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Doing justice versus favouring your own relatives and friends

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 25 July 2025

“O you who believe, be maintainers of justice, bearers of witness for Allah, even if it is against your own selves or (your) parents or near relatives — whether he is rich or poor, Allah has a better right over them both. So do not follow (your) low desires, that you deviate. And if you distort (the truth) or turn away (from it), surely Allah is ever Aware of what you do.” — ch. 4, Al-Nisā’, v. 135

یٰۤاَیُّہَا الَّذِیۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا کُوۡنُوۡا قَوّٰمِیۡنَ بِالۡقِسۡطِ شُہَدَآءَ لِلّٰہِ وَ لَوۡ عَلٰۤی اَنۡفُسِکُمۡ اَوِ الۡوَالِدَیۡنِ وَ الۡاَقۡرَبِیۡنَ ۚ اِنۡ یَّکُنۡ غَنِیًّا اَوۡ فَقِیۡرًا فَاللّٰہُ اَوۡلٰی بِہِمَا ۟ فَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا الۡہَوٰۤی اَنۡ تَعۡدِلُوۡا ۚ وَ اِنۡ تَلۡوٗۤا اَوۡ تُعۡرِضُوۡا فَاِنَّ اللّٰہَ کَانَ بِمَا تَعۡمَلُوۡنَ خَبِیۡرًا ﴿۱۳۵﴾

I have chosen this verse because of a book published in 2020 under the title The Weirdest People in the World, by Joseph Henrich, Professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, USA. By “Weird” he does not mean strange. He has used it as an abbreviation for: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic. The book contains an analysis of why Western countries have gone so far ahead of the rest of the world in all these aspects: education, being industrialised, economic prosperity, and having democratic institutions. The advancement of the West in all these fields in the last two to three hundred years has given the Western cultural global dominance. I have read reviews of this book which appeared in The Times and The Guardian newspapers when this book was published in 2020 to get an idea of the author’s opinions and conclusions.

It appears that this book argues that the reason for the West getting vastly ahead of non-Western cultures in these fields relates to their different concepts of what is moral behaviour and justice. According to the author, in non-Western cultures a person gives complete and absolute loyalty to his family, to his tribe and to those close to him in physical relationship. To him, ‘good’ is anything which is in the interests of his family or community, and those interests are paramount to him. He doesn’t consider himself as a separate, accountable individual in his own right but merely as a part of his family or tribe. He is not motived to act on any principle like truth or justice, but just adheres to blind allegiance to family or community. But Western civilization, says the author, gave up such a concept of blind loyalty to family ties, the concept which leads to feuds between entire families and the seeking of revenge by one tribe over another. Instead of this, the West, he says, “became more reliant on general moral rules and principles”. This is why, according to the author, Western civilization made great progress in the economic, scientific and technological fields, so much more than other cultures, and became dominant in the whole world.

To illustrate the difference in attitude and values, the author gives this example. If you are driving a car with your friend and you hit a pedestrian and the fault is entirely yours, what should your friend do? Should the friend testify against you in court because you broke the law or should he lie for you in court because of his friendship with you? The author answers that, according to Western civilization, the friend should testify truthfully against you in court. But in non-Western cultures morality means that you give total and unconditional support to your relative or friend. So your friend will stand by you and give false evidence in your favour.

Further according to the author, the Western preference for following a principle, instead of unjustly favouring your friend or family, is due to the influence of Christianity. Whether the author is right or not about Christian influence, we won’t argue that point here. However, we would point out that Christian influence did not prevent Western countries from supporting each other, because they belonged to the same race, in unjustly taking away the rights of non-Western people over whom they ruled in various parts of the world.

While we do not know the author’s opinions on Islam, we can assume that he is including Islam also in the category of the non-Western cultures, about which he says that they place family ties above justice. But this is not at all true about Islam. Regrettably, the behaviour and practices of Muslims can lead others to believe that Islam also places family ties above truth and justice.

So here we have two opposite concepts, which both have their own attractions. The noble idea of adhering to the principles of truth and justice appeals to the human mind and uplifts it. On the other hand, the thought of showing loyalty to those who have ties of relationship with you is a natural human instinct that you want to act upon. The Quran has mentioned both of these concepts in a few short words. These occur at the opening of the verse which is recited at the end of the second part of the Friday khutba:

“innallāha ya’muru bil-‛adli wal iḥsāni wa ’ītā’i dhil-qurbā,

meaning:

“Surely Allah commands (the doing of) justice and the doing of good (to others) and the giving to the near of kin…” (16:90).

The doing of justice, or ‘adl, comes first. If someone has done something for you, then justice requires that you do something of equal value for them in return. This might be under a contract, for example, that someone has done a job for you or sold you something for a payment. It is justice that you make the payment, and it is also the law of every country. But someone might have done something for you without any legal obligation on you to do something for them in return; for example, a neighbour looks after your house in your absence. It is justice that you do something for them in return, even though there is no legal obligation on you to do so.

After justice comes iḥsān, or doing of good. This is when you are doing something for someone but not in return. They haven’t done anything for you, but you take the initiative in doing something for them. Even in doing such good, justice must be observed. If you do a favour to someone but it involves doing injustice to a third party, then that does not constitute doing good. For example, you hold a position where you have to apply the law to people and you have the discretion to be lenient or to be harsh towards them depending on the circumstances. If you are lenient to your relatives and friends, but harsh on others, then your leniency towards your relatives and friends is not an act of doing good because you are not applying it with justice.

The third point mentioned in this verse is giving to the near of kin. It is a natural inclination to support people who are related to you. But justice comes in here as well. A man came to the Holy Prophet Muhammad along with his young son and he wanted him to witness that he was giving a gift to his son. The Holy Prophet asked him if he had given a similar gift to all his sons. The man said, No. The Holy Prophet replied:

Then don’t make me a witness because I cannot be a witness to an injustice (Bukhari, hadith 2650, and Muslim, hadith 1623).

What the man was doing was not illegal or against Islam. He had the right to give a gift to anyone he wanted. But he was not doing justice. So doing justice is the primary consideration, whether you are deciding only between your relatives or between your relatives and other people.

Because doing good and favours to those who are nearest to us is a natural human instinct and desire, the Quran has dealt with this question in a number of ways. In the first verse of chapter 4, which is recited at the nikah (marriage) ceremony, it is stated:

“O people, keep your duty to your Lord, Who created you from a single being and created its mate of the same (kind), and spread from these two many men and women. And keep your duty to Allah, by Whom you demand one of another (your rights), and (to) the ties of relationship. Surely Allah is ever a Watcher over you.” (4:1)

This verse extends family relationships to cover the whole of humanity, because it says that the origin of all mankind goes back to a single being or essence. So, returning to the example of a friend who lies for you in court after you have hit a pedestrian, it means that infringing that pedestrian’s rights is to infringe the rights of a family member of yours. Then this verse tells us to keep our duty to Allah and our duty to the ties of relationship. Our duty to the ties of relationship cannot go against our duty to Allah. We are not duty-bound to tell lies for our relatives or friends, because by telling a lie and giving false evidence we are contravening our duty to God. And, as I have already said, we are also contravening our duty to those other human beings who are harmed when we falsely favour our friends and relations.

Another verse in the Quran is very well-known. It says:

“O mankind, surely We have created you from a male and a female, and made you tribes and families that you may know each other. Surely the noblest of you with Allah is the most dutiful of you.” (49:13)

From this we learn that, in the sight of God, another family or community may be better than our own family or community. So if we are trying to falsely benefit our relatives at the expense of others, we may be doing harm to people who are better human beings than us in the sight of God.

According to the book that I mentioned, Western civilization became supreme because the “people in these societies became more mobile and thus freer to exchange ideas more widely”, that is to say, they were able to mix with other people beyond the circle of their own families and communities. This verse of the Quran is also presenting a similar notion. It says that Allah made you, O mankind, into “tribes and families that you may know each other”. This “knowing” is to meet each other, exchange information and ideas, and learn from others. Those nations who acted on this succeeded in the world and those who didn’t failed and remained behind.

I turn again to the verse I recited at the beginning. It commands us not merely to do justice as an individual act, but also to keep a system of justice going and in existence — we should be maintainers of justice. It further commands us to be “bearers of witness for Allah”, not bearers of false witness to save the skin of a relative or friend. Then this verse speaks in the clearest possible and most unmistakable way that you should give true testimony regardless of whether that testimony goes against your own self, your parents or any of your other relatives.

Regrettably, most people of the world, including most Muslims themselves, simply do not know that the Quran contains such clear and emphatic teachings about justice, requiring a Muslim to bear true witness even against himself or his close relations. May Allah enable us to know and to adhere to the real teachings of Islam, Ameen.

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