Social Justice in Islam

The concept of 'social justice' comes within the broader

concept, 'justice', and can hardly be understood detached from the

latter. It is accepted as an unchallengeable fact that a sense of justice

is one of the very important attributes for the healthy functioning of

both individuals as well as societies. Objects of justice occupy a very

broad range and there is a wide umbrella above them. We often, make

judgments on people and their deeds on the basis of our conception of

justice or injustice. Therefore, to get at least a basic idea of what

justice is, one has to look at the dichotomy, the binary oppositions of

'just' and 'unjust' or 'justice' and 'injustice.' In such situations it will

be fruitful to examine the contexts that we generally characterise as

'unjust'. Robbery, criminal acts against fellow beings, discrimination

in employment on the grounds of colour or sex, unequal distribution

of profits among the individuals of a collective group, or an

inequitable supply of food which ends up in the sumptuous eating by

one group and the starvation of another group may be instances of

injustice. Then, what can be taken as justice? Justice has a great deal to do with the concepts of 'fittingness', 'fairness', 'proportion', and

the like.