Images of Justice

This is the infallible Balance which the Hand of God is holding, in which all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth are weighed, and their fate determined, if ye be of them that believe and recognize this truth.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 86)

  

To see justice as a faculty of the human reality is not unique to the Bahá’i Revelation.  Justice was one of the four cardinal virtues recognized in the writings of western antiquity, the other three being, prudence, temperance and courage.  Justice was generally considered the most important of the four.  It meant fairness, the Greek word also having the meaning of righteousness.  Fairness implied a moderation of one’s passions and appetites, and the restraining of improper impulses, both needed for building that internal unity which is the balance of qualities and attributes.  Socially, justice also implied the fair distribution of wealth among people and all sorts of other things to keep the classes in balance.

Hence, the principle of equity, or fairness, is, and has always been, the core or axial value of justice.  “Tell, O Ali, the loved ones of God that equity is the most fundamental among human virtues.  The evaluation of all things must needs depend upon it.” (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 202)

Now we should not confuse equity with equality, which is the same measure, or proportion, for all:  a conception closer to the anatomy of law and which, by itself, can advance, even create or bring about, injustice.  Law may be the framework and backbone of justice, but the realization of law in justice is through the instrument of equity or fairness.  Full or complete equality is a chimera.  Equity as the operating principle of the foundational principle of the oneness of humankind creates what is called "a level playing field".  Equity would create social harmony by overcoming or reducing immoderate differences in fortune, imbalances of opportunity, and advantages of position.  Equity would reset economic imbalance through, for example, a fair graduated income tax, or reverse discrimination in educational opportunity through a well-conceived affirmative action program. It invites divine assistance and confirmation.  Recall Baha’u’llah’s statement earlier that were mankind to be adorned with justice, “they would behold the day-star of the utterance, ‘On that day God will satisfy everyone out of His abundance,’” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 66-67)

A traditional personification of justice is a woman, Lady Justice, holding scales to weigh the truth of all things in the balance, and a sword to symbolize authority whose judgments are swift and final. But the sword is also discernment, the separation of truth from falsehood. Such images go back as far as the Egyptians.  Later, Justice was often depicted as blind to show impartiality—i.e. that the rule of law was greater than any person, even kings and nobles.  Yet equity is a kind of open-eyed partiality in favor of the poor, the oppressed, those discriminated against, all victims of prejudice.  It is perceiving what is called structural inequity and having the leadership of society reduce that through law, policy, and institutional transformation.

This is no easy task.  Privilege is difficult to surrender.  Baha’u’llah writes in this context: “In this Day the Straight Path is made manifest, the Balance of divine justice is set and the light of the sun of His bounty is resplendent, yet the oppressive darkness of the people of tyranny hath, even as clouds, intervened and caused a grievous obstruction between the Day-Star of heavenly grace and the people of the world.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 255)

So important is this quality of social balance in this day of the unification of humankind that it can no longer be left to human authorities to exercise through their faulty standards.  Only the universal, divine standard and framework, which alone can claim to be truly impartial, will work.  Baha'u'llah writes of His Revelation: “This is the infallible Balance which the Hand of God is holding, in which all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth are weighed, and their fate determined, if ye be of them that believe and recognize this truth. Say: Through it the poor have been enriched, the learned enlightened, and the seekers enabled to ascend unto the presence of God.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 136-137)

Thus it is the revealed Word which sets the difference between truth and falsehood of both sayings and souls, which measures and weighs the truth of all things.  This is the divine balance and He, the divine Assayer.  In another place He wrote that the Qur'án was for Its time “the unerring Balance that distinguisheth truth from falsehood.” (Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts: 115)

A related motif of equity and balance is the principle of moderation, which we discussed both as a quality of the new discourse in posts on the kerygmatic and as one of the older meanings of justice.  As a discerning of proper thought and balanced behavior it harkens back to the Middle Way of Buddhism.

Moderation is much more than the passive sentiment of nothing too much. While it includes, of course, the avoidance of extremes, it is not an aversion to exuberance and life. It is the result of a dynamic interplay of forces operating in harmony and unity.  Its achievement, whether individually or collectively, is usually accomplished through a considerable effort in self-restraint.  So essential is moderation to a discerning justice, that Bahá’u’lláh exclaimed: “Whoso cleaveth to justice, can, under no circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation. He discerneth the truth in all things, through the guidance of Him Who is the All-Seeing. The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men. Thus warneth you He Who is the All-Knowing. If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation…. All other things are subject to this same principle of moderation.” (Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah: 342-343)

He admonishes the leaders of society: “It is incumbent upon them who are in authority to exercise moderation in all things. Whatsoever passeth beyond the limits of moderation will cease to exert a beneficial influence. Consider for instance such things as liberty, civilization and the like. However much men of understanding may favourably regard them, they will, if carried to excess, exercise a pernicious influence upon men.” (Tablets of Baha’u’llah: 169)

Again, it is not left to human authority to decide if and when things are being taken to excess, nor are the poor and weak left to fend for themselves against tyranny.  In one of the most sternly worded and commanding statements of the Hidden Words the Manifestation of God, the divine Judge, warns “the oppressors of the earth” to: “Withdraw your hands from tyranny, for I have pledged Myself not to forgive any man's injustice. This is My covenant which I have irrevocably decreed in the preserved tablet and sealed with My seal.” (Baha'u'llah, The Persian Hidden Words 64)

He also warned the “Rich Ones on Earth: The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease.” (The Persian Hidden Words #54)

“Know ye that the poor are the trust of God in your midst”, He stated in one of His Tablets. “Watch that ye betray not His trust, that ye deal not unjustly with them and that ye walk not in the ways of the treacherous. Ye will most certainly be called upon to answer for His trust on the day when the Balance of Justice shall be set, the day when unto every one shall be rendered his due, when the doings of all men, be they rich or poor, shall be weighed.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 251)

But He also promised: “O well-beloved ones! The tabernacle of unity hath been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers. Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. We cherish the hope that the light of justice may shine upon the world and sanctify it from tyranny. If the rulers and kings of the earth, the symbols of the power of God, exalted be His glory, arise and resolve to dedicate themselves to whatever will promote the highest interests of the whole of humanity, the reign of justice will assuredly be established amongst the children of men, and the effulgence of its light will envelop the whole earth. (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 163-164)

A world civilization cannot be built until institutions of justice are erected.  Justice is the most important social principle.  The opening and training of the judgement centers in the mind of the individual occurs during maturity: the maturing of this faculty, in a sense, marking entry into that final state of human development. The same is true for the maturing of collective humanity.  In both cases, the transition is marked by great upheavals and universal readjustments.