The Promise of Perfect Fairness - Al 'Adl (The Most Just)

Number one, something called distributive justice, people's rights and interactions in between us.

And number two, retributive justice, crime and punishment and all that.

That'll be next week because it's a very comprehensive and big topic, and I'll only be touching the surface.

Tonight, inshallah, as I said, again, we are talking about Allah, who he is, and his attribute Al-Adl, the most just.

Let's begin with a very shallow meaning of the word justice.

You know, justice is a very complicated topic because everything that people argue about in this world is all about justice.

My right, your right, that's not fair, this is fair.

Everything from politics to, uh, individuals at your home, as family, married, not married, uh, uh, your business transactions, at school, um, everywhere in the world, everybody argues for justice and everybody has their own definition.

If I put a post on social media of nothing but a plain banana, banana, or I got a banana into this room and I held it in front of you, and I ask you what this is, explain it, I will probably get about ten different answers.

People will argue over a banana, over a blank screen, over anything, such is the human.

So we need a standard.

We always need to resort to authority who has wisdom, and the greatest authority for us is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and also what Allah gave us, our moral justice com-compass.

But let's talk about a definition that everyone can agree on universally.

So what is justice? Justice, brothers and sisters, is giving every rightful person and everything its due right without limitation or restraint.

We all know this.

How do we apply it is the golden question.

And the reason for this is so that there is correct balance and harmony for everybody and in this world.

And in the hereafter, Allah will apply this.

Sometimes justice is in the form of what we call equality, but not always.

Other times it's in the form of equitability, which means based on individual needs and circumstances.

So justice is not always being fair by distributing everything to everybody in exactly the same way.

Justice can also be when you consider people's ethnic background, culture, uh, aesthetics, their advantage, disadvantages, their circumstances in life, male and female, all of that.

So when it comes to justice, especially in Islam, it takes into, into consideration the individual circumstances such as advantages and disadvantages, obligations and responsibilities.

What are your obligations and responsibility? Justice applies differently.

And customs and traditions, education and beliefs.