Key Qur'anic Verses


4. Justice, fairness, and lack of prejudice

"O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest you swerve, and if you distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily God is well-acquainted with all that you do." [4/an-Nisaa/135]

Note: All religions affirm justice and fairness as an essential precept. However, Islam has taken this precept to a new height. Justice has always meant that we should be unprejudiced and we should like for others what we like for ourselves. In matters of principles, Muslims are to stand for what is just or fair, regardless of in whose favor the verdict is. This is truly revolutionary. Besides the judicial system that is supposed to serve as an apparatus of justice, Islam wants us to put ourselves on trial from within. In molding our personality as well as in building a society based on universal justice, this verse of enormous scope can take us a very long way. We should scrutinize our life, behavior, and aspirations in light of this unambiguous criteria of justice. This verse teaches us that beyond the courts of this world, there is a higher world where we might be tried, unless we put ourselves on trial as warranted. Normally, the "golden rule" says that if we do not like to be harmed, we should not harm anyone else, and this is true irrespective of race, color, nationality, gender, language, or any other artificial basis of distinguishing different segments of humanity; if we do not like to be offended, we should not offend others, Muslims or non-Muslims; if we like to be treated kindly, we should treat others kindly; or if we expect fairness from others, we should be fair in our conduct and judgment. But this verse says that even when we can't expect fairness from others, we need to stand for justice. This is a lofty role, as God has equated it to witnessing to God.

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