Al-Mutaffifin · Makki · ayah 2 of 36

Al-Mutaffifin 83:2

ٱلَّذِينَ إِذَا ٱكْتَالُوا۟ عَلَى ٱلنَّاسِ يَسْتَوْفُونَ

“Who, when they take a measure from people, take in full.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Everyone becomes a meticulous auditor when the money is coming to them; the ayah asks whether we audit as carefully when it is going out.

A reflection

The perfect auditor of what I am owed

Yastawfūn: they take in full. On its own there is nothing wrong with it. The same Quran commands full measure and fair weight (6:152; 17:35). So notice what the ayah does not condemn. It does not condemn taking your due.

One classical reading points out that the blame falls on the pair. They take in full, and then, in the next ayah, they give short (83:3). The commentator compares it to a common Arabic reproach: he takes his right from people complete, and gives them theirs lacking. The fault is not the collecting. It is the two sets of scales.

Watch it in yourself. A man can recite his annual leave entitlement to the half-day. He cannot remember what he owes his brother from the summer. A housemate splits the shared bill to the penny, down to the milk he did not drink. He has forgotten the takeaway his friend paid for last month. A driver who was undercharged at the car wash drives off smiling. The same driver, overcharged by a pound, turns back.

None of these people think of themselves as cheats. They think of themselves as careful. And they are careful, in one direction. Most of us are born accountants for our own side of the ledger. We notice every shortfall in what comes to us, instantly and precisely. The shortfalls in what leaves us are vague, or forgotten, or somehow justified.

The ayah does not ask you to stop counting. It asks you to keep both columns with the same pen. The attention you give to what you are owed is proof you are capable of precision. The only question is whom you are willing to be precise for.

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.