عدل

Core meaning

To set on an equal footing: to treat parties as equals, or to posit one thing as the equivalent of another. Hence justice, compensation, the equal one gives to God, and the balance of the body.

Uses

1. عَدَلَ, ٱعْدِلُوا۟, ٱلْعَدْل → "to be just", "justice" : to treat equally those between whom one judges, writes or speaks.

   • «ٱعْدِلُوا۟ هُوَ أَقْرَبُ لِلتَّقْوَىٰ» — "Be just: it is closer to guardedness" (5:8)
   • «وَإِذَا قُلْتُمْ فَٱعْدِلُوا۟ وَلَوْ كَانَ ذَا قُرْبَىٰ» — "and when you say a saying, be just, even toward a relative" (6:152)
   • «إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِٱلْعَدْلِ وَٱلْإِحْسَٰنِ» — "God commands justice, beneficence" (16:90)

2. ذَوَا عَدْلٍ → "two just ones" : two witnesses or two arbiters whom each party can trust.

   • «وَأَشْهِدُوا۟ ذَوَىْ عَدْلٍۢ مِّنكُمْ» — "and take as witnesses two just ones among you" (65:2)

3. عَدْل (what stands for) → "compensation", "the equivalent" : what one sets in place of another thing.

   • «وَلَا يُؤْخَذُ مِنْهَا عَدْلٌۭ» — "when no compensation will be taken from it" (2:48)
   • «أَوْ عَدْلُ ذَٰلِكَ صِيَامًۭا» — "or the equivalent of that in abstention" (5:95)

4. بِرَبِّهِمْ يَعْدِلُونَ → "to set up equals to" : to set an equal beside the Guardian.

   • «ثُمَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِرَبِّهِمْ يَعْدِلُونَ» — "yet those who disown set up equals to their Guardian" (6:1)

5. يَعْدِلُونَ (without object) → "to set up equals" : the same act, the object being given by the question that sets a deity beside God.

   • «بَلْ هُمْ قَوْمٌۭ يَعْدِلُونَ» — "They are rather a people who set up equals" (27:60)

6. فَعَدَلَكَ → "to balance" : to give the body parts equal to one another.

   • «ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكَ فَسَوَّىٰكَ فَعَدَلَكَ» — "who created you, then proportioned you, then balanced you" (82:7)

Evidence from the text

No use speaks of weight or measure: the root sets up equals. Between parties, it is justice: toward wives (4:3, 4:129), in the writing of a debt (2:282), in speech (6:152), and even against the hatred of a people (5:8).

Between two things, it is the equivalent: the compensation that will not be taken on the Day when no Self will avail another (2:48, 2:123, 6:70), the abstention that stands for an offering (5:95). Between God and what is not He, it is the equal given to Him (6:1, 6:150); in 27:60, after the question "a deity alongside God?", the verb alone says those who set up equals. In the body, it is the balance of its parts (82:7).

Distinctions

• قسط — equity, said with the scale and the measure; عدل sets up equals without weighing