Who Will Judge Me?

Judgment has a negative connotation. Whenever we rebuke ourselves for acting in a judgmental fashion, that’s an admission that we negatively interpreted another’s actions or speech. If you found yourself being lenient toward someone, you would not call your behavior judgmental. We’ve all experienced the violation of being judged unfairly. Conversely, we can all think of a time when we harmed someone or ourselves by rushing to judgment.

How would we assess a good judge in a court of law? They are fair-minded, unemotional, swayed only by the facts. We do not presuppose that the primary characteristic of a judge ought to be mercy. Mercy in a judge, we presume, could lead to an unfair ruling that lets the perpetrator off too easy--a miscarriage of justice. Nor should a judge be harsh, looking out through lenses that see only guilt. Why does judgment have a solely negative connotation when a judge is expected to be fair, neither lenient nor harsh?

A judge measures you against an objective standard. That standard in and of itself may not be cruel, but it is rigid. Humans and rigidity don’t make good bedfellows. We learn our lessons the hard way. In Surah Al-Kahf, after detailing the many ways in which we argue over things about which we lack knowledge, Allah says: “We have surely set forth in this Qur’an every lesson for people, but humankind is the most argumentative of all.” (18:54) We always have something to say, right or wrong; our reasoning and emotional capacities lead us, straight or crooked; our pasts define us, limiting or expanding our views. Humans are complex creatures; therefore, we deem standards that can’t accommodate our complexity, unfair.

So what are we to make of a God who judges us? God introduces Himself to us in “The Opening” (Al-Fatiha) as merciful and the arbiter of justice. God tells us that He is merciful twice before telling us that He is the Lord of all creation, and He proceeds to tell us of His mercy a third time before informing us that He is the sole authority on the day fates are decided. Allah’s use of the phrase Rabb al-alamin (Lord of the worlds) communicates that He is a generous caretaker, intentionally involved and present in all affairs of His domain. Allah’s domain is everything and everyone that exists. He begins with the widest sphere: existence, then proceeds to a smaller sphere: yawm al-deen; and concludes with the smallest sphere of the three: the life of the believer. In the latter two spheres, which are contained in al-alamin, Allah is still Rabb. Importantly, Allah does not only highlight his role as judge on yawm al-deen, but as Al-Malik– the King, Owner, and Authority. His function on that day is not only as a judge but as the one who presides over all activity. On that day, nothing will escape Him.
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In the Name of Allah—the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.

All praise is for Allah—Lord of all worlds,

the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,

Master of the Day of Judgment.

You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help.

Guide us along the Straight Path,

the Path of those You have blessed—not those You are displeased with, or those who are astray. (Surah Al-Fatiha)

Allah’s rahma is not incidental to His station as Lord of all and King of that fated day; rather, it is essential. His rahma, as indicated by the two forms: Al-Rahman and Al-Raheem, is related to His majesty and represents an inherent quality of His that is His nature and wont to express. The association of rahma with possession, rule, knowledge, and judgment in Surah Al-Fatiha teaches us about Allah and what justice truly requires.

Evident as it is that judgment is not perfectly distributed by people to others in this world, we ought to be aware that neither is mercy. People misuse mercy; giving too much or too little and resulting in harm in both cases. Just like justice, mercy is hard to get exactly right. We often see kindness extended to the undeserving and shake our heads in disapproval. Alternatively, we see it withheld from the deserving and frown in disappointment. And kindness is only one manifestation of mercy. When someone is perfectly merciful or perfectly just in the face of a complex situation, it is a thing to marvel at. How did they consider all relevant factors and exceptional circumstances, accounting for a person's past and the history of a conflict, scrutinizing how the consequences of their judgment would reverberate in the future? Such an activity is a work of art. Our limited understanding of mercy and judgment leads us to conceptualize them as opposites. We associate mercy with leniency, complacency, and even moral weakness. We associate justice with rigidity, severity, and an aversion to magnanimity. Yet Allah, who is merciful and just is not fractured like those words are in our understanding. In a well-known Hadith Qudsi, Allah's mercy is not in opposition to justice, but rather to wrath.
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“When Allah completed the creation, He wrote in His book with Him upon the Throne: Verily, My mercy prevails over My wrath.”

Sahih al-Bukhārī

Mercy and wrath are distinct not only qualitatively but also in form. Wrath is a devastating wild conflagration whereas mercy can be targeted and directed. An allusion to this presents itself in a comprehensive Hadith related by Salman al-Farisi, (Allah be pleased with him) in which Allah states that he reserved the preponderance of his mercy for the Day of Judgment:

Salman al-Farisi (Allah be pleased with him) relates that the Messenger of Allah (Allah’s peace and blessings upon him) said: “The day Allah created the heavens and earth, He created one hundred mercies. Every portion of mercy fils all that is between the heavens and earth. He placed one portion of mercy on earth; by it, a mother loves her child, and animals and birds show mercy to one another. On the Day of Judgment, Allah will complete the ninety-nine mercies which He has kept with Himself for the Day of Judgment with this one mercy.”

Mercy rightly belongs to Allah. We engage in merciful acts in a way that is akin to metaphor. Yet, with the mercy loaned to us in this life, we dole out and receive such incredible displays. The mercy of a mother to her child is emblematic and this motif is replicated in other hadith. Why are mothers seen as more merciful than fathers in general? It can’t be by accident that the parent who typically spends more time with their child is heralded as the exemplar of mercy. Could it be because mothers often spend more time with their children and are privy to information the father hasn’t considered? When they appear too easy on a misbehaving child, is it because they are considering more factors than the present situation? Do they know that a misbehaving child didn’t get enough sleep, is grumpy from an illness, has been picked on by an older sibling, or passed over by a younger sibling? Often mothers account for an array of factors beyond what their child is presenting at the moment. But without justice, symbolized by the father, the children would be led astray. For there must be a verdict and good must be distinguished from bad. Mercy and justice are complementary. They are the two forces of a holistic system.