Exactly in Proportion

The next verse, 126, is this: that if you do punish, if you take retribution for something done to you, then it must be fa-ʿāqibū bi-mithli mā ʿūqibtum bih. It must be exactly in the proportion in which you were transgressed against.

That calls to mind Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice. There is no time to elaborate upon it; but in substance, you may not take more. If someone said one thing, then if you wish to answer you must say it in exactly the same measure — not in a viler way, not in a more aggressive way, for that would be excess. And that is why Allah says wa la-in ṣabartum la-huwa khayrun li-l-ṣābirīn: if you do not take retribution but are patient, that is better for the patient. For a man may go to excess in seeking retribution: he may say something worse, or something just slightly more.