A Letter to a Dear One — Page 33
Muhammad Zafrulla Khan 33 comprehending the definition of ‘justice’ as a definite and complete punishment for crime. Justice is when a crime is not punished outside of its limits and good deeds are not rewarded less than what their merit is. To pardon a crime or to introduce remission in its punishment is not contrary to justice. It is also not against justice to reward good works in a proportionally enhanced way. Many Christians live their lives by this principle and do not consider it contrary to justice and fairness. In fact if they did not practice this rule, they would definitely consider that true justice did not prevail. Their daily prayer reads, “Our father in heaven, forgive our sins, like we forgive the sins of those who commit them against us. ” In this respect Islam teaches, I FZ çG¾G“ H xH®M‰GÆG• G ÑG¾M G } G y £G¹G“ M ãG¿G• £GÁH¾M¦IN› K æGÉINÃG L æGÉINÃG ZHP¯G‰ [42:41], that punishment should be in proportion to its crime, but if the situation is such that, rather than being punished, forgiving the perpetrator raises hope for his reformation, then it is better to forgive. If this line were followed, Allah would recompense it in a fine way. The two Divine attributes are hence neatly distinguished and there is no contradiction. Along with it is also determined that the real reason of punishment is reformation and not retaliation or to cause trouble. Here, the intention is of wider reformation, inclusive of those who are morally weak and need the deterrent of punishment to keep them away from crime. This is a brief and sort of incomplete summary of the objective of human life. The Holy Prophet ( ” allall ā hu ‘alaihi wa sallam) told us that Allah declares that when man makes Allah’s pleasure his objective and gives up his own will for the sake of Allah’s Will then Allah becomes that person’s eyes for him to see, ears for him to hear, hands and feet for him to do things; in short because such a person’s intentions and will are in total subordination to Allah’s Will and are according to it, each action of his, due to the fact that it is with Allah’s Will, is, in a way, as if Allah’s Action. If man achieves this state, then it is as if he has achieved the objective of his life.