إِنَّ ذَٰلِكَ لَمِنْ عَزْمِ ٱلْأُمُورِ

16:127.

Commentary:

Though Islam has given the aggrieved party full right to have the injury done to him recompensed at the expense of the guilty person, the noblest course recommended to him, however, is to bear with patience the injury and to forgive the aggressor. But it is given to extremely few—only to God’s Beloved and Elect—to possess this very noble moral quality. Our Holy Prophet gave a practical demonstration of this moral quality at the time of the Fall of Mecca. He did not utter even a single word of reproach to, much less punish, his bloodthirsty enemies, who had hounded him out of his native place and had killed in cold blood his poor and innocent followers and had placed a price at his head. He forgave them with a magnanimity unparalleled in human history, with the words, "Go, you are all free. No blame shall lie on you this day; may Allah also forgive you" (Hisham).

The verse also implies a prophecy that Muslims would be shortly given power and dominion over their opponents, and so in the hour of triumph they should be forgiving, forbearing and merciful to their enemies.