Quran Garden

Have you ever considered how deeply Allah understands us?  His knowledge isn't just about what we do, but the intentions behind every action.  Whether it's a good deed, a hidden intention, or a slight wrongdoing, nothing is hidden from God, and He measures it all.  When Allah promises that He will not wrong anyone, not even by a speck, it's not just a statement—it's a reminder of His perfect justice.  Let's reflect on this profound truth.

Session 613

Chapter 4

Verse 40

God does not wrong anyone by as much as the weight of a speck: And if it's a good deed, He multiplies it and gives a mighty wage direct from Him. (Chapter 4: verse 40)

In verse 39, God exposed those who give charity not out of compassion for the poor but for show and recognition, and then concluded the verse with a powerful reminder: "God knows everything about them." The message is sobering because the Almighty's knowledge is not superficial.  It penetrates beneath actions and appearances and into intentions and the whispers of the soul.  His knowledge encompasses all things, leaving nothing unseen or unknown.  Listen to the following Aya,

He has the keys to the unseen: no one knows them but Him.  He knows all that is in the land and sea.  No leaf falls without His knowledge, nor is there a single grain in the darkness of the Earth, or anything, fresh or withered, that is not written in a clear Record.  (6:59)

This is critical because perfect knowledge is a prerequisite to administering absolute justice as "God does not wrong anyone." To wrong someone is to be unjust.  Injustice, at its core, is the love of benefiting from the effort of others.  When you wrong another person, you take what he or she rightfully earned through labor and sweat without any effort on your part.  This necessitates that the wrongdoer is stronger or smarter than the oppressed.  Even worse, some people wrong others, not for their own benefit, but for someone else's.  Think about thugs who rob people for their boss, or secret police torturing dissidents for the benefit of the president.  This is the worst kind of injustice, because there is zero benefit to the perpetrator.  Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said: "Hasten to do good deeds, for there will come tribulations like patches of dark night: a man will wake up a believer and go to sleep a disbeliever, or go to sleep a believer and wake up a disbeliever; he sells his religion for a fleeting gain of this world."

Injustice is proportional to the strength of the wrongdoer.  Your neighbor can take a fruit from your tree, but a king can take everything and throw you in jail.  God Almighty is the Power of All powers; if He willed to wrong others and be unjust, what would His injustice look like?  It would be unbearable.  Allah, Glory be to Him, is exalted above all that.  He is Self-Sufficient, the Creator and Giver of all blessings, the most Generous.  He does not need to take anything.  So why would He wrong anyone?  Thus, injustice with respect to the Lord is impossible rationally and logically.  God does not waste the good deed of anyone, nor exaggerate an evil deed.  That cannot happen.  He says,

God does not wrong anyone by as much as the weight of a speck

This verse negated all unjustness from God; then we encounter the following aya:

and your Lord is not tyrannical to the slaves (3:182)

We notice the use of the word "tyranny", which means extreme injustice.  So, at first glance, there seems to be a contradiction: Verse 182 of Surah Al-Imran does not negate God being unjust; it only negates him being extremely unjust or a tyrant, while the 40^th verse of An-Nisaa negates all unjustness from God.  We answer that when you take a closer look at the nuances of the language, you will find the answer. 

When you describe someone and say, "So and so is a big eater with a huge appetite," it could mean one of two things.  Either this person sits down to each meal and fills his plate with a large quantity of food, or he continually snacks throughout the day on small amounts.  The exaggeration of a "big eater" can be true whether it's about consuming one huge meal or frequent small amounts of food.   The first aya, "God does not wrong anyone by as much as the weight of a speck," negates all unjustness from God concerning a single being.  The second aya did not mention unjustness regarding a single person; rather, it mentioned the plural word 'slaves', meaning all of God's creation.  Given the enormous number of God's creations, if each person is inflicted even with a speck of injustice, the total injustice would be massive, and this adds up to tyranny.  Thus, both verses negate all unjustness from God, but the expression of hyperbole "tyranny" is used for the large number of people to whom the verse applies.  God does not treat anyone unjustly; his fairness is absolute and consistent.  He says,

God does not wrong anyone by as much as the weight of a speck.

Weight is the measure of the Earth's gravitational pull on an object.  When you drop something light, it falls slowly, but a heavy object falls quickly because the force of gravity on it is stronger.  Now we ask, what is a "speck"?  Scholars said it is the head of the smallest ant, barely visible to the naked eye, or the ant itself.  That is one opinion.  When Ibn Abbas was asked about the speck, he took some dust from the Earth, blew it away, and, as it scattered into the air, he said, "Every single one of these is a speck." 

Look at the air around you, it is nice and clear.  But if a sunbeam or a strong ray of light hits it just right, like through a keyhole, you see a great deal of dust floating.  They are always there; you breathe them in all the time, but these specks are only visible when they drift across a beam of light.  Each reached such a degree of smallness and subtlety that the eye cannot normally grasp it.  

Allah clarifies: Everything, every deed and action, is measured down to the smallest weight measure.  God does not wrong anyone, not even by the weight of a speck.  Keep in mind that this is only an illustration, because even specks come in different sizes.  What becomes larger can also become smaller.  

Take, for example, a satellite image of New York City.  The city looks small on the screen, but as you zoom in, you can reach a point where details as small as individual car license plates can be read.  How did this happen?  The small picture has a very high resolution and contains details beyond what the naked eye could see.  Similar are the weight and composition of objects. 

We ask: If we, with the right instruments, can see and measure the smallest of objects, can a particle be hidden from the light of the Creator?  It is impossible.  Likewise, your deeds, regardless of how trivial, even down to a glance of the eye, will not escape Allah.   He says,

Warn them of the ever-approaching Day, when hearts are at throats, choking them.  The evildoer will have no friends, nor any intercessor to be heeded.  He is aware of the most furtive of glances, and of all that hearts conceal.  (40:18, 19)