How to be Free from Sin — Page iv
iv Promised Messiah as answers the all-important question, why does man commits sin, and how can he free himself from it. The Promised Messiah as writes that man is by his very nature averse to things he believes to be harmful, and if he commits sin it is only because he does not truly believe in the existence of God and in the Day of Reckoning. Had he possessed the same certainty about the accountability of sin, as he does, for instance, about the harmfulness of a poison or a snake, he would never even think of transgressing Divine commandments. The Promised Messiah as also argues that a true religion must be judged by its ability to lead its followers to certainty about the existence of God. The holy author makes a detailed comparison between Islam and other major religions, and concludes that Islam alone can lead man to perfect awareness and, consequently, to freedom from sin. The first English translation of this article was published under the title How to get rid of the Bondage of Sin, in the English edition of The Review of Religions, January 1902. The current translation has been prepared by Wak a lat Ta s n i f, Rabwah. Acknowledgements I owe a debt of gratitude to the following for assisting me in the various stages of this translation: Raja Ata-ul Mannan, Syed Tanwir Mujtaba, Mirza Usman Ahmad Adam, and Tahir Mahmood Mubashar. I am also grateful to Munir-ud-Din Shams Sahib, Additional Wak i l-ut-Ta s n i f, for his help and support, and for providing the vital link for seeking guidance from Hadrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V at. Chaudhry Muhammad ‘Al i Wak i lut Ta s n i f Te h r i k Jad i d Rabwah 12 February, 2008