Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 25
— Part I 24 with any code of life to influence their behaviour, almost all they have is intuition. Hence all spheres of their lives are controlled by the laws of nature which they must follow. If for instance, beasts require a particular food for their sustenance, they will do whatever they can to obtain it. No code of conduct will impose any restriction on their mode of hunt. No one can tell them to get food in this way or that. Their act of killing an animal for their own survival is not considered as contrary to the principle of justice, neither will their action of sparing a life be counted as a display of justice. Among animal life, there is no responsibility or code of life as such. Hence the terms Qaww a m and Taqw i m are widely applicable even in such areas where according to human understanding, the issue of ‘Adl is irrelevant. This variation in the usage of the above mentioned terminology is to avoid confusion and to differentiate their spheres. It should be remembered that Taqw i m is an act of creating balance in all such situations where the animal involved is incapable of consciously realising the importance of balance and poise. Yet this is what he needs. Hence Taqw i m should be understood as an act of God expressed through various laws in nature largely responsible for confining the progress of life to the middle path. All through its journey towards man, life has been subjected to a course of Taqw i m by the decree of