QURTUBI (al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān) :

﴿وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ﴾ (“Those who pardon people”)

Pardon (ʿafw) over people is the noblest kind of good deed, in a situation where you could legitimately pardon and where your right is established. Anyone who deserves a punishment and has it waived for them has been pardoned.

Who are “the people”? Scholars differed:

• Abū al-ʿĀliya, al-Kalbī, al-Zajjāj: it means pardoning owned servants (al-mamālīk).
• Ibn ʿAṭiyya: that’s a good reading as an example — because servants are the staff who err often, power over them is easy, and carrying out punishment is simple; so the commentator used them as the illustration.

The story of Maymūn ibn Mihrān: His slave-girl once came carrying a dish of hot broth while he had guests. She stumbled and spilled the broth on him. Maymūn moved to strike her. The girl said:

• “O my master, apply God’s words: ﴿وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ﴾ (those who restrain anger).” He said: “I have done so.”
• She said: “Now act on what comes next: ﴿وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ﴾ (those who pardon people).” He said: “I have pardoned you.”
• She said: ﴿وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ﴾ (and Allah loves the doers of good). Maymūn said: “I have done good to you — you are free, for the sake of Allah.”

The like of this is also narrated from al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays.

Zayd ibn Aslam: ﴿وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ﴾ = pardoning people for their wrongdoing and mistreatment — and this general sense is the apparent meaning of the verse.

Muqātil ibn Ḥayyān reports that it reached them the Messenger ﷺ said about these people: “These are few in my umma, except whom Allah protects — and they were many in the nations that have passed.”

God praised those who forgive when angry: ﴿وَإِذَا مَا غَضِبُوا هُمْ يَغْفِرُونَ﴾ [الشورى: ٣٧], and He told us He loves them for their good-doing.

Hadiths on restraining anger and pardoning — which are among the greatest acts of worship and jihād of the self (jihād al-nafs):

• ﷺ: “The strong man is not the good wrestler; the strong man is the one who controls himself when angry.” (لَيْسَ الشَّدِيدُ بِالصُّرَعَةِ، وَلَكِنَّ الشَّدِيدَ الَّذِي يَمْلِكُ نَفْسَهُ عِنْدَ الْغَضَبِ)
• ﷺ: “No gulp a servant swallows is better or greater in reward than a gulp of anger swallowed for the sake of Allah.”
• Anas narrated: a man asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what is the most severe of things?” He said: “Allah’s anger.” The man asked, “What saves from Allah’s anger?” He said: “Do not be angry.”

al-ʿArjī’s verse:

وَإِذَا غَضِبْتَ فَكُنْ وَقُورًا كَاظِمًا … لِلْغَيْظِ تُبْصِرُ مَا تَقُولُ وَتَسْمَعُ
فَكَفَى بِهِ شَرَفًا تَبَصُّرُ سَاعَةٍ … يَرْضَى بِهَا عَنْكَ الْإِلَهُ وَتُرْفَعُ

(“When you grow angry, be dignified, swallowing your rage — seeing what you say and hear… It is honor enough that one moment of restraint earns God’s pleasure and raises you.”)

ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr on pardon:

لَنْ يَبْلُغَ الْمَجْدَ أَقْوَامٌ وَإِنْ شَرُفُوا … حَتَّى يُذَلُّوا وَإِنْ عَزُّوا لِأَقْوَامِ
وَيُشْتَمُوا فَتَرَى الْأَلْوَانَ مُشْرِقَةً … لَا عَفْوَ ذُلٍّ وَلَكِنْ عَفْوَ إِكْرَامِ

(“No people reach true glory, however noble, until — though mighty — they humble themselves for others’ sake, and are insulted yet their faces stay bright: not the pardon of humiliation, but the pardon of nobility.”)

• Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī, from Sahl ibn Muʿādh ibn Anas al-Juhanī, from his father, from the Prophet ﷺ: “Whoever restrains anger while able to carry it out, Allah will summon him before all creation on the Day of Resurrection and let him choose whichever of the ḥūr he wishes.” Tirmidhī said: ḥasan gharīb.
• Anas, from the Prophet ﷺ: “On the Day of Resurrection a caller will call: ‘Whoever’s reward is upon Allah, let him enter Paradise.’ It is asked, ‘Who is it whose reward is upon Allah?’ Then those who pardoned people will stand and enter Paradise without reckoning.” — mentioned by al-Māwardī.
• Ibn al-Mubārak: “I was sitting with al-Manṣūr when he ordered a man to be killed. I said: ‘O Commander of the Faithful, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: On the Day of Resurrection a caller will call before Allah: Whoever has a favor (yad) with Allah, let him step forward — and none steps forward but the one who pardoned a wrong.‘ So he ordered the man released.”

Insight / Lesson: This issue climbs a ladder. First it defines pardon as the noblest good deed; then the Maymūn story shows the verse lived out clause by clause — restraint, then pardon, then doing good (freeing her) — a girl out-arguing her master with his own scripture. Then the hadiths redefine “strength”: real power isn’t winning a fight, it’s winning over yourself. And ʿUrwa’s poem nails the secret — pardoning isn’t weakness (“pardon of humiliation”); the believer forgives from a position of strength (“pardon of nobility”). Finally, the rewards are staggering: choosing from the ḥūr, entering Paradise without reckoning, and a king’s death-sentence reversed the instant he’s reminded that the one who pardons is the one God brings forward.