The 365 · Verses · Day 243 · Justice
Peace is the goal - but only a just peace is the one commanded.
وَإِن طَآئِفَتَانِ مِنَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ٱقْتَتَلُوا۟ فَأَصْلِحُوا۟ بَيْنَهُمَا ۖ فَإِنۢ بَغَتْ إِحْدَىٰهُمَا عَلَى ٱلْأُخْرَىٰ فَقَـٰتِلُوا۟ ٱلَّتِى تَبْغِى حَتَّىٰ تَفِىٓءَ إِلَىٰٓ أَمْرِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ فَإِن فَآءَتْ فَأَصْلِحُوا۟ بَيْنَهُمَا بِٱلْعَدْلِ وَأَقْسِطُوٓا۟ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُقْسِطِينَ
“If two groups of the believers fight, you believers should try to reconcile them; if one of them is clearly oppressing the other, fight the oppressors until they submit to God's command, then make a just and even-handed reconciliation between the two of them: God loves those who are even-handed. (Quran 49:9)”
Svenska: Om två grupper av troende skulle råka i delo med varandra, försök då mäkla fred mellan dem, men om den ena [gruppen] grovt kränker den andras rätt, ingrip då mot de skyldiga tills de fogar sig efter Guds bud; och, om de fogar sig, medla då mellan dem båda med rättvisa och opartiskhet. Gud älskar de opartiska.
The story
Ibn Kathir preserves an occasion for this verse: a scuffle broke out between clans of the Anṣar - Aws and Khazraj - striking each other with palm branches and sandals, and the āyah came down commanding reconciliation. What is remarkable, he notes, is that Allah keeps calling both warring sides 'believers'; scholars took this as proof that even a grave sin does not expel a Muslim from faith. But reconciliation is not peace at any price. Al-Saʿdi lays out the sequence: first strive to reconcile the two groups as completely as possible; if one of them persists in aggression, that aggressor is resisted 'until it returns to the command of Allah' - until it stops. Then comes the line that gives the verse its edge: reconcile 'with justice.' Al-Saʿdi warns that a settlement can be reached that is not just at all - one that wrongs a party for the sake of kinship, homeland, or convenience - and that this is precisely not the reconciliation Allah commanded. Ibn Kathir cites the ḥadīth that the equitable will stand 'on podiums of pearls before ar-Rahman.' The justice cluster closes here on its sharpest point: peacemaking that quietly sacrifices the wronged party to keep everyone calm is a counterfeit. The command is not merely to end the fight, but to end it fairly.
In the language
Notice how the verse does not ask for fairness once but three times in a single breath: reconcile bi'l-ʿadl - 'with justice' - then aqsiṭū, 'and be equitable,' closing by praising al-muqsiṭīn, 'those who are equitable.' The command to be fair, the imperative to act fairly, and the name of the fair are stacked back to back. Al-Saʿdi treats this insistence as deliberate: he glosses the muqsiṭīn as those who are just in judging between people and in every authority they are given - so far-reaching, he adds, that it includes a man's fairness to his own household. The rhetorical repetition does real work. A single mention of justice could be read as a nicety; the verse's tripled emphasis makes fairness the non-negotiable condition of the reconciliation, not an optional grace note. You have not obeyed the command to make peace until the peace itself is equitable.
Why this verse
Because the easiest way to stop a conflict is to lean on whoever is weaker or more reasonable - buying quiet at the expense of the wronged. The verse forbids that shortcut. It commands not just an end to fighting but a just end, refusing to let 'keeping the peace' become another name for injustice.
Bring it into today
You mediate more than you think - between siblings, coworkers, friends, your own children. This verse hands you the rule for it. When you step between two parties, the instinct is often to pressure the calmer or more agreeable one to concede, because they are easier to move. Al-Saʿdi names that temptation exactly: reconciling by wronging one side for the sake of closeness or convenience is not the reconciliation Allah commanded. So do the harder work: identify who is actually in the wrong before you broker the peace, and don't ask the injured party to swallow the injustice just to restore quiet. If one side is genuinely the aggressor, the verse says they are restrained until they stand down - not appeased. And when you finally settle it, settle it fairly even against the person you love more. The measure of your peacemaking is not that the noise stopped, but that justice held.
A reflection to carry
We tend to treat any ceasefire as success. This verse refuses that. It calls both fighting sides 'believers,' insists they be reconciled, then adds a condition that changes everything: the reconciliation must be just. Al-Saʿdi's warning lands close to home - a settlement can wrong one party, tilted by kinship or convenience, and that is not what Allah asked for. Think of the peace you keep. Is there a 'calm' in your family or team that survives only because one person keeps absorbing the injustice? The verse calls that peace counterfeit. Ending the conflict is not enough; you are commanded to end it fairly.
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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