Did Jesus Redeem Mankind? — Page 40
? human nature is pure by itself. God, advancing a supporting argument next, says: رَبُّكُمُ الَّذِي يُزْجِي لَكُمُ الْفُلْكَ فِي الْبَحْرِ لِتَبْتَغُوا مِنْ فَضْلِهِ إِنَّهُ كَانَ بِكُمْ رَحِيمًا i. e. , You regard sin a dangerous typhoon, a devastating calamity, and you think it is inherent in man and he cannot be freed from it. But God says, sin is nothing in itself. All this is conjecture. As an obvious example, there is the sea. You see boats plying in it, (Steamships ply now carrying cargo from one country to the other. In former times sailboats were the vogue, which depended for their movement on the wind). God says that boats are dependent on the wind, but wind turns at times into a typhoon when it exceeds a limit. When sailboats used to ply, if it were proposed to the world to stop the wind so that typhoons might be stopped, there would have been a universal outcry that typhoons were rare occurrences and, therefore, they should not be stopped, for in that event their trades would come to a standstill. If out of thousands of boats, one gets lost in the storm, the loss is insignificant. Citing this instance, Allah, the Excellent, has pointed out that what people call sin is, in fact, an “excess,” i. e. , going beyond limits. Just as winds that move boats from one end to the other, turning at times into storms, so do the powers, which inhere in man for his progress and benefit, getting out of control 1 Bani Isra'il, 17:67 33 33