sibling's inheritance, an elderly parent's accounts, a client who trusts your invoice, a fund you administer. Al-Saʿdī's rule is your test: touch it only in the way that is best, never in a way that merely fails to harm. Then carry the āyah's command on speech into your next disagreement. When you describe what someone said or did - in a meeting, a review, a family argument - be just even if the person is close to you, and even if you dislike them. Do not round their words up or down to suit the verdict you want. And if you hold authority over anyone's money or reputation, remember the mercy clause too: you are asked for your honest utmost, not for perfection. Strive to be exact, correct what you catch, and trust that God does not hold an honest slip against the one who was truly trying.
A reflection to carry
The genius of this āyah is that it refuses to let justice specialize. We tend to file fairness under separate headings - financial ethics here, honesty in speech there, care for dependents somewhere else. God strings them on one thread: the orphan's wealth, the merchant's scale, the witness's tongue. Al-Saʿdī even extends the command on speech to the judge balancing two disputants down to his glance. The lesson is that a person is not partly just; the same integrity that will not skim a scale is the integrity that will not shade a testimony toward someone it loves. Where in your week does your fairness specialize - scrupulous with money, careless with words?
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 236
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