Better to wrongly forgive than to wrongly punish

“The Shariah is based on wisdom and achieving people’s welfare in this life and the afterlife. Shariah is all about justice, mercy, wisdom and good. Thus, any ruling that replaces justice with injustice, mercy with its opposite, common good with mischief, or wisdom with nonsense, is a ruling that does not belong to Shariah, even if it is claimed to be so according to some interpretation.”

- Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292 to 1350)

The objectives and purposes of Islamic Shari’ah is to protect and promote these essential values, and validates all measures necessary for their preservation and advancement. The Shari’ah also encourages pursuit of knowledge and education to ensure the intellectual development of the people and the advancement of arts, sciences, and civilization.

In Islam, to forgives is prefered over punishment, therefore if a muslim has wronged, let him (or her) go (if without concrete evidence), because it is better to wrongly forgive than to wrongly punish." Being too eager or severe in meting out punishment is considered to be undesirable. The purpose of all this is the attainment of refinement and excellence in all areas of human conduct.


Wallahu'alam