For 130 years, the kilogram was a lump of metal. A small cylinder of platinum and iridium, kept under three glass bell jars in a vault near Paris, was by definition exactly one kilogram. Every bathroom scale in the world was, in the end, judged against it. Then scientists noticed that it seemed to be drifting, by about the weight of a grain of sand, compared with its copies.
al-Ḥakam is the Judge: the One whose decision is fair, final and never needs correcting. This episode looks at how we judge, from courtrooms to monkeys to the measuring standards of the world, and asks what a judgement with no drift would be.
Start with what we know
Then take away everything it needs. What is left is not a bigger version of us. It is the Name.
Episode 1
In us
In 2011 a study of more than a thousand parole decisions in Israel reported something unsettling. Judges granted parole about 65 per cent of the time at the start of a session, but the rate fell towards zero just before a meal break, then jumped back after it (Danziger and others, PNAS, 2011). Later researchers argued that much of the pattern came from the order in which cases were heard, with prisoners who had no lawyer often going last. Either way, the lesson stands: human judgement is shaped by tiredness, timing and what we cannot see. Even the best judges need appeal courts.
Episode 2
In nature
In 2003, two primatologists trained capuchin monkeys to swap a small stone for food. When both got cucumber, all was well. But when one monkey saw its partner receive a grape, which capuchins much prefer, for the same task, it often refused its cucumber or threw it back (Brosnan and de Waal, Nature, 2003). A sense of fairness runs deep in nature. But notice its limit: the monkeys protested when they were the ones short-changed, and rarely when the partner was. Nature's fairness is mostly about my share.
Episode 3
At our best
On 20 May 2019 the world stopped judging the kilogram by a lump of metal. It is now defined by a constant of nature, the Planck constant, fixed at exactly 6.626 070 15 × 10⁻³⁴ joule-seconds, so that any well-equipped laboratory anywhere can check it without travelling to Paris (BIPM). It is one of humanity's most impartial judges: the same for everyone, for ever. Yet a standard judges only quantities. It can tell you that a sack of flour is short; it cannot tell you whether the shopkeeper meant it, or whether the customer was poor.
Episode 4
The Break
Take away tiredness, the order of the queue, the self-interest of the monkey, the limit of a standard that weighs only things. Every judge we know judges from outside, partly, and can be wrong. al-Ḥakam judges from within, knowing intentions as well as acts, and His decision needs no appeal. “Is not God the most just of judges?” (Qur'an 95:8, our rendering).
From the tradition: Classical: al-Ḥakam's judgement is final and none can overturn it. Genesis 18:25 Abraham (peace be upon him): 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?'
On screen
In the film, twelve people almost get it wrong. al-Ḥakam does not need a jury room.
Weak link: the same physical constants measured in distant quasars
In nature
No strong library link
In people
The jury system; Abraham (peace be upon him) arguing for Sodom (Genesis 18)
In science
Metrology: the 2019 SI redefinition
Living it
Judge fairly, even against yourself
Its kind
Act: something done: mercy shown, provision given, a prayer answered.
In the Qur'an: 6:114 (ḥakam); 95:8 (aḥkam al-ḥākimīn) (verbatim indefinite)
I am only human
In Medina, people brought their disputes to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to judge: quarrels over land, debts, inheritance. One day two men came arguing over some property, with no witnesses on either side.
Before he ruled, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said something remarkable about his own judging. “I am only a human being. You bring your disputes to me, and perhaps one of you is more eloquent in arguing his case than the other, so I judge according to what I hear. So if I rule in someone's favour and give him something that is really his brother's right, let him not take it. I would only be cutting off for him a piece of the Fire” (Bukhari 7169).
In some reports, both men burst into tears, and each said to the other: “My right is yours.” The Prophet told them to divide it fairly, draw lots, and each forgive the other.
The man Muslims believe to be God's messenger was saying openly that a human judge, even he, rules on what he can see and hear. The final judgement, on what is really in each heart, belongs to al-Ḥakam alone. Muslim jurists took this hadith as the foundation of their own humility: a court's verdict does not make a wrong thing right in God's eyes.
What each faith says
Judaism
“That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked; that be far from Thee; shall not the Judge of all the earth do justly?”
When God tells Abraham (peace be upon him) that Sodom will be destroyed, Abraham (peace be upon him) does something astonishing: he argues. What if there are fifty righteous people there? Forty-five? Ten? His question has echoed through Jewish thought ever since.
Jewish law treats judging as holy work. Judges are commanded to be impartial to rich and poor alike, and the Torah repeats the word for justice twice: “Justice, justice shalt thou follow” (Deuteronomy 16:20).
Christianity
“From now on, there is stored up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day”
Christians believe God is the righteous Judge, and that judgement has been given to Christ. Paul, near the end of his life, wrote that he trusted “the Lord, the righteous judge”.
Jesus (peace be upon him) also warned his followers against judging others: “Don't judge, so that you won't be judged” (Matthew 7:1). For Christians, God's judgement is a reason for humility, not for condemning neighbours.
Islam
“Those who believe, and the Jews, the Sabians, the Christians, the Magians and those who associate others with God: God will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection. God is witness over all things.”
al-Ḥakam is found in Qur'anic phrases like “Shall I seek a judge other than God?” (6:114) and “the best of judges” (7:87; 95:8). Its root ḥ-k-m also gives ḥikmah, wisdom: a judgement and the wisdom behind it.
The Qur'an names Jews, Christians, Sabians, Magians and others and says: “God will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection” (22:17). Scholars point out that this is about God's judgement, not ours: it leaves the final word on each person's faith to Him.
Same and different
All three faiths call God the Judge of all the earth, and all three tell people to judge fairly and to be slow to judge each other. Judaism has Abraham (peace be upon him) arguing with God for justice; Christianity believes judgement is given to Christ; Islam names God al-Ḥakam and leaves the final word on every faith to Him (22:17). They disagree about how people will be judged and by what standard. They agree that no human court has the last word.
A moment to reflect
Have you ever been judged unfairly because of something the judge could not see?
When did you last judge someone too quickly?
Does it comfort or unsettle you that the final judgement is not ours?
Watch
Watch on YouTube ↗ · plays here on the live site; YouTube without tracking until you press play
Frans de Waal's capuchin cucumber-and-grape experiment: the ‘In nature’ rung.
Watch on YouTube ↗ · plays here on the live site; YouTube without tracking until you press play
The National Physical Laboratory on redefining the kilogram: the ‘At our best’ rung.
Watch on YouTube ↗ · plays here on the live site; YouTube without tracking until you press play
Veritasium on how the kilogram was redefined.
Do it together
schools / familiesCucumber and grape
Talk through the capuchin experiment, then try a gentle version: give two volunteers different rewards for the same task and ask the group how it felt to watch. Read Genesis 18:25 and Qur'an 95:8 and ask what perfect fairness would look like.
schools / community groupsVisit a court
Most magistrates' and crown courts in England and Wales have public galleries. Sit in for an hour (check the court's rules first), then talk about what a human judge can and cannot know.
Episode 1
