combines justice and grace. That said, we do not deny that Moses—peace be upon him—made justice obligatory and encouraged grace, and that the Messiah likewise required justice and recommended grace.

As for anyone who says that the Messiah made grace compulsory and forbade every wronged person to seek redress from the one who wronged him, or that Moses never urged beneficence, such assertions impugn the revealed laws of the messengers.

One may still observe that references to justice are more numerous in the Torah, while references to grace are more frequent in the Gospel, and that the Qur’an unites them in the highest degree of perfection.

The Qur’an explains that the blessed people of Paradise, the friends of Allah, fall into two categories: the righteous who follow a middle course, and the ones brought near who outstrip the rest. The first rank is achieved through justice—fulfilling obligatory duties and avoiding the forbidden—whereas the second is reached only through grace: performing both the obligatory and the recommended deeds, and abstaining from what is forbidden as well as what is disliked.

Thus the complete law combines justice and grace, as in His statement: “If someone is in hardship, then grant him respite until ease comes” (Qur’an 2:280). This is mandatory justice; whoever departs from it deserves punishment in this world and the next. He then says: “But if you remit it by way of charity, that is better for you, if only you knew” (Qur’an 2:280).