Fussilat · Makki · ayah 46 of 54

Fussilat 41:46

مَّنْ عَمِلَ صَـٰلِحًا فَلِنَفْسِهِۦ ۖ وَمَنْ أَسَآءَ فَعَلَيْهَا ۗ وَمَا رَبُّكَ بِظَلَّـٰمٍ لِّلْعَبِيدِ

“Whoever does righteousness - it is for his [own] soul; and whoever does evil [does so] against it. And your Lord is not ever unjust to [His] servants.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every good deed returns to its doer, every wrong lands on its doer, and your Lord wrongs no one at all.

A reflection

Justice that never punishes the wrong person

"Your Lord is not unjust to His servants." Two commentators spell out what that justice looks like in practice. He does not load the penalty for one person's sin onto someone who did not commit it. He punishes no one except for their own wrong. And He punishes no one until the proof has been established and a messenger has been sent to them.

Set that beside the way human justice usually works, and the difference is humbling.

Picture a corner shop near a secondary school. Two boys from the school are caught shoplifting. The next morning a sign appears on the door: only two school pupils at a time. For years after, every child in that uniform waits outside in the rain, including the girl who buys her grandmother's paper there every day. The shopkeeper is not wicked. He is tired, frightened and imprecise. His justice falls on the wrong heads because he cannot see clearly enough to aim it.

Most of us judge like that shopkeeper. We blame groups for individuals, punish before we warn, and confuse our anger with fairness. Our sense of justice is rough, because our knowledge is partial and our egos are involved.

Allah's justice has none of those defects. He sees each person exactly. He warns before He judges. He never confuses one servant with another. The ayah calls those under His judgement ʿabīd, servants. He owns them completely, and still He does not wrong them.

That should shrink our pride in two ways. It should silence the voice that accuses Allah of unfairness when life does not go our way. And it should make us suspicious of our own verdicts on others. If the Owner of all is this careful, how careless have we been, with so much less right?

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.