55. Surah Ar-RahMan

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَالسَّمَاء رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ ﴿٧﴾

55: 7.     And the Firmament has He raised high, and He has set up the balance (of Justice)

C5177. The "balance of justice" in this verse is connected with "the Balance" in the next two verses, that men may act justly to each other and observe due balance in all their actions, following the golden mean and not transgressing due bounds in anything. But the Balance is also connected figuratively with the heavens above in three symbols:

• Justice is a heavenly virtue:

• the heavens themselves are sustained by mathematical balance; and,

• the constellation Libra (the Balance) is entered by the sun at the middle of the zodiacal year.

أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ ﴿٨﴾

55: 8.     In order that ye may not transgress (due) balance.

وَأَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْطِ وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانَ ﴿٩﴾

55: 9.     So establish weight with justice and fall not short in the balance.

C5178. To be taken both literally and figuratively.

A man should be honest and straight in every daily matter, such as weighing out things which he is selling: and he should be straight, just and honest, in all the highest dealings, not only with other people, but with himself and in his obedience to Allah's Law. Not many do either the one or the other when they have an opportunity of deceit. Justice is the central virtue, and the avoidance of both excess and defect in conduct keeps the human world balanced just as the heavenly world is kept balanced by mathematical order.

Asad’s Version:

(55:5) [At His behest] the sun and the moon run their appointed courses; 2

(55:6) [before Him] prostrate themselves the stars and the trees.

55:7 And the skies has He raised high, and has devised [for all things] a measure, 3

(55:8) so that you [too, O men,] might never transgress the measure [of what is right):

(55:9) weigh, therefore, [your deed] with equity, and cut not the measure short!

[[ Asad’s notes - 2 Lit., "according to a definite reckoning".

3 The noun mizan, usually denoting a "balance", has here the more general connotation of "measure" or "measuring" by any means whatsoever (Zamakhshari), in both the concrete and abstract senses of the word. (Cf also the parabolic use of the term mza~ in 42:17 and 57:25.)