So, O my people, weigh and measure with justness, and do not withhold things due to men, and do not spread corruption in the land, despoiling it.

So, O my people, weigh and measure with justness, and do not withhold things due to men, and do not spread corruption in the land, despoiling it.

The philosophy of sumud is rooted in Palestinians implacable belief in the righteousness of their cause and the justness of their methods. It operates both passively and actively in Palestinian culture, demanding stubbornness and tolerating ruthlessness, violence, and duplicity.

Though the West still occupies the moral high ground on many important issues such as the Islamic State and Russia s invasion of Ukraine the global system is far less clear cut today. Internal social challenges, which have called into question the justness of Western countries liberal model, have exacerbated politicians reticence.

The ultimate guarantee of harmony was the ruler s justness, which permitted him to enjoy the mandate of heaven the people had a right, indeed an obligation, to rebel against a tyrant. But while the ethical basis of Neo Confucianism was crucial, the Chinese also understood the need for a morally motivated bureaucracy, and thus perfected in the seventh century the world s first examination system for selecting bureaucrats, with the Confucian canon as the syllabus.