Discover the meaning of the term Al-ʿdal-a (عدالة) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 4 min readIn language: uprightness; in the Law: keeping straight on the path of truth by avoiding what is forbidden in religion.
In language: equity, the opposite of injustice. In the Law: keeping straight on the path of truth by choosing to avoid what is forbidden in religion. In my glosses on the Hidayat al-Hikma of al-Maybudi: man has an irascible power, whose excess is recklessness, whose mean is courage, and whose defect is cowardice; and a concupiscible power, whose excess is debauchery, whose mean is chastity, and whose defect is dullness; and an intellectual power, whose excess is cunning, whose mean is wisdom, and whose defect is stupidity. Each of these three powers has three sides: the first and third are blameworthy, and the middle side is praiseworthy; and every mean of the means is a side of justice, and the whole of the sides is the sides of justice; our Prophet (may God's prayer and peace be upon him) is the delimitator of all the sides of justice, that is, that which encircles and gathers them. The detail of this summary is what is in the books of ethics: justice is the mean between excess and defect, and it is three things: wisdom, chastity and courage, which are foundations of acquired moral virtues; and the detail of that is that all acquired virtues reduce to the mean.
In language: masdar of 'adala, with damma of the dal: opposite of injustice; al-Jawhari said: and a man 'adl: that is, satisfying and convinced in testimony; it is uprightness, the mean and equity; and ta'adul: equality. In the Law: keeping straight on the path of truth by avoiding what is forbidden in religion; it is of two kinds: the first, outward: what is established by the manifest evidence of reason and religion, for they lead to uprightness and turn from its contrary outwardly. The second, inward: what one cannot grasp the extent of, for it varies; hence only what leads to neither hardship nor toil nor loss of the bounds of the Law is considered; that is what experience has shown to be the predominance of religion and reason over the path of inclination and passion, by avoiding grave sins and not persisting in small ones. Ibn 'Arfa said, after noting the words of the usulists and jurists and their warning about it, because it is a condition of testimony and report: hence Ibn al-Hajib defined it in his two books: a presumptive quality barring its possessor from heresy, what custom deems shameful in him, and disobedience that is not few in small sins. Al-Manawi said: justice is uprightness on the path of truth by avoiding what is forbidden in religion; it is also said: a quality obliging its possessor to guard against what habitually and outwardly mars honor; thus a single slip of minor lapses and twisting of words does not outwardly mar honor, given the possibility of error, forgetfulness and interpretation, unlike when that is known of him and repeated, so that the outward becomes breach; and the custom of each person is considered and what is habitual in his dress, so in al-Mufradat. In Jami' al-Jawami' and its commentary: justice is a firm disposition in the soul barring the commission of every grave sin and every base small sin.
A disposition in the soul barring the commission of grave sins and tolerated vices.
A name that gathers all the virtues.
In language: uprightness.