Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 351
! ! 351 taken on all sin , but that he has developed the capability and inclination towards sin and is easily lured to wards it. As I have told you before, morals are based on some predispositions. If these dispositions are corrupt ed during childhood , the person becomes fully equipped to commit a sin, even though he wa s born completely free of sin. You should ponder over w here sin come s from. I s sin not inherited? Nations who have certain characteri stics t end to pass on similar characteristics to their children. If a nation has lacked bravery for generations and you are encouraging them to be brave, they will still show cowardliness when fighting , or they will not fight with the same courage that a nation would which is known for its bravery. Although you could train and reform them in these matters, one’s heritage does play some role. Similarly, sin is borne from an excess of greed, anger, fear, love, and desires. If you reflect, are t hese dispositions not cultivated right from childhood? Are the se small, harmless habits not the foundation of future sin? Parents say about their child that , ‘H e is only a child, so of course he will behave in this manner. ’ However, is it not true that childhood is the time when th e deepest imprints take hold ? Why would a person steal, if in childhood he had been taught to control himself ? [Take the example of] a person who embarks upon Jihad but then he runs away from the battle due to the fear of the enemy. People taunt him for doing so, however think about this carefull y. Wa s it not those childhood stories of cowardliness, told by his mother, which brought him running back in fear? The s ame goes for anger. During childhood , pa rents ignore this and when the child grows up, he goes about fighting with everyone. Again, is sin not bred due to the lack of will power? Is this weakness created without any reason? After all, why does a human being spend his entire life making resolutions only to break them, therefore achieving no thing? Lack of will power does not develop in one day; rather, it is developed in childhood and only in childhood.