Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 9 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:9

وَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلْوَزْنَ بِٱلْقِسْطِ وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا۟ ٱلْمِيزَانَ

“And establish weight in justice and do not make deficient the balance.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The verb for setting the scale straight is the verb for establishing the prayer: weighing fairly is a way of standing before Him.

A reflection

One ledger, not two

Many people keep two ledgers without noticing. One is religion: the prayers, the fasts, the Quran. The other is business: the deals, the invoices, the quotes. Each has its own rules, and the two seldom meet.

A builder stops work on site for every prayer. He keeps a mat rolled in the van and never misses the afternoon one, even on a roof. He also fits cheaper cable than the grade he quoted for, because no client ever looks behind the plasterboard. He would be offended to be called a hypocrite. In his mind the two ledgers are simply separate.

This ayah closes the gap with a single verb. Aqīmū al-wazn: establish the weight. It is the same command, from the same root, as aqīmū al-ṣalāh: establish the prayer. One commentary makes the link explicit, reading 'establish the weight' as 'keep it standing, continually', the way the prayer is kept standing.

The root pictures something set upright. Establishing the prayer was explained from straightening a bent stick. Here it is the scale that must be straightened. A beam that tips towards your own side is a bent stick, however many prayers are prayed beside it.

One dictionary of Quranic words reads this ayah as pointing to fairness in everything a person does and says, not only at the counter.

So the truer picture is a single ledger. Worship is not only what happens on the mat. It is how you weigh when nobody will ever look behind the plasterboard. The prayer and the scale stand up together, or neither quite stands.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.