وحق الخصم المدعي عليك، فإن كان ما يدعي عليك حقا كنت شاهده على نفسك، ولم تظلمه وأوفيته حقه، وإن كان ما يدعي به باطلا رفقت به ولم تأت في أمره غير الرفق، ولم تسخط ربك في أمره ولا قوة إلا بالله.
The right of the adversary (khasm) who has a claim against you is that, if what he claims against you is true, you give witness to it against yourself. You do not wrong him and you give him his full due. If what he claims against you is false, you act with kindness toward him and you show nothing in his affair other than kindness; you do not displease your Lord in his affair. And there is no strength save in God. [1]
[1] Zayn al-‘Abidin’s personal qualities of forbearance and pardon are often cited in the sources. Once a man cursed him to his face, but he ignored the man. Then the man shouted: ‘I mean you’! The Imam replied: ‘And from you I am turning away,’ alluding to the Qur’anic verse: Bid to what is honorable and turn away from the ignorant (7:199).If anyone reviled him, he would say: ‘If I am as you say, I ask God to forgive me, and if I am not as you say, I ask God to forgive you’. (A’yan, pp.194, 193).
