PARDON AS A VIRTUE

 

PARDON AS A VIRTUE 

Pardon is one of the principal virtues in several religions. Many saints and sages believe in winning the hearts and minds of wrong-doers by pardoning them. Punishment is generally a negative approach. Forgiveness and pardon are positive and reformative.  

According to a definition,“ in religion a pardon is the act of a sovereign to forgive sins and remit the penalty for them. It is a legal concept that is similar to divine forgiveness, which involves the cancellation of a person’s liability to punishment.”

   In many countries, severe punishment rather than pardon is the rule. .  Here, too, poets and philosophers differ seriously. For example, the English poet-playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) says in his play  Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Sc.1: that mercy

“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 this sceptred sway,

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself,

An earthly power doth then show likest God’s

When mercy seasons justice.

           

In another play, he says: Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge.

            An unknown writer has rightly said: They who forgive most, shall be most forgiven.

            The Roman poet Syrus Publius (born 85 BC) had this to say : Pardon others often, thyself never.

            Finally, this view of the Italian politician Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872) : Pardon is the virtue of victory.

 

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G.R.Kanwal

4^th January 2025