And according to Islam, as stated earlier, man is born pure and with unsoiled nature, with a tendency to do good but he has also been given a fairly large degree of freedom of choices. Depending upon the choices that he makes, that is, his actions bring about the reactions of his deeds. At one extreme, by using his natural faculties man can achieve very high degree of moral and spiritual progress, so much so, that he can begin to depict heavenly traits.
MAN is generally driven by both, hope รน with the desire for reward, and fear- to avert punishment. As a child grows and develops quite playfully, he discovers certain actions of his are appreciated, accepted and rewarded by his parents and the grown-ups around him, while certain of his deeds are disapproved and sometimes he is punished because of these. Thus, subconsciously and light-heartedly he grapples with the norms of his home and as he grows he begins to internalise the rules, customs and accepted standards of behaviour in society. What then is sin?
The definition of sin according to Islamic perspective is that a person, who deliberately breaks the commandments of God, should earn punishment. Then, what is sinlessness? It only means negation or avoidance of sin. Hence it follows that minor children and congenital madmen are also sinless on the grounds that they are not capable of willful disobedience.
It is Islamic belief that all children are sinless and innocent at birth as their brains are only developed to that level which controls the involuntary and instinctive actions. The Holy Quran says, "Surely, We have created man in the best make". (95:5) Meaning that man has been endowed with the best natural powers and qualities, by making use of which he can make infinite progress.
One will rightly wonder why does then man commit sin. I will come back to Islamic view later but let us examine some other schools of thought regarding the concept of sin. According to one school of thought, man is prone to evil though he has also power to correct and reform himself. According to another, man is sinful by nature because Adam faltered and committed a sin; hence his progeny inherited the taint of sin.
The third school is of the view that man is not born with good or bad nature. It states that man comes to the world with certain natural and instinctive impulses. Therefore it is the sort of education and training that he gets or the environment in which he grows, make him a good or a bad person.
Yet another mystic or "supposedly spiritualist" view states that, man is completely devoid of freedom of will and action, as his entire life-sketch has already been predetermined. Therefore, he is completely helpless and he cannot overcome his fate. It is, as it were, his whole destiny has already been chalked out. That view explains man's actions and deeds to be as, whatever his creator had written would happen.
The protagonist of the theory of "transmigration of soul" hold the view that man is born to suffer for the evil deeds he did in the former existence and goes through various forms of re-birth to cleanse himself of his sins.
However, if he abuses and misuses his natural qualities, he earns the wrath of God and sinks below the level of beasts and brutes thus becoming something like a devil incarnate.
This article is not meant to prescribe or impose on any single school of thought on the readers but it is suggestive of the fact that it is up to man to do the right thing in the right way to remain "Good". Simply uttering words of prayer is not sufficient but we need to be ever inclined to God, pray for the forgiveness of our sins of omission and commission, and be gentle, caring and compassionate to mankind and all other forms of life. Can sin be forgiven? Let us ponder over it.
- Although the writer is the National Vice President of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Fiji, the views expressed are his own