Political Loyalty, Justice, and Trust

The Qur’ān emphasizes many virtues, including the ethics of covenant, justice, community trust, and institutional loyalty. In the Qur’ān, individuals and groups are obliged to uphold moral commitments, honour agreements, and foster justice and trust. On the other hand, Qur’ānic ethics provide an opportunity for repentance and behaviour modification for individuals who have violated the trust of others. Because Qur’ānic political ethics view moral responsibility for righteousness and self-redemption as remedies to betrayal rather than imposing punishment as the only option, it is conceivable to argue that Qur’ānic political ethics can be corrective, providing avenues for change for the treacherous. This article examines the sixteen instances of the root kh-w-n (to betray), in the Qur’ān and provides a contextualized, theme-based ethical analysis of each verse. It seeks to define the Qur’ānic corpus on betrayal (kh-w-n) and classify the latter into political betrayal, betrayal of justice, and betrayal of trust. It is concluded that this corpus describes betrayal as a consequence of a lack of moral responsibility.