Adalah ( ar, عدالة) means ''justice'' and denotes the Justice of God. It is among the five
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mos ...
Principles of the Religion.
Shia Muslims believe that there is intrinsic good or evil in things, and that
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
commands them to do the good things and shun the evil. They believe that God acts according to a purpose or design, and human reason cannot comprehend this design or purpose in its entirety (though man must always strive to understand as much as he can).
The
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a dis ...
School of thought conversely subscribes to the view that nothing is good or evil per se, and that what God commanded people to do became good by virtue of his command, and what he forbade became evil.
Concept
Morteza Motahhari
Morteza Motahhari ( fa, مرتضی مطهری, also Romanized as "Mortezā Motahharī"; 31 January 1919 – 1 May 1979) was an Iranian Twelver Shia scholar, philosopher, lecturer. Motahhari is considered to have an important influence on ...
conceived the following meaning for justice:
#Proportionality: consider a system with some components. For the protection of system's survival, resources should be divided proportionally between the members based on need.
#Equality: Justice means equality and denying all forms of discrimination.
#Justifying the rights of owner: In this view, justice is the division of resources in proportion to their potential.
Quran
In Quran ''Adl'' and ''Qist'' are two words used to describe justice. Adl means ''a balanced approach to all things, including life''. So if a person is Adil, he is balanced morally, behaviorally, and spiritually. Also, Qist is defined as the approach regulating the human-human or human-God relations.
Principle of Shia Theology
Adalah is one of the principles of the
Theology of Twelvers
The theology of Twelver Shi'ism contains the five principles of Shia Islam known as ''Uṣūl ad-Dīn'' ( ar, أصول الدين عند الشيعة). Usul al-dín is an Arabic Islamic term which literally translates as 'principles of the fait ...
. Allah is described by many attributes, but just Adalah is chosen as the overarching principle of Shia Twelvers' theology for the following reasons:
1. Adalah is important because other attributes of God get their meaning from it. In other word Adalah has a wide meaning as putting everything in their right places, so being The Most Merciful or The Sustainer get their meaning from Adalah.
2.
Eschatology and
Prophecy and
Imamah
{{expand Arabic, date=April 2021
The term imamate or ''imamah'' ( ar, إمامة, ''imāmah'') means "leadership" and refers to the office of an ''imam'' or a state ruled by an ''imam''.
Theology
*Imamate, in Sunni doctrine the caliphate
:* Naqshb ...
as principles of the Shia Theology are closely related to Adalah.
3. At the beginning of Islam there was a conflict regarding the meaning of justice. Therefore, the Shi'a put it in the principles of religion to emphasize justice.
4. Adalah in human society is an important element of
Social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals ...
. Shia Muslim by selecting it as the principal try to achieve justice in their society.
See also
*
Ancillaries of the Faith
In Twelver Shia Islam, the ten Ancillaries of the Faith ( ar, فروع الدين ''furūʿ ad-dīn'', also Ten Obligatory Acts of Shi’a Islam) are the ten practices that Shia Muslims have to carry out.
According to Twelver doctrine, what is ...
*
Justice in the Quran
References
{{Reflist
Shia theology