FORGIVENESS
According to any dictionary, to forgive is to stop feeling
angry with somebody who has done something to harm, annoy or upset you.
Forgiveness is thus willingness to forgive somebody who has committed some punishable
wrong. In law, forgiveness is not a right but may be an expectation from a merciful
judge. In religion, forgiveness is a
legitimate hope, for God is described as
generously merciful.
Another name for forgiveness is mercy. In his play The Merchant of Venice, British
poet and dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616) asserts most beautifully:
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,/It droppeth as the
gentle rain from heaven,/Upon the place beneath: it is twice beless’d;/It
blesseth him that gives and him that takes/’T is mightiest in the mightiest; it
becomes the throned monarch better than his crown;/His sceptre shows the force
of temporal power,/The attribute to awe and majesty,/Wherein doth sit the dread
and fear of kings;/But mercy is above the sceptred sway,/It is enthroned in the
heart of kings,/It is an attribute to God himself,/An earthly power doth then
show likest God’s/When mercy seasons justice.”
The heart of a perfect
worshipper of God is described as the home of purity, compassion, forgiveness
and peace.
It is painful to see
that most of us do not believe in forgetting and forgiving. We behave as takers
of revenge. As a result, both we and those who receive our revenge suffer
badly. Both continue to lose peace of mind, until the day when we wake up to realise that revengefulness is
mutually destructive.
According to Mahatma Gandhi(1869-1948) forgiveness is an attribute and adornment of
bravery…True bravery refuses to strike; it will suffer all infliction with
patient cheerfulness. (Harijan: March 23, 1947). Again, he writes in a
letter to Indian political leader Sardar Vallabhbhai Jhavererbhai Patel (1875-1950):
“We should never return blow for blow.
Forgiveness is the ornament of the strong.“
The great Lord Gautam Buddha (563 B.C. – 483 B.C.) exhorted
his disciples to avoid ten evils two of which were: (i) Carp not, but look for
the good side of your fellow-beings, so that you may with sincerity defend them
against their enemies. And (ii) Cleanse your heart of malice and cherish no
hatred, not even against your enemies; but embrace all living beings with
kindness.
Finally, here is a poem entitled Yussouf by an American Romantic poet, James Russell
Lowell (1819-1891) on the eternal theme of forgiveness. Yussouf , an Arab Chief,
was known among all the tribes of his time as an embodiment of goodness and
hospitality. The poem , which is
self-explanatory ,reads as follows:
A stranger
came one night to Yussouf’s tent,
Saying : “Behold
one outcast and in dread,
Against
whose life the bow of power is bent,
Who flies,
and hath not where to lay his head;
I come to
thee for shelter and for food,
To Yussouf,
called through all our tribes, ---The Good.
‘Tis tent is mine,’ said Yussouf, ‘but no more
Than it is
God’s; come in, and be at peace;
Freely shalt
thou partake of all my store,
As I of His
who buildeth over these
Our tents
His glorious roof of night and day,
And at Whose
door none ever yet heard Nay.’
So Yussouf
entertained his guest that night,
And, waking
him ere day, said : ‘Here is gold;
Depart before
the prying day grows bold.
As one lamp
lights another, nor grows less,
So nobleness
enkindleth nobleness.
That inward
light the stranger’s face made grand
Which shines
from all self-conquest.
Kneeling
low,
He bowed his
forehead upon Yussouf’s hand,
Sobbing; “O
Sheik, I cannot leav thee so;
I will repay
thee; all this thou hast done
Unto that
Ibrahim who slew thy son !”
‘Take thrice
the gold,’ said Yussouf, ‘for with thee
Into the
desert, never to return,
My one black
thought shall ride away from me;
First born,
for whom by day and night I yearn,
Balanced and
just are all of God’s decrees;
Thou art
avenged, my first-born, sleep in peace!’
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G.R.Kanwal: 20th
November 2020
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