Acting fairly

 

Believers will not be unaffected by any unfairness they witness, hear or receive indirect information about. The teachings of the Qur'an according to which they live direct them to oppose any kind of cruelty, to defend the rights of those who have been wronged and to intervene on their behalf. In Surat an-Nisa', Allah describes the believers' superior understanding of justice:

You who believe! Be upholders of justice, bearing witness for Allah alone, even against yourselves or your parents and relatives. Whether they are rich or poor, Allah is well able to look after them. Do not follow your own desires and deviate from the truth. If you twist or turn away, Allah is aware of what you do. (Surat an-Nisa': 135)

Believers will mobilise all their forces to prevent injustice. Even if most people act in the opposite way, their carelessness and lack of conscience do no make believers lax. They know that they will be questioned in the afterlife about what efforts they made on behalf of justice and what they did to prevent injustice. They will not try to escape their responsibility as very many people do in the world by claiming they did not see, hear or notice anything. They remember that if they act carelessly, not only they are the losers but all the people who are wronged by injustice, and that, if they act conscientiously, not only are they are the winners in the afterlife, but all of the oppressed and wronged people will also benefit. For this reason they will never be disinterested observers of injustice. If there is any injustice at all, they will never ignore it by minding their own business and pretending they haven't seen anything.

Even if the teachings of the Qur'an are in opposition to the profit of the individual human, and even if it is hard to accept, it requires that justice be observed without distinction between mother, father, acquaintance, stranger, rich or poor. For this reason, a believer tries not to commit injustice during the day and strenuously avoids closing his eyes to injustice. He tries to give everyone what they deserve.

For example, when passing in front of people waiting in a queue for a bus, he won't be disrespectful and he will not close his eyes to anyone who does this. He will intervene in a way that is appropriate to noble character and without creating tension. In a contest, he will be careful to praise all those who deserve praise and to receive the award. He will defend those in the right without making any distinction between them and his friends. If he or a close friend makes a mistake, he will openly admit it if the error caused harm to another person and he will do everything in his power to make restitution for the harm done.