43 Preface وَلَمَن صَبَرَ وَغَفَرَ إِنَّ ذٰلِكَ لَمِن عَزمِ الأُمورِYusuf AliBut indeed if any show patience and forgive,1 that would truly be an exercise of courageous will and resolution in the conduct of affairs.It is harder to be patient and forgive, and yet to get wrongs righted, as was done by the Prophet, than to bluster about and “punish the guilty” or “teach them lessons”. It may look like futility or lack of purpose, but in reality it is the highest and noblest form of courage and resolution. And it may carry out the purpose of reform and the suppression of evil even better than stern punishment. The gentleness of innocence often “persuades where stronger measures fail,” But of course circumstances alter cases, and there is some allowance also to be made for the personal equation of the men you have to deal with: in some cases severity may be called for, but it should be from a strict judicial motive, and not merely from personal anger or spite or lower motive in disguise.