Surah 23. Al-Muminun, Ayah 96

See surah {13}, note [44]. In the present context, the evil referred to consists - as the next clause shows - in blasphemous attempts at "defining" God (cf. verse {91}); but the ethical principle implied in the above injunction is the same as that expressed in the last clause of 13:22 as well as in 41:34 - namely, that evil must not be countered with another evil but, rather, repelled by an act of goodness.

 Their claims that there are many gods, and that the Prophet is a liar, a poet, etc.

Whether people speak evil of you, in your presence or behind your back, or they do evil to you in either of those ways, all is known to Allah. It is not for you to punish. Your best course is not to do evil in your tum, but to do what will best repel the evil. Two evils do not make a good. Cf. xli. 34, n. 4504.