Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part IV — Page 278
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part Four 278 eyes are closed to all of the capabilities that man has been granted to employ at their proper occasion. A person who, continuously makes use of just one capability on all occasions, and abandons all the other moral capabilities, seeks, as it were, to change the nature that God has granted; and due to his short-sightedness, he declares the act of the All-Wise God to be objectionable. Would it be commendable to for- give the offences of those who have always done us wrong, irrespective of the demands of time and occasion, and to never have such sympa- thy for the offender that, by remedying his mischief, we should reform him? Obviously, just as it is despised and unethical to punish or avenge every trifle, so is it also contrary to true goodwill to make it a principle to immediately forgive the crime of someone whenever he commits a criminal act. Whoever always allows an offender to go unpunished is as much an enemy of world order as he who is always bent on retribution and revenge. The ignorant like to forgive and forbear at all times. They do not realize that forgiveness at all times disrupts the world order. And such behaviour is detrimental to the culprit himself, for it causes the habit of evil-doing to become more firmly rooted and the tendency of mischief-making to become even more entrenched. Let a thief go unpunished and see what he will do the next time! In view of all this, God says in His Book, which is full of wisdom: 1 َو ْمُكَل يِف ِصاَصِقْلا ٌةوٰيَح يِلوُاّٰۤي ِباَبْلَاْلا Meaning that, O men of understanding, there is life for you in taking the life of the murderer and punishing the culprit in equal measure. And: 2 ْنَم َلَتَق اًۢسْفَن ِرْيَغِب ٍسْفَن ْوَا ٍداَسَف يِف ِضْرَاْلا اَمَّنَاَكَف َلَتَق َساَّنلا اًعْيِمَج Whoever killed a person unjustly, without a cause, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind. 1. S u rah al-Baqarah, 2:180 [Publisher] 2. S u rah al-M a ’idah, 5:33 [Publisher]