“But when they measure or weigh for others, they give them less” (Qurʾān 83:3).
How trivial is cheating in money compared with cheating in minds and religions! Most of those who do so do not even intend to defraud; they are like someone who has inherited a set of scales from his father, using them sometimes in his own favor and sometimes against himself, yet never knowing whether those scales are just or crooked.

The Balance that God sent down together with the Book—“Allah is the One who sent down the Book with truth and the Balance” (Qurʾān 42:17), and: “We certainly sent Our messengers with clear proofs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance” (Qurʾān 57:25)—is a just Balance. It requires that a thing be judged in light of what resembles it and what opposes it, so that equals are treated equally and differences are distinguished, in accordance with the knowledge of likeness and difference that God has placed within the innate nature and intellects of His servants.

If it is asked, “Since this can be known by reason, why did God make it part of what the messengers were sent with?” the answer is that the messengers set forth rational examples by which people recognize likeness and difference. They guided mankind to the means by which justice is known and to the sound rational analogies that provide evidence for religious truths. Thus, prophetic knowledge is not confined to mere report, as some theologians imagine when they treat what is known by reason as something separate from the sciences of revelation. Rather, the messengers—peace be upon them—clarified the rational truths by which people’s religion is perfected both in knowledge and in practice. They struck examples that completed the innate disposition, reminding and guiding it in matters it had neglected, or cleansing it when it had been corrupted by false opinions and misguided desires. They removed that corruption and elucidated what the fitrah had been heedless of until the innate disposition came to recognize the Balance that God sent down and His messengers explained.

The Qurʾān and the Sunnah are filled with this: God makes realities clear through rational measures and coined parables; He shows the ways of treating what is alike equally and differentiating what is different, and He censures those who deviate from that method, as in His words, “Or did those who commit evil deeds imagine that We would make them like those who believe and perform righteous deeds—equal in their living and their dying? How evil is their judgment!” (Qurʾān 45:21), and His words, “Shall We treat those who submit as We treat the criminals? What is the matter with you? How do you judge?” (Qurʾān 68:35–36)—that is to say, this