The Quranic Mizan
“Wa al-sama’a rafa’aha wa wada’a al-mizan.” “And the heaven He raised and set the balance.” (55:7)
In Surah al-Rahman, the raising of heaven and the setting of the balance are paired: creation has an architecture, and that architecture is equity (qist). The three verses that follow (55:8-9) repeat the word mizan three times — establishing weight, justice, and measure as co-constitutive of the cosmos.
The eschatological use: “And the weighing [of deeds] on that Day is truth — so those whose scales are heavy, those are the successful. And those whose scales are light — those have lost themselves.” (7:8-9)
Ibn Arabi’s Mizan: The Ontological Balance
In Ibn Arabi’s metaphysics (particularly the Fusus al-Hikam and al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya), the mizan becomes a fundamental ontological principle: every level of being has its own balance, its own proportion of divine names. A thing is what it is because of the specific measure (qadr) of divine qualities constituting it.
The mizan becomes the explanation of why creation is diverse: each creature has its own proportioned measure of the names of Allah — not randomly assigned, but according to a balance that is itself justice. The divine name al-‘Adl (the Just) is thus not merely a moral attribute but an ontological one: justice is the structure of existence.
Ismaili Ta’wil: The Balance as Hierarchy
In Ismaili cosmology, the mizan connects to the idea of hadd (boundary/limit): each rank in the cosmic hierarchy holds a precisely calibrated position. The ‘Aql al-Awwal (First Intellect), the Nafs al-Kulliyya (Universal Soul), and the lower levels of being are each in precise proportion to one another.
Hamiduddin al-Kirmani’s Rahat al-‘Aql and al-Mu’ayyad fi’l-Din’s Majalis both treat the mizan as the divine wisdom by which each hadd is in right proportion to the levels above and below it. The da’i who comprehends this balance comprehends the structure of the da’wa itself.
The Practical Mizan: Interior Balance
Sufis extend the mizan inward: the disciplined soul holds its own faculties in balance — the intellect (‘aql) moderating the ego (nafs), the heart calibrated between contraction (qabd) and expansion (bast), hope and fear in proportion. Al-Ghazali in the Ihya treats the purification of the soul as precisely a work of establishing interior mizan.
See also: Tawhid Sifat, Tazkiyah, Seerah Ibn Arabi, Sufi Stations Maqamat, Al Rahman Surah, Hikmat Al Ishraq, Fiqh Al Jihad