Document Type : Research Article

Author

• Forough Parsa

Associate Professor , Departement of Quranic Studies, Institute for Humanities& Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
Justice is one of the concepts and values ​​that human religions and schools of thought have addressed for thousands of years. Justice, which literally means equality and the opposite of oppression, has various meanings in terminology and is somewhat ambiguous and multifaceted. Various words, including justice and fairness, and dozens of verses in the Holy Quran express the importance and necessity of justice in individual and social relationships. However, the concept of justice is not the same for all interpreters and readers of the Holy Quran in different eras. In fact, on the one hand, justice has different aspects, and on the other hand, the concept and mindset of commentators about justice has changed throughout history.
Research Background
Martyr Morteza Motahhari (d. 1979), a 14th-century Hijri scholar, proposed three balanced meanings for justice within the framework of Quranic teachings: balance (moderation), equality and non-discrimination, and ultimately, the observance of individuals' rights—that is, granting each rightful claimant their due. According to Motahhari, justice is interconnected with issues such as determinism and free will, intrinsic good and evil, and the purposes and ends of actions, and has been discussed from philosophical, theological, and even jurisprudential perspectives. On the other hand, justice is also tied to social matters, as it inherently carries the meaning of opposition to oppression (Motahhari, 2023: 21-56). The concept of justice carries distinct meanings across various disciplines.In Imami theology, justice is defined as granting rights according to one's capability and qualification (Shaykh al-Mufid, 1413 AH: p. 103).In moral philosophy  justice refers to virtuous disposition of the soul that enables a person to  oderate all attributes and actions , allowing the ational faculty to govern and prevail over other faculties (Naraqi, n.d.: vol. 1, p. 51; Naraqi, 1999: p. 78). Muslim philosophers  regard justice as a sychic force that balances the  appetitive ( shahwiyya ), irascible ( ghadabiyya ), and imaginative ( wahmiyya ) faculties, preventing excess and deficiency (Mulla Sadra, 1982: p. 264). In Islamic jurisprudence , most jurists contrast justice with  moral corruption ( fisq) , equating it with avoiding major and minor sins (Najafi, 2012: vol. 13, p. 144).In the social sciences , justice entails safeguarding public welfare and ensuring  all members of society enjoy political, economic, and social rights .  
 Research Method
This article, using a library method and a descriptive historical approach, and It has analyzed the viewpoints of interpreters related to justice across different historical periods
Result
The analysis reveals that the concept of justice among Quranic commentators has been distinctly defined in each historical period, subsequently evolving through later eras. Judicial justice - meaning the impartiality and fairness of judges in verdicts - represents the earliest conception of justice among Quranic exegetes.Following the emergence of theological schools in the Islamic world, creative justice (al-'adl al-takwīnī) developed as justice manifest in creation and cosmic phenomena. Subsequently, with the spread of humanist and socialist ideologies, new conceptions took shape in commentators' thought: social and economic justice. More recently, interpretive works have begun articulating gender justice as another dimension of this evolving paradigm.

Keywords

• The concept of justice in the Quran
• judicial justice
• Creative justice
• social justice
• gender justice

Main Subjects

• Quranic Studies