The 365 · Verses · Day 240 · Justice
Revelation came so you could judge - never to shield the guilty.
إِنَّآ أَنزَلْنَآ إِلَيْكَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ بِٱلْحَقِّ لِتَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ ٱلنَّاسِ بِمَآ أَرَىٰكَ ٱللَّهُ ۚ وَلَا تَكُن لِّلْخَآئِنِينَ خَصِيمًا
“We have sent down the Scripture to you, Prophet, with the truth so that you can judge between people in accordance with what God has shown you. Do not be an advocate for those who betray trust. (Quran 4:105)”
4:105 Read 4:105 with tafsir
Svenska: VI HAR uppenbarat Skriften med sanningen för dig [Muhammad], för att du skall döma mellan människorna med [stöd av] Guds uppenbarelse. Men försvara inte dem som sviker [alla förtroenden som de får],
The story
Ibn Kathir records the situation this warning addressed: a man had wronged another, and people came to the Prophet ﷺ ready to argue in the wrongdoer's defense. The āyah first anchors the judge - the Scripture was sent down 'with the truth,' and the Prophet ﷺ is to rule 'by what Allah has shown you.' Al-Saʿdi stresses that phrase: not by personal desire, but by what Allah taught and inspired, and he reads it as a standard for every judge after him - knowledge and justice, never whim. Ibn Kathir pairs the verse with a sobering ḥadīth from Umm Salamah: the Prophet ﷺ heard litigants disputing at his door and came out saying he was 'only human' and judged 'by what I hear'; whoever is awarded another's right by a more persuasive tongue is handed 'a piece of the Fire.' A courtroom victory won for falsehood is no victory at all. Al-Saʿdi draws the ruling straight from the closing command: it is forbidden to argue on behalf of someone you know - or even strongly suspect - to be in the wrong, whether he claims what is not his or denies a right he owes. Justice here is not merely the verdict; it is refusing to lend your voice to the betrayer before the verdict is ever reached.
In the language
Al-Saʿdi draws attention to a precise choice of wording. The verse says the Prophet ﷺ is to judge bimā arāka Allāh - 'by what Allah has shown you' - and pointedly not bimā raʾayta, 'by what you yourself saw.' The grammatical subject of the showing is Allah, not the judge. Al-Saʿdi reads this as deliberate: the source of a sound ruling is divine guidance and revealed knowledge, not the judge's private opinion or inclination. He connects it to the wider Qurʾanic description of the Prophet ﷺ, who 'does not speak from desire.' The construction quietly builds justice into its own grammar - the judge is a recipient of the truth he applies, never its author. From this single verb al-Saʿdi derives that a valid judge must combine ʿilm (knowledge) and ʿadl (justice), because he can only pass on what he has truly been shown.
Why this verse
Because a just verdict can still be manufactured by a clever advocate for a liar. The verse guards the deeper thing: not only the outcome, but the integrity of everyone whose voice feeds into it. To defend a betrayer knowingly is to become part of the betrayal.
Bring it into today
You may never sit on a bench, but you argue cases daily - in group chats, family disputes, workplace complaints, online pile-ons. Before you lend your voice to a side, ask al-Saʿdi's question: do I actually know this person is in the right, or am I defending them because they are mine? The verse forbids advocating for someone whose wrong you already know, even when loyalty, kinship, or your own side pulls hard the other way. Practically: don't forward the accusation you haven't verified; don't vouch for a character you haven't witnessed; don't 'win' an argument for a friend you privately know is lying. And remember the ḥadīth Ibn Kathir cites - a right secured by a persuasive tongue but owed to someone else is 'a piece of the Fire.' If you realize mid-dispute that your side is the betrayer, the just act is to withdraw your advocacy, not sharpen it.
A reflection to carry
Sit with the scene Ibn Kathir preserves: people crowding around the Prophet ﷺ to argue for someone in the wrong. The verse does not rebuke them for arguing - it rebukes them for whom they argued. We slip into the same posture easily, defending our team or family not because they are right but because they are ours. Ask where you are lending your voice now. Is there a dispute where you suspect your side is actually wrong, yet you keep advocating because withdrawing feels like disloyalty? If revelation itself refused to shield the guilty, our loyalties cannot claim a higher right.
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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