Living The Quran
From Issue: 576 [Read full issue]
Three Principles
Al-Nahl (The Bee) Sura 16: Verse 90 (partial)
"Surely Allah enjoins justice, kindness and the doing of good, to kith and kin."
This directive which has been so succinctly expressed enjoins on people three principles which provide the basis for the sound ordering of human society:
1. The first and foremost principle is 'justice' which comprises two independent truths. One, that there be balance and right proportion among human beings in respect of their rights. Two, that every person be granted his rights without any distinction. What justice really demands is balance and right proportion rather than absolute equality. For instance, it would be sheer injustice if we were to grant children equal rights with their parents, or to equally compensate those who work hard and well and those who do not. Justice requires that the moral, social, economic, legal, political and cultural rights to which a person is entitled should be granted to him or her with sincerity.
2. The second principle is benevolence which broadly embraces all such good acts as politeness, generosity, sympathy, tolerance, courtesy, forbearance, mutual accommodation, mutual consideration, giving to others more than what is their due, and being content for oneself with a little less than what one is entitled to. If justice is the foundation on which the structure of a society should rest, then benevolence represents the beauty and perfection of that structure. Justice wards off the bitterness of discord and disharmony from human life. Benevolence adds to it the elements of pleasure and sweetness.
3. The third principle enunciated in this verse is liberality to kith and kin. This is a corollary of the former principle - 'benevolence' - when it is applied to one's relatives. This consists not only of sharing one's joys and sorrows with one's kin, and in helping and supporting the fulfilment of their legitimate desires within permissible limits. But also that one should recognize that one's wealth ought not to be spent exclusively on oneself and one's immediate family. Other members of the family also have a share in it.
Compiled From:
"Towards Understanding The Quran" - Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi, Vol. 4, pp. 356, 357