The Noblest Revenge

From across the ocean, the impression is strong that there is a surge in the revenge motif in Bangladesh. Magnanimity seems to have vanished from the society in general and from the leaders in particular.

When a nation engages in the politics of revenge, it loses direction and unknowingly sows the seeds of anarchy. The state must crack down on nihilists and fanatics bent on tearing the fabric of a nation through murder and mayhem. But the French Revolution teaches us that obsessive yearning for revenge in the name of justice can also lead to anarchy.

Anyone who has been wronged — a spouse, a worker, a relative — has to let go at some point to move on with his or her life. Otherwise the grievance becomes an albatross around the neck and makes progress impossible. When an injury is inflicted upon us, we do not recover until we forgive.

It is the same with a nation. A time comes when a leader must say: "Enough! Enough blood has been spilled. Enough hours have been lost. Enough resources have been wasted in the single-minded pursuit of revenge. Now is the time to forgive."

As Desmond Tutu has said, "Without forgiveness, there is no future."

Examples of forgiveness and its transformational results abound.

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 brutal years by the apartheid regime of South Africa. Yet, upon his release in 1990, he forgave his captors and forged reconciliation between blacks and whites in that deeply-divided country.

Gandhi's non-violent resistance that liberated India from British rule was based on forgiveness. It was Gandhi who said, "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." Gandhi's disciple, Martin Luther King, also used the spirit of forgiveness to break down racial barriers in the United States.

In each case, the victims had the courage and the imagination to take the moral high ground against their oppressors and achieved victories that would have been impossible through revenge and bloodshed.

When Sirhan Bishara Sirhan murdered Robert Kennedy in 1968 in Los Angeles, the late Ted Kennedy (who was to become a passionate supporter of the Bangladesh War of Liberation) asked for leniency in the sentencing of his brother's killer. Kennedy's plea led to Sirhan's death sentence being commuted to life imprisonment.

In 1996, Serbian forces executed 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. In 2005, marking the 10th anniversary of the massacre, Mustafa Ceric, a Bosnian imam, delivered an address in Srebrenica, calling for reconciliation. He told mourners and survivors 'Revenge is not of our religion' and 'revenge is not of the Bosnian way of life'.

Consider this example from prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) life. When the residents of Taif stoned him, so much so that his feet were soaked with blood, he cried out for divine help. On hearing his plea, God sent Gabriel (Jibrail) who offered to crush the people of Taif between two mountains. What did the prophet say? "No, I hope that Allah will bring out from their offspring people who worship Him alone and associate no partners with Him." In essence, with his visionary response, the prophet was forgiving the people of Taif, instead of taking revenge against them.

The Quran is suffused with the idea of forgiveness. Just one example will suffice. "The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto but if a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah, for Allah loves not those who do wrong." (42:40)

It is not easy to forgive. If someone has committed a wrong against me, it is far easier for me to nurture the grievance and plot a payback, than to see my enemy as a human being. It appeals to our frail and vindictive nature (no one is immune from these vices) to subscribe to the philosophy of 'an eye for an eye'.

But an 'eye for an eye' can have the disastrous effect of turning everyone blind. Also, revenge is expensive. You have to deal with the expense of anger, the cost of hate and the waste of the soul. Is it worth it?

However, we must acknowledge that revenge has its uses. Sometimes it is the threat of revenge that keeps aggression in check. The idea of revenge motivates individuals, groups and nations to fulfil their responsibilities and remain alert to the dangers they face.

But in the long run, forgiveness must triumph over revenge for the human race to survive. Revenge is short-term while forgiveness is long-term. Revenge may lead to some temporary tactical gains but for permanent, strategic gains, there is nothing like forgiveness. That is why forgiveness is called the noblest revenge.

Dutch botanist Paul Boese said, "Forgiveness does not change the past but it does enlarge the future." The reverse is also true. Revenge constricts the future. When a nation puts its resources and its passion at the service of its revenge-driven agenda, its priorities get scrambled and its future darkens.

Let me conclude with an example from American history.

The Civil War (1851–1865) was the deadliest war in American history. About 620,000 soldiers lost their lives besides an undetermined number civilian casualties. The Union and the Confederate States were the bitterest of enemies and any reconciliation seemed impossible when the war ended.

President Abraham Lincoln could have taken revenge and forced his will upon the Confederates under the guise of justice but he was not given to pettiness or to short-term satisfaction. His goal was loftier: Unity and the well-being of all Americans.

So, in his second inaugural speech on March 4, 1865, in Washington DC, Lincoln uttered these immortal words: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

The spirit of forgiveness was at the root of these words. It inspired a wounded and divided country to bury the past and move forward as one people, one nation.