and strife arises only from neglecting what Allah has commanded. He—glorified be He—has commanded adherence to the truth and has commanded patience. Strife therefore arises either from abandoning the truth or from abandoning patience.

The wronged person who is in the right and has not been remiss in seeking knowledge is commanded to be patient. If he is not patient, he has neglected what he was commanded to do.

Even if he has striven to ascertain the truth, if he is not patient, his course is not wholly right. Rather, it is right in a particular respect, insofar as he has reached the truth; he should therefore patiently persevere in it.

If he has been remiss in ascertaining the truth, there are then three sins: he did not strive to ascertain the truth, he did not arrive at it, and he was not patient.

He may be correct in the truth he has come to know concerning himself, yet mistaken in his understanding of Allah’s judgment concerning someone else. He may have come to know the truth concerning a disputed principle through hearing and transmitted reports, analogy and reasoning, or knowledge and insight. Yet he also supposes that another person who does not acknowledge that truth is disobedient, a sinner, or a disbeliever, when this is not the case. That other person may have striven to reach the truth, exhausting his capacity, yet be unable to attain the knowledge reached by the first person because what would enable him to do so is absent and an impediment is present.

The states of hearts have many causes, and not everyone knows the circumstances of another who harms him in word or deed. A person subjected to harm, if he has unquestionably been wronged, may suppose