Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 12
11 1 The Three Creative Principles Defined Three Stages of Human Relations 1. ‘Adl (absolute justice). 2. I h s a n (to grant someone more than his or her due). 3. I t a ’i Dhil-Qurb a (to treat others with such grace and overwhelming benevolence as one would treat one’s kindred). The Quranic verse which I have chosen for today’s address is extremely vast and comprehensive: … Indeed Allah requires you to abide by justice, to treat with grace and to give like the giving of kin to kin. … (S u rah al-Na h l; Ch. 16: V. 91) Allah does not command us to exercise justice (‘Adl) alone, but also desires us to voluntarily add benevolence (I h s a n) to the act of justice and then to move further to the third stage of human relationships, which is I t a ’i Dhil-Qurb a —a spontaneous expression of love and care as experienced by a mother for her child. When a mother loves her child, she does so without any element of design and without any trace