Surah Al-Mutaffifin, Those Who Give Short Measure

Surah 83 · 36 verses · revealed at Mecca

Al-Mutaffifin opens with a warning to those who take full measure when they buy from people and give less when they measure or weigh for them.

It is the only surah in the Qur'an to begin with a warning about a specific commercial practice, and the practice it names is a small one — not theft, not fraud on a grand scale, but the shaving of a little off each transaction. The surah asks whether such people do not think they will be raised up for a mighty day.

From there it widens. It describes a register in which the record of the wicked is kept, and another in which the record of the righteous is kept, and says that those brought near will witness it.

Its closing passage returns to the market. It describes those who used to laugh at the believers, winking at one another as they passed, going back to their families full of jokes, and saying when they saw them that these people have gone astray. Then it says that on that day the believers will look on and laugh, and asks whether the disbelievers have been paid back for what they used to do.

It is a short surah, and almost all of it is about how people treat one another when they think nobody important is watching.

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