Letters: There is plenty of forgiveness in the Quran

Forgiveness in the Quran

Sir: Canon Andrew White (‘God’s man in Baghdad’, 21 November) said he could not find any forgiveness in the Quran, and asks to be informed if anyone finds any mention of it. I would be delighted to assist.

Any reader of the Quran would note that 113 of its 114 chapters begin with a pronouncement of God’s limitless mercy and beneficence. In fact ‘forgiveness’ and ‘mercy’ are mentioned roughly 100 and 200 times respectively. An entire chapter of the Quran is devoted to the quality of mercy (Surah Rahman).

The living embodiment of such values was the Prophet Muhammad. Did he not demonstrate the pinnacle of clemency when he forgave Wahshi, the criminal who murdered and mutilated his uncle Hamza? At that time, the following Quranic verse was revealed: ‘O My Devotees, who have committed excesses against their own selves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Surely, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed He is the most Forgiving, the Merciful’ (Quran 39:53). We then learn ‘And the recompense of evil is punishment like it, but whoever forgives and amends, he shall have his reward from Allah; surely He does not love the unjust’ (42.40).

Make no mistake: the Paris murderers who claimed to be Prophet Muhammad’s followers were defying the values he lived by, and acted in contempt of the book he brought. I can assure Canon White that we Muslims revere Jesus, worship the same almighty God — and yes, we also forgive.

Mohamedali Gokal

Harrow, Middlesex

Very PC at Wadham

Sir: I’m not surprised James Delingpole’s Aids joke (‘How to lose a debate at the Oxford Union’, 21 November) went down like a lead balloon. All the same, I’m saddened to read that political correctness has taken over Wadham — but not particularly surprised. When I was there in the mid-1970s, the junior common room was dominated by vociferous lefties, who renamed the JCR Quad the ‘Ho Chi Minh Quad’, and reallocated the lovingly tended turf from ‘elitist’ croquet to proletarian football.

Roger White

London SW12

Caddish behaviour

Sir: Well done to Tazi Hussain for his defence of Napier and Havelock (Letters, 21 November). Might I add that Ken Livingstone is also wrong, since Napier and Havelock are very well known to legions of Flashman fans. It was my history-mad son who pointed it out to me in Trafalgar Square last summer. The statue that we were standing beside was one and the same with ‘Gravedigger’ Havelock, so memorably portrayed by George MacDonald Fraser.

John-Paul Marney

Glasgow

Tintin is for everyone

Sir: William Cook is right to be wary of comparing Hergé’s Tintin adventures (Books, 21 November) to Van Gogh, as some European enthusiasts do. Simply judged on their terms as graphic novels, titles like Tintin in Tibet or The Castafiore Emerald remain strong candidates for the finest comic books ever created. But Cook’s boyish enthusiasm for the intrepid young journalist displays a couple of blind spots. Firstly, to say Hergé’s work is ‘not unsettling in the slightest’ seems to ignore the many surreal fantasies and nightmares that plague the major characters (including Snowy the dog) or the supremely unnerving Inca revenge cult enacted by ‘The Seven Crystal Balls’ against western cultural imperialism.

Secondly, do ‘children understand him best’? Though Tintin started as a Boy Scout surrogate for the author, as the books became increasingly sophisticated, Hergé’s identification shifted to the irascible, whisky-sodden Captain Haddock instead. Tintin’s loyal companion has to fight off multiple intrusions to his domestic peace at Marlinspike Hall, including unsolicited phone calls, insurance salesmen, uninvited guests and the media. For children, he’s hilarious; for adult fans, he’s also one of us.

William Reiss

London SW19

Listening device

Sir: Reading Andrew Wilson’s letter about the enterprising Nigerian pupil (Letters, 21 November) reminded me of our younger son’s entrepreneurial exploits at boarding school. I travelled extensively on business at the time and some airlines dished out good Sony headsets in first- and business-class cabins, which one was encouraged to take home as in those days the plugs were compatible with portable radios and the like. Transistor radios were verboten at the school so our lad started asking me to collect as many headsets as I could and pass them over to him. Having procured him a couple of dozen, I asked him why he needed so many. His elder brother expressed dismay at my ignorance, explaining to me that his sibling was initially selling and later renting out the headphones to fellow pupils who had lost their own, which enabled them to surreptitiously listen to their radios at various times of the day and night. This enlightened practice doubtless reduced the incidence of ‘extras’ being added to the termly bills.

Anthony J. Burnet

East Saltoun, East Lothian

Prehistoric hallucination

Sir: Psilocybin mushrooms don’t always produce the sort of mystical experience described by Jeremy Clarke (Low life, 31 October). As a student at Keele, I once hitched a lift from a character who had been picking magic mushrooms on the sports field. He confessed that it probably wasn’t a good idea, as the last time he’d eaten some the police had found him hiding naked in bushes on a busy roundabout — he’d imagined himself a caveman pursued by a herd of angry mammoths.

David Taylor

Swimbridge, Devon