“This is how much God loved the world: God gave God’s Son, God’s one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life”.  (John 3: 16 – 17)

“Her son’s killer stood on a chair on the gallows, his hands shackled, the noose around his neck,” reported Amir Vahdat and Adam Schreck in a story for the Associated Press. “Hundreds crowded outside the jailhouse in the northern Iranian town of Royan to see whether the mother would exercise her right to kick the chair out from under the condemned to let him hang”.

On April 15, 2014, that mother, Samereh Alinejad, who had dreamed of revenge for more than seven years following her son’s stabbing death in a street brawl, walked slowly toward the gallows. A blindfolded Bilal Gheisari, weeping, begged her one last time: “Forgive me. Show your mercy”.

“Did you show mercy to my son?” asked Alinejad. “You have taken happiness away from us. Why should I have mercy on you?”

Alinejad slapped Gheisari across the face. But, instead of kicking the stool out from under him, she burst into tears and then motioned to her husband to help slip the noose off Gheisari’s neck. Gheisari’s sentence was immediately commuted to 12 years in prison, more than half of which he has served already.

“This slap made me feel as if all the blood that had accumulated in my heart over the years Risesuddenly burst and poured out,” Alinejad told AP reporters. “I became peaceful. I don’t think about revenge anymore”. Banners in the streets now commend the family for their show of mercy.