The Essence of Islam – Volume III — Page 26
26 The Holy Qur'ān says: Essence of Islam-III وَجَزُوا سَيِّئَةٍ سَيِّئَةً مِثْلُهَا فَمَن عَفَا وَأَصْلَحَ فَأَجْرُهُ عَلَى اللَّهِ 16 (Part Number 25) This means that: In principle, the evildoer deserves retri- bution proportionate to his crime, but he who forgives in order to reform, provided forgiveness does not result in further mischief, will have his reward with Allah. [Brāhīn-e-Ahmadiyyah, Rūķānī Khazā'in, vol. 1, pp. 409-434, subnote. 3] The second moral quality for doing good is 'Adl [equity], the third is Ihsan [benevolence] and the fourth is Itā'i dhil Qurbā [graciousness towards all as between kin- dred. ] In this context Allah the Glorious says: إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَابْتَاء ذِي الْقُرْبى وَيَنْغَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ وَ الْبَغْيِ 17 This means that: 'Almighty Allah enjoins you to return good for good, and should the occasion call for benevo- lence, to be benevolent, and if the occasion calls for spontaneous graciousness for all, quite like the next of kin, then to be gracious with natural compassion. How- ever, God forbids that you should exceed the proper lim- its in one direction or the other and should be benevolent contrary to reason and should fail to be benevolent when the occasion demands or that you should fail to be gra- cious when the occasion demands or should be over gra- cious beyond that is needed. This noble verse discusses all the three stages of doing good. The first stage is that we should do good in return for 16 Al-Shūrā, 42:41 [Publisher] 17 Al-Nahl, 16:91 [Publisher]