And the Messiah’s command—peace be upon him—directed to the wronged person to pardon the wrong-doer contains nothing to show that such pardon is obligatory, the abandonment of which would incur blame and punishment. Rather, it belongs to the recommended virtues: whoever practices it deserves praise and reward. Moses—peace be upon him—on the other hand, made justice obligatory, so that whoever neglects it merits censure and punishment. There is therefore no contradiction between making justice compulsory and deeming gracious virtue commendable.

The obligation of justice is accompanied by threats and warnings for abandoning it, whereas the recommendation of gracious virtue is accompanied by encouragement and inducement to perform it. The former thus inspires awe along with desire, while the latter inspires desire without awe. For this reason the Messiah—peace be upon him—said:

“I was a witness over them for as long as I remained among them, but when You took me, You became the Watcher over them, and You are Witness over all things. If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, You are indeed the Almighty, the All-Wise.” ⦗5:117–118⦘

Hence it has been said that the Messiah—peace be upon him—was sent to complete the Torah, for supererogatory acts come only after the obligatory ones. This is like the report in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī from Abū Hurayrah—may God be pleased with him—who related that the Prophet, God bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Allah, Exalted is He, says: ‘Whoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, he has openly challenged Me to war. No servant of Mine draws near to Me with anything more beloved to Me than performing what I have made obligatory upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me through the supererogatory acts…”