MARGINALIA: When Justice is Replaced by Ayuda

MAKATI CITY (MindaNews / 9 December) – December 9 quietly passes every year as the International Day against Corruption. It is a date rooted in the universal approval when the United Nations Convention Against Corruption was signed on 31 October 2003. Quietly, maybe, because corruption doesn’t generally march into a room wearing a sandwich board. It slips into systems, documents, transactions, and even into our moral fatigue.

I first became personally conscious of this annual observance in 2017, when I was tasked to write the Philippine leg (Mindanao) of the UNDP project, “Corruption-Violent Extremism Nexus in Asia-Pacific Region.” That was an assignment that screwed me up in ways I didn’t even see coming. For to write about corruption is not just to name irregularities but to confront the anatomy of injustice.

And what is corruption, if not euphemism-stripped dishonesty wielded by an official under a pretext of  authority? A betrayal of trust. A wound inflicted by power on the powerless. Which is why corruption can never be examined without passing through the narrow gate of justice.

In the liberal philosophical tradition, particularly in John Rawls, justice is framed as fairness; that is, procedural equality, social contracts, and the balancing of basic liberties. Important, yes. Necessary, certainly.

The Qur’an, however, does not leave justice imprisoned within courts, constitutions, or consensus. In the Qur’an, justice (ʿadl and qisṭ) is not merely procedural or distributive; it is ontological. It belongs to the very structure of truth (ḥaqq) itself.

One of the Divine Names is Al-‘Adl (the All-Just). And God commands: “Indeed, Allah commands justice and excellence…” (Surah al-Naḥl 16:90)

Justice is not optional ethics, then. It is cosmic obedience. Interestingly, the Qur’an uses the lexical field of justice, through ʿadl and qisṭ, roughly fifty times.

Almost mirroring it in frequency is the root F-S-D (fasād) for “corruption” and its derivatives also appearing around fifty times. It is as if Revelation itself is telling us: wherever justice is spoken of, corruption is always lurking nearby. They rise and fall like a seesaw.

And yet, in our political theater, I often witness a strange substitution. I watch national and local politicians distributing ayuda, handing out relief goods, cash assistance, and photo-op benevolence in a country globally perceived to be deeply marred by corruption. And each time I see this spectacle, my thoughts turn to an age-old repartee from the Mawlid of the Ka‘bah, whose head never prostrated before an idol.

Asked what separated justice from charity, he responded: “Justice puts things in their proper place, while charity takes them out of their natural course. Justice is for the general public, while charity is a special relief for particular individuals. Thus, justice is nobler and superior to charity.” (Nahj al-Balāghah, Saying 437)

What a powerful clarification.

Justice builds the architecture of fairness. Charity merely repairs a few cracks. Justice sustains society. Charity temporarily soothes its wounds. Justice reforms systems. Charity rescues individuals who have been injured by those very systems.

In simple political language, systemic fairness is far superior to episodic generosity. You do not replace justice with relief goods. You do not replace accountability with handshakes. You do not replace clean governance with kind gestures.

And yet, we often try.

There is a voice, however, that always pierces through the noise of propaganda, speeches, and staged compassion. A voice that ascends without microphones, that needs no campaign logo, no press release, no budget allocation.

It is the voice the Last Messenger (ṣ) warned us about: “Beware of the supplication of the oppressed, for there is no barrier between it and Allah.” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, ḥadīth 2448; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, ḥadīth 19)

On this International Day against Corruption, perhaps the most terrifying audit is not conducted by any commission or court.

It is the ledger of unseen tears.

Because when justice is denied, prayer becomes an accusation.

And Heaven never ignores its whistleblowers.

#InternationalAntiCorruptionDay #AntiCorruptionPH #MoralGovernance #JusticeintheQuran

( MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Mansoor L. Limba, PhD in International Relations and Shari‘ah Counselor-at-Law (SCL), is a publisher-writer, university professor, vlogger, chess trainer, and translator (from Persian into English and Filipino) with tens of written and translation works to his credit on such subjects as international politics, history, political philosophy, intra-faith and interfaith relations, cultural heritage, Islamic finance, jurisprudence (fiqh), theology (‘ilm al-kalam), Qur’anic sciences and exegesis (tafsir), hadith, ethics, and mysticism. He can be reached at mlimba@diplomats.com and http://www.youtube.com/@WayfaringWithMansoor, and his books can be purchased at www.elzistyle.com and https://ift.tt/XWgZzJf.)