having someone translate for them what he said—that would not be injustice. How, then, could it be deemed unjust when the command comes from the Lord of all worlds, when even created beings are not thought unjust for doing the same? If one of the king’s subjects had a rightful claim over another, or if some of them wronged others, it would be incumbent upon the king to vindicate the oppressed, to send someone to the wrongdoer ordering him to act with justice and fairness, and to punish him should he refuse—so long as the wrongdoer is able to understand the king’s order by means of translation or otherwise. That is justice; justice is certainly not to leave people persisting in wrongdoing against the rights of Allah or the rights of His servants. Allah, exalted is He, sent His messengers and revealed His scriptures so that people might uphold justice, as He says: “We certainly sent Our messengers with clear proofs, and sent down with them the Scripture and the balance so that people may establish justice” [Al-Hadid 57:25]. Accordingly, no one to whom a messenger has been sent, while able to understand what that messenger brought—whether through translation or by some other means—may lawfully turn away from the divine law that Allah revealed, the very standard of justice with which He commissioned His messenger, merely because the messenger’s language is not his own, for he is capable of grasping the messenger’s intent by many avenues. In their worldly affairs people naturally resort to translation and similar devices to understand one another’s aims: they trade with an interpreter standing between them, conveying each party’s words; they correspond about building their lands and fulfilling their personal objectives through translators who render their messages. Yet matters of religion are far weightier than matters of the world. How, then, can they neglect to seek the means of understanding one another’s intent in religion? How can worldly concerns be deemed more important than religious concerns except by someone whose heart Allah has made heedless of remembering his Lord, who follows his own whims, and who turns away from