Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 181
181 ought to be allowed to have its course and he should be forgiven. But when punishment is expected to have a more deterrent and reformative effect on the offender, then the feeling of retribution ought to be allowed to operate, and punishment should be inflicted, but it should in no case be out of proportion to the wrong done or the offence committed. This is with reference to the first form of revenge, that is to say, where the ag- grieved person is able in his turn to inflict pain on the aggressor. The second form which revenge might take in a case where the aggressor is a powerful man and the person aggrieved is unable or unwilling to inflict pain on him, is that of abuse and fault-finding. Concerning this the Holy Quran says, 'Do not impute faults nor abuse each other. ' 87 Fault-finding and abuse are, there- fore, prohibited in all cases, and even an aggrieved person should not have recourse to them in revenge. What is the reason underlying this prohibition? Why should not an injured person injure his oppressor by finding fault with him, and why should he not relieve his feeling by heaping abuse on him? The answer is that abuse is prohibited because it is false and immodest, and Islam does not tolerate falsehood or immodesty. Defa- mation and fault-finding are prohibited because, instead of reforming the conduct of the aggressor, they are likely to injure it, for, when a man’s vices are pro- claimed openly he loses all sense of shame and decency and begins to indulge openly in them. 87 Al-Hujur a t, 49:12.