al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:181-184

Awfu'l-kayla wa lā takūnū mina'l-mukhsirīn · Wa zinū bi'l-qisṭāsi'l-mustaqīm · Wa lā tabkhasu'n-nāsa ashyāʾahum wa lā taʿthaw fi'l-arḍi mufsidīn · Wa'ttaqu'lladhī khalaqakum wa'l-jibillata'l-awwalīn

"Give full measure, and do not be of those who cause loss. · Weigh with the true balance. · And do not undervalue people's goods, and do not go about the earth spreading corruption. · And guard yourselves against Him who created you and the generations before."

This is the most concrete list of instructions given by a messenger in the sūra. And its field is a single one: trade.

And the order is worth recording: volume → weight → value → the general order. The list, that is, begins with two concrete instruments of measure and widens to price, and from there to the order of the earth.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the arrangement of the four verses: the shortfall made in measuring is placed, in the language of the verse, not as a fault of trade but as a matter that touches the order of the earth.

The root ك-ي-ل: to measure with a measure (a measure of volume). Kayl — the measure and the act of measuring.

The root خ-س-ر: to fall short, to suffer loss. Form IV (akhsara) is transitive: to cause a shortfall, to cause loss. Mukhsir — one who causes a shortfall.

And this field was treated in detail in al-Muṭaffifīn and I rely on that treatment. The notes there were, in summary, these:

• The root ط-ف-ف (taṭfīf): to trifle at the edge, at the extremity of a thing — the small shortfall made in measuring.
• The verb used at al-Muṭaffifīn 83/3 is also from the root خ-س-ر: wa idhā kālūhum aw wazanūhum yukhsirūn.
• And the distinction recorded there: bakhs is the shortfall made in price, taṭfīf the shortfall made in quantity.

Al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/181 and al-Muṭaffifīn 83/3, that is, use the same root. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text. And in al-Muṭaffifīn this verse (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/183) was already cited.

قِسْطَاس — most of the lexicographers derive the word from the root ق-س-ط (justice, equity); some record that it may have entered Arabic from another language. I make no firm choice.

Its meaning: the balance, the instrument of weighing. The word occurs in two places in the Qurʾān: al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/182 and al-Isrāʾ 17/35 (wa zinū bi'l-qisṭāsi'l-mustaqīm — exactly the same sentence).

This is a datum that can be verified from the text: the same sentence is repeated unchanged in two sūras.

ٱلْمُسْتَقِيم — root ق-و-م, the active participle of Form X: straight, without deviation. The same word occurs in the construction ṣirāṭa'l-mustaqīm (analysed in al-Fātiḥa).

And mīzān was treated at al-Ḥadīd 57/25 and I rely on that treatment. The notes there were, in summary, these:

• Three things are sent down together: the Book, the balance, and iron. The Book represents the principle, the balance the instrument of measure, iron the safeguard.
• The case of "the Book present, the balance absent": the principle is there, the measure is not — everyone's justice in his own head.

What is to be added here is a link, and I record it as my own reading: at al-Ḥadīd 57/25 the balance is something sent down; at al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/182 the balance is something used. One takes as its subject the source of the measure, the other its use. And al-Shuʿarāʾ asks for the use from a prophet's mouth in the most everyday field of all: the market.

The root was analysed in al-Muṭaffifīn and I rely on that treatment. The description there: ب-خ-س — to take a thing by lowering its value, to give short of what is due.

And the distinction recorded there deserves to be repeated here, because Shuʿayb's list contains both:

In three verses, then, Shuʿayb closes off three different kinds of cheating: volume, weight, value. This is an order that can be verified from the text.

The best-known use of the root in the Qurʾān is in the account of Joseph: wa sharawhu bi-thamanin bakhsin darāhima maʿdūda (Yūsuf 12/20) — "and they sold him for a paltry price, a few counted dirhams". This example was recorded in al-Muṭaffifīn and al-Jinn.

And a point of word order must be recorded: lā tabkhasu'n-nāsa ashyāʾahum. The verb takes two objects: people and their goods. In Arabic this construction announces together from whom and in what the shortfall is made.

And the word ashyāʾ must be recorded: "things". The most general word of all. The prohibition, that is, looks not only to merchandise but to everything a person has a right to.

The transmitted explanations support this breadth: it is said that the word may be understood not only of property but of right, labour and standing as well. I transmit this as a view; no limit is set in the verse.

The root ع-ث-و / ع-ي-ث: to spread extreme corruption, to turn a thing upside down. The lexicographers record that the word is used for the most violent kind of corruption.

And mufsidīn comes as a circumstantial: "as corrupters". The act itself is already corruption; the circumstantial reinforces it.

The same sentence is repeated several times in the Qurʾān (al-Baqara 2/60; al-Aʿrāf 7/74; Hūd 11/85) and at Hūd 11/85 it occurs from Shuʿayb's mouth in almost the same order as in this verse: wa yā qawmi awfu'l-mikyāla wa'l-mīzāna bi'l-qisṭi wa lā tabkhasu'n-nāsa ashyāʾahum wa lā taʿthaw fi'l-arḍi mufsidīn.

This is an overlap that can be verified from the text: the two sūras give the same triad in the same order.

And when the list is finished, a ground is set under the whole list: the creator.

جِبِلَّة — root ج-ب-ل: the sense the lexicographers give is creation, constitution; a community created in a certain state. From the same root: jabal (mountain) and jibilla (constitution, nature). The word here means "generations, communities".

In this pattern the word occurs only here in the Qurʾān; another derivative occurs at Yā Sīn 36/62: wa laqad aḍalla minkum jibillan kathīrā.

And a point of word order must be recorded: the ground is extended into the past. Khalaqakum wa'l-jibillata'l-awwalīn — "who created you and the generations before".

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the parallel sentence in the ʿĀd section: Hūd too had used the same structure — wa'ttaqu'lladhī amaddakum bimā taʿlamūn (132). Both messengers, after saying "guard yourselves against God", add a relative clause.

This is an overlap that can be verified from the text. And the difference is meaningful: ʿĀd is reminded of favour, al-Ayka of existence.

And a link can be made with the seventy-sixth verse: Abraham too, in answer to the proof from the forefathers, had said wa ābāʾukumu'l-aqdamūn. The sūra reaches back to "those who came before" in four places: 76 (al-aqdamūn), 137 (al-awwalīn), 184 (al-awwalīn), 196 (zuburi'l-awwalīn). This is a repetition that can be verified from the text.