What Does Mercy Mean to Me?

What does mercy mean to me? Mercy is demonstrating compassion, forbearance, and forgiveness towards the people around you. To exemplify a merciful attitude is crucial to societal advancements and should be encouraged. Unfortunately, that is not the common case. Living in a world as harsh as ours, people have become bystanders to what is morally unacceptable. Rather than voicing their opinion and encouraging others to do good, humans have become insensitive to harm as long as it doesn’t threaten them. This is everything that is highly discouraged in Islam. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is a perfect example of someone who exhibited a compassionate and merciful attitude towards everyone around him. The Prophet (SAW) showed compassion towards animals, children, poor, and even his enemies. People are typically prone to becoming very aggressive whenever they are angry at someone, however based off the Prophet (SAW) we should avoid such behavior. In the Qur’an, Allah (SWT) revealed the following ayah in Surat Al-Imran; “those who give in times of both ease and hardship, those who control their rage and pardon other people – Allah loves the good-doers.” As a Muslim, this is very important and holds a lot of meaning to me. This is a direct order from Allah (SWT) to swallow our pride and pardon those who have mistreated us. And a person who plays a role in my community, it is also obligated upon me to encourage this behavior. By doing so, we can avoid spurious respect and controversy within relations and grow as a whole.