To forgive is divine

Submitted by Mahfoozur Rahman (Bangladesh), Oct 30, 2006 at 14:12

In response to Mr Vijay's comments, I have only a few observations to make.

1. I was writing on music and not on politics. I leave it up to the readers to assess if such comments that Mr Vijay made are appropriate, or, in context to the topic. If not, please forgive him.

2. Mr Vijay's number of deaths and migration in our War of Liberation in 1971are grossly in exaggerated. I shall be glad if he can back up these numbers by any authoritative sources. But whatever may be the number, it was a horrendous war in which we suffered greatly, as any people suffers in any war waged on their territory.

3. Our liberation war of 1971 was on political grounds. Some historians term it as a civil war. It was never conducted on the basis of religion. The Pakistan Army even never claimed it a religious war. To bring in Islam in this conflict is historically wrong and only proves Mr Vijoy's ignorance.

4. To bring in ethnicity is a racist statement. Indeed, Islam teaches one to be above race, caste and regional feelings. it teaches eqaulity of all human beings under Allah's laws and enjoins one not to be proud of ones birth. Perhaps Mr Vijoy is a product of Hindu caste system and enjoys superiority of higher caste over the untouchables and 'Dalits' whom they consider as sub-human beings even though they belong to the same religion and the same country. In this respect, Hindu faith is similar to the Nazi principle racial superiority. It is not without reason that the Nazis took the Hindu religious symbol of swastika as their own symbol.

5. Islam allows retribution for a wrong done. But its high principles emphasise on the importance of forgiveness as being superior to revenge. Indeed, to forgive is divine.

6. I pray for Allah's forgiveness for the racists, the bigots, the ignorants and the hypocrites, and further pray that Allah may indeed bring them from their present state of darkness to one of light - that is Islam.

May Allah forgive them.

Best wishes

Mahfoozur Rahman

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".