Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!bes
From: uunet!plains!umn-cs!LOCAL!meuer@ncar.ucar.edu (Mark V. Meuer)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Excerpt from USRA Family Magazine: (Forgiveness)
Message-ID: <1990Nov27.152333.28310@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 90 15:23:33 GMT
Sender: bes@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 55
Approved: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu

In <1990Nov22.184249.12933@wpi.WPI.EDU> SX43%LIVERPOOL.AC.UK@EVANS.UCAR.EDU writes:


>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Topic :                 Unforgiving attitude of muslims to each other,
>                        cause of disunity.
>Title :                 'Forgiveness' Editorial comment.
>Source :                USRA The Family Magazine, Nov 1990, p1.
>Organisation :          The Islamic Education Center
>Contact :               73 Alston Drive,
>                        Bradwell Abbey,
>                        Milton Keynes,
>                        MK13 9HG
>                        England, UK.
>Telephone :             0908-318633/319598
>Fax :                   0908-322071
>Telex :                 825094 & 82462
>Price :                 FREE, excluding postage.
>Frequency :             Monthly
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------


>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                          FORGIVENESS
>                          ===========  --Comment.

> ...  
[Description of incidents where one Muslim either consciously or
inadvertently offends another deleted.]

>There are a hundred  and one reasons why there may be these
>hiccups in our everyday dealings with one another. We shold all make
>allowances for the fact that we are only human, and will make mistakes.
>We should not allow these mistakes to become major issues: makeing
>allowances and forgiving one another is infinitely preferable to seeking
>revenge and embarking on an escalating spiral of tit-for-tat.

I am somewhat confused.  I am not a Muslim, but in other postings to
this group I have seen several instances where people have said that
Islam specifically endorses the idea of "An eye for an eye, a tooth
for a tooth", since to do otherwise would be unjust.  Doesn't this
call for forgiveness then go against a precept of Islam?

If Islam does teach forgiveness, then how far does it take it?  Does
it agree with the words of Jesus (PBUH) that "you should love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you?"

Thanks in advance for your responses.

-mark

-- 
Mark Meuer |  Geometry Supercomputer Project  |   meuer@geom.umn.edu
"Scientists have determined that the world's fastest animal, with a top speed
 of 120 ft/sec, is a cow that has been dropped from a helicopter." - Dave Barry