Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 135
— Part I 134 people rejected him totally and emphatically. At the last moment before the decree of their annihilation was about to pass, they repented and were forgiven by their Lord. This shows that such decrees from God as relate to punishment and His wrath are changeable even at the very last moment. If a people change their condition, then God’s decree changes accordingly. Only when crime completely overwhelms society in terms of quantity and quality is the community destroyed. However, if the people repent, then they become beneficiaries of God’s mercy. But if they persist in their crimes then not even the prayers of God’s chosen Prophets as can save them from destruction. Hence, the dictates of justice do not require that every transgressor be punished. Sometimes the door of forgiveness and mercy remains open. If brutality goes beyond all limits, benevolence can be of no avail. In that case even the most earnest supplications of the Prophets as cannot save such wrongdoing nations. The Development of the Teaching of Absolute Justice A study of the Prophets as through the ages would throw light on how the teaching of justice developed from a rudimentary level to the highly evolved teachings that form the basis of the Islamic law.