Malfuzat – Volume II — Page 152
152 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Forgiveness Now, forgiveness, for example, is a moral strength. In this context, one must see whether a certain person is deserving of forgiveness or not. There are two cat- egories of offenders. The first kind is of those who happen to commit a deed that does rouse anger, but they are worthy of being forgiven. There are others, how- ever, who if forgiven and turned a blind eye to, become further emboldened and cause further harm. Take the example of a servant who is immensely virtuous and obedient. Let us say this servant was bringing a cup of tea. The servant happens to stumble and the cup falls on the ground and breaks. As a result, the tea falls on his master as well. Now in this case, if the master stood up to strike the serv- ant, and acted harshly and furiously towards him, this would be foolish. This is a time that calls for forgiveness because the servant has not been guilty of inten- tional mischief, and forgiveness will only make the servant more repentant and he will exercise greater caution in the future. However, if a wretched servant were to break things on a daily basis and damage things in this manner, mercy on such a person would demand that they are punished. Therefore, this is the wisdom in the following words: 1 َ رَزَقْنٰهُمْ يُنْفِقُوْن مِمَّا And they spend out of what We have provided for them. Every believer is responsible for judging their own soul and ought to determine the nature of various situations and circumstances, so that they can spend appropriately. The Impractical Teaching of the Gospel I have just stated that the teaching of the Holy Quran possesses a wise order with- in itself. In contrast to this, look at the teaching of the Gospel, which instructs a person to turn the other cheek when struck on the first, among other such things. This teaching is so objectionable that one cannot hide this fact, and its applica- tion in society is impossible. So much so that even the most gentle and holiest of priests cannot act upon this teaching. If someone were to seek a practical example of this teaching and slap a Christian priest on the face, instead of turning the other cheek, the priest would run to the police and hand over his offender to the 1 al-Baqarah, 2:4