, but have only done good to myself and harm to myself.”

Allah Most High says:

“If you do good, you do good for yourselves; and if you do evil, it is against yourselves.”

He also says:

“Whoever does righteousness, it is for his own benefit; and whoever does evil, it is to his own detriment.”

If doing good to others were not also doing good to the benefactor himself, bringing benefit back to him, he would be committing a sin or doing harm. For an action that brings its doer no benefit either offers no benefit at all or, if it harms its doer, is worse than futility.

Pardoning a wrongdoer is one of the two forms of charity—that is, kindness and doing good to people. Zakat encompasses all of this. Allah, glorified is He, repeatedly commands prayer and zakat, which is charity. It is established in authentic reports from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, through more than one chain of transmission, that he said:

“Every act of kindness is charity.”

This takes two forms: bringing someone benefit and warding off harm from him. If a wronged person has the right to exact punishment for the injustice he has suffered, and feels inclined to do so, but restrains himself and spares the wrongdoer the harm he is inclined to inflict, this is an act of kindness toward him and charity bestowed upon him. Allah Most High rewards those who give charity and does not let the reward of those who do good go to waste. How, then, could the reward of the one who pardons be forfeited?

This applies generally to all the rights a person has over others. Thus, when