Ḥilm
Definition
Hilm — forbearance — was one of the Prophet's ﷺ most distinctively described qualities. In every account of how he was treated with contempt, rudeness, and violence, the prophetic response was patience, dignity, and the refusal to respond in kind. Al-Ghazali presents the Prophet's ﷺ hilm as the pinnacle of a virtue that the Ihya has been building toward throughout the book of brotherhood and social relations: the capacity to absorb injury from others without reactive retaliation, to respond to rudeness with gentleness, and to meet hatred with the kind of long-suffering love that the Quran describes as the response of those who have genuinely submitted to Allah.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
2 books in the library
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