A New Road Map: Tawhid in the 21st century
And your Allah is One Allah. There is no god but He, Most Gracious, Most Merciful (Q2:163).Archive for mizan
Mizan in the Quran
The root of the word is *WZN, to weigh. The concept of mizan is very striking if one actually thinks about the imagery that Allah is providing for us. A scale is used by placing a known weight on one side, and the object to be weighed on the other. It is not relative, where two unknowns are compared, but one where there is a standard. This standard is set by Allah, and Allah alone.
So how does one obtain a heavy scale, rather than a light one? It is established through qist. Qist (justice) is what makes the scale heavy. It is not about establishing a just scale by humans as the scale and the standard of judgment has already been created by Allah; it is about working towards making the side of the scale that holds our deeds to be heavier.
When included with the concept of qist, and then of adl, we have a different picture that forms. Adl is relative, as it is about establishing equal treatment of sorts between parties. There are words used to describe the implementation of this equality, however it is not on the absolute mizan (scale) that we refer to when dealing with the concept of qist.
