This virtue is so central to Islam that...

This virtue is so central to Islam that, according to a saying of the Prophet, “A kingdom might survive in infidelity, but it cannot survive in injustice and inequity.” But for Muslims, as for Jews, who are addressed so often in the Torah on matters pertaining to justice, and Christians, so many of whose greatest religious thinkers have been primarily concerned with the issue, as well as for followers of other religions, some of the major questions are as follows: What does it mean to say that God is just and what does justice mean in this context?

How does God judge and how can we judge in justice? What is the meaning of justice on the human plane and why, despite all the teachings of religion about justice, is there so much injustice in this world? One truth, evident for and accepted by all Muslims, is that God is just and justice is related to Him and the truths revealed by Him through His prophets.

But within this general framework, there have been many interpretations over the ages by various schools of Islamic thought on this central issue, as there have been for Christians and Jews.

Needless to say, we cannot deal with these theological and philosophical differences here, but we can turn to certain basic tenets universally accepted by Muslims and seek to understand in the Islamic context some of the essential features of the central reality of justice and the means of living and acting justly, on the one hand, and opposing injustice, oppression, and inequity, on the other.

DIVINE JUSTICE In the same way that Compassion and Love, Peace and Beauty are Names of God, Justice is also a Divine Name. God is al-‘Adil, as well as al-‘Adl, al-Muqsit, and al-Hakam, meaning the Just as well as Justice Itself, the Equitable, and the Bringer of Justice. As these Names show, one could say in the Islamic context that not only is God Just, but that He is Justice Itself in the highest sense of the term.

What, then, is the Islamic understanding of justice in itself and when applied to God? In one of his aphorisms ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib said, “Justice puts everything in its place.” Justice is related to balance, to giving each thing its due (h. aqq), to having everything be in its place according its nature, and, in keeping with what Plato said in the Republic, to having each person perform his or her duty in society in accordance with his or her nature. Now, God is al-H.