The Truth about the Alleged Punishment for Apostasy in Islam — Page 41
41 "And remember the time when We made Moses a promise of forty nights; then you took the calf for worship in his absence and you were transgressors. Then We forgave you even thereafter, that you might be grateful 38. And remember the time when We gave Moses the Book and the Discrimination, that you might be 38 This treatment of forgiveness and pardon was—in Maulaw i ‘Uthm a n i ’s viewpoint—like this: On the one hand, God said, ‘I am forgiving you’ but, on the other hand, He ordered that they be put to death. That is, they got murdered while they were expressing their gratitude to God, saying, as it were, that, ‘O God! We are exceedingly grateful to You. In forgiving us You showed us how great Your forgiveness is—and, indeed, we had never experienced such manner of pardon and forgiveness at the hands of any human being. That is, while the decree of pardon is flowing from the tongue, overtures are being made—simultaneously—to keep on killing the same group of people. It is not possible to find any greater example of pardon and forgiveness!’ [Author]