Al-Mutaffifin · Makki · ayah 3 of 36

Al-Mutaffifin 83:3

وَإِذَا كَالُوهُمْ أَو وَّزَنُوهُمْ يُخْسِرُونَ

“But if they give by measure or by weight to them, they cause loss.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The same hands that weighed so carefully for themselves go loose and vague the moment the scale turns towards someone else.

A reflection

Wet grain at the bottom of the heap

Yukhsirūn: they make others lose. The root kh-s-r belongs to the market. Khusr is the shrinking of a trader's capital, the money he started with. Here the cheat shrinks someone else's stock, quietly, a handful at a time.

The Prophet ﷺ once walked past a heap of grain for sale. He pushed his hand into it, and his fingers came out wet. 'What is this, owner of the grain?' The man said rain had fallen on it. 'Then why did you not put it on top, where people could see it? Whoever cheats is not of me' (Sahih Muslim).

Notice what the trader had done. He had not lied in words. He had arranged the heap so the dry grain showed and the damp sat underneath. The loss was built into the display.

The heaps have changed shape since Madina. An online seller photographs the sofa from the one angle that hides the stain. A letting agent books viewings only on dry afternoons, when the damp patch in the bedroom has faded. A quote for a job lists the price of labour in bold and the call-out fee in grey type at the bottom. Each of these can be defended in a meeting. None of them would survive the Prophet's hand pushed into the heap.

His question is still the test. Why not put it on top? If the flaw is real, show it and let the buyer decide. The honest trader loses a sale now and then. The cheat loses something he cannot see yet, and the Quran names it with the same root. 'Indeed, mankind is in loss' (103:2).

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.