S31
Ecological balance and measure
55:7–9 joins the sky and the scale: God "raised" the heaven and "imposed the balance", then tells people "establish weight in justice and do not make deficient the balance".
وَٱلسَّمَآءَ رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ ٱلْمِيزَانَ٧ أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا۟ فِى ٱلْمِيزَانِ٨ وَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلْوَزْنَ بِٱلْقِسْطِ وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا۟ ٱلْمِيزَانَ٩
Transliteration: wal-samāa rafaʿahā wawaḍaʿa l-mīzāna · allā taṭghaw fī l-mīzāni · wa-aqīmū l-wazna bil-qis'ṭi walā tukh'sirū l-mīzāna
And the heaven He raised and imposed the balance That you not transgress within the balance. And establish weight in justice and do not make deficient the balance.
وَٱلْأَرْضَ مَدَدْنَٰهَا وَأَلْقَيْنَا فِيهَا رَوَٰسِىَ وَأَنۢبَتْنَا فِيهَا مِن كُلِّ شَىْءٍ مَّوْزُونٍ١٩
Transliteration: wal-arḍa madadnāhā wa-alqaynā fīhā rawāsiya wa-anbatnā fīhā min kulli shayin mawzūnin
And the earth - We have spread it and cast therein firmly set mountains and caused to grow therein [something] of every well-balanced thing.
Translation: Saheeh International
in Sura al-Raḥmān, Medinan in the Tanzil classification.
"And the earth - We have spread it and cast therein firmly set mountains and caused to grow therein [something] of every well-balanced thing" (15:19), Meccan.
Key words
Al-mīzān ("the balance"): a scale, and by extension justice. It appears three times in 55:7–9. Mawzūn (15:19, "well-balanced"): weighed, measured.
Setting
Al-Raḥmān lists God's gifts one after another, with a repeated refrain asking which of them its hearers would deny. 55:7–9 moves in three verses from the sky to the marketplace.
A related verse
"We have already sent Our messengers with clear evidences and sent down with them the Scripture and the balance that the people may maintain [their affairs] in justice" (57:25) — Ibn Kathir cites it to explain mīzān in 55:7.
See also: 54:49 , 25:2
Classical tafsir
Ibn Kathir on 55:7–9. The balance is "the justice", citing 57:25. On 55:8: "He created the heavens and earth in justice and truth so that everything is founded on, and observing, justice and truth." On 55:9: "do not cheat in the weights and measures, but rather observe justice and fairness".
Al-Jalālayn on 55:7. "He has raised the heaven and set up the balance He has established justice".
Tanwīr al-Miqbās on 55:7. "He explained fair measure through the scale".
Ibn Kathir on 15:19. "All kinds of things in due proportion": Ibn ʿAbbas said "this means with their predetermined proportions", and this "was also the opinion of Sa'id bin Jubayr, 'Ikrimah, Abu Malik, Mujahid, Al-Hakim bin 'Utaybah, Al-Hasan bin Muhammad, Abu Salih and Qatadah."
Al-Jalālayn on 15:19. "every kind of thing known and determined." Tanwīr: "of vegetation and fruits in measured and known quantities", or, as another reading, things measured by weight "such as gold, silver, ore, copper, etc."
Where they differ. On 55:7 they agree that the balance means justice (Ibn Kathir; al-Jalālayn), or fair measure (Tanwīr). On 15:19 they read mawzūn as a proportion set by God (Ibn ʿAbbas and the early commentators via Ibn Kathir), as what is "known and determined" (al-Jalālayn), or, in a second reading, as metals that are weighed (Tanwīr). None of them reads either verse as being about ecology.
How it works
These are modern facts about balance in nature. They connect to the verses only by reflection; the verses' own subject is justice.
- One predator, a whole coast. Established Comparing "western Aleutian Islands with and without sea otter populations", Estes and Palmisano found that "Sea otters control herbivorous invertebrate populations", and that "Removal of sea otters causes increased herbivory and ultimately results in the destruction of macrophyte associations" (large seaweeds such as kelp) (Science, 1974). Ecologists call such animals "keystone" species.
- Yellowstone, and why simple stories fail. Debated After wolves returned to Yellowstone in 1995, it was widely said they set off a "trophic cascade" (a chain of effects down the food web) that restored willows. A 2025 study by Ripple and colleagues reported a 1,500% rise in willow crown volume. In a formal reply, Daniel MacNulty (Utah State) and colleagues argued that this estimate "relies on circular reasoning", because "height was used both to compute and to predict volume", and that the data show a "more modest and spatially variable response". David Cooper (Colorado State): "there is no evidence that predator recovery caused a large or system-wide increase in willow growth". MacNulty: "Predator effects in Yellowstone are real but context-dependent". The release also notes Hobbs et al. (2024), whose roughly 20 years of field experiments found only weak cascade effects (ScienceDaily, 2026). The debate continues.
Points of awe
Reflection
Al-Raḥmān does something unusual in three short verses. It looks up at the raised sky and says God "imposed the balance". Then, without a pause, it looks down at a merchant's scale: "establish weight in justice and do not make deficient the balance."
Ibn Kathir explains the link: the heavens and earth were made "in justice and truth so that everything is founded on, and observing, justice and truth". The same order that holds the sky is asked of the hand that weighs flour. Cheating on a scale is not a small thing; it goes against the grain of creation.
The verses do not speak of ecosystems. But a modern reader can extend the thought, and label it as an extension: we also hold a scale over the living world. Remove the sea otter, and the kelp forest falls. Overfish, clear forests, warm the climate, and we "make deficient the balance" in another sense.
Yellowstone adds a needed warning. A beautiful story — wolves return, rivers heal — turned out to be more complicated than it was told. The Quranic command "establish weight in justice" applies here too: to weigh the evidence fairly, and not to tip the scale toward the story we like.
Questions readers ask next
Is the verse about ecology?
Classically it is about justice and fair measure (Ibn Kathir; al-Jalālayn). Applying it to the environment is a modern reflection, and this page labels it as one.
What does "do not make deficient the balance" mean in practice?
Ibn Kathir: "do not cheat in the weights and measures, but rather observe justice and fairness".
What does "well-balanced" in 15:19 mean?
"With their predetermined proportions", said Ibn ʿAbbas, followed by Mujahid, Qatada and others (via Ibn Kathir).
Did wolves really save Yellowstone?
Scientists disagree. One 2025 study reported a large willow recovery; a reply argued that its method was circular and that the effect is "modest and spatially variable" (MacNulty et al.).
Sources
- Saheeh International — 55:7–9, 15:19, 57:25.
- Ibn Kathir (abridged English), al-Jalālayn and Tanwīr al-Miqbās, on 55:7, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-7-sora-55.html, and on 15:19, https://surahquran.com/tafsir-english-aya-19-sora-15.html.
- Estes & Palmisano, "Sea otters: their role in structuring nearshore communities", Science 185(4156):1058–1060 (1974), abstract, USGS record, https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/1007670.
- Utah State University release via ScienceDaily, on MacNulty, Cooper, Procko & Clark-Wolf, comment on Ripple et al. (2025), Global Ecology and Conservation 63, e03899 (2025), https://sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260212025612.htm.
- Popular Science, "Has The Reintroduction Of Wolves Really Saved Yellowstone?"
- Colorado Springs Gazette on the CSU study questioning the wolf effect, 2024
- Estes & Palmisano, "Sea otters: their role in structuring nearshore communities," Science 1974
- Ibn Kathīr and al-Qurṭubī on 55:7–9 and 15:19