As for His words, “and turn away from the ignorant” (Al-Aʿrāf 199), they mean: when someone behaves ignorantly or arrogantly toward you, turn away from him—provided that your turning away is not out of weakness or abasement. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb’s response was of this kind: he could easily have punished the man who had spoken, yet he obeyed the command and turned away from the ignorant.
The word “ignorance” (jahl) carries two senses:
- A lack of knowledge.
- Foolishness and insolence.
In the latter sense the pre-Islamic poet said:
“Beware! Let no one act ignorantly toward us,
Lest we outdo the ignorance of the ignorant.”
That is: let no one insult or assault us, or we will be harsher than he is. But this is pre-Islamic poetry. Islamic etiquette is quite different, for Allah the Exalted says, “Good and evil are not equal. Repel [evil] with what is better; then the one between whom and you there was enmity will become as a warm, close friend” (Fussilat 34).
Glorified is Allah! A person with whom you have enmity wrongs you; respond with what is better, and the reward comes at once: “repel with what is better; then the one between whom and you there was enmity will become as a warm, close friend.” The phrase “a warm, close friend” (walī ḥamīm) means an intimate companion of the greatest closeness. It is Allah—the Turner of hearts—who says this; every human heart lies between two Fingers of the All-Merciful, and He turns it however He wills.
Thus, the one who was your enemy will, when you repel him with what is better, have his hostility transformed into friendship—“as though he were a warm, close friend.”
In short, this noble verse, “Show forgiveness, enjoin what is right, and turn away from the ignorant …”