Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 213
213 evils are committed because they can no longer avoid them. Those who propagate such ideas among their children, lay the foundations of the moral depravity of future generations. A man who does not believe that a certain object is attainable, will never strive to achieve it. A people that believes that its forbears have ex- hausted all possible discoveries and inventions is not likely to make a discovery or invention itself; and a nation that believes that it cannot possibly effect an improvement in its condition is not likely to attempt it. Similarly, people who believe that evil is inherent in them and that they cannot possibly resist it, and that it is impossible for them to achieve moral perfection, pro- vides the means of their own destruction. The Holy Prophet sa has laid great stress on this point, and has altogether forbidden despair. He says, 'When a person says the people have perished he is the person who destroys them. ' 121 That is to say, no material calamities and misfortunes can prove so disastrous to man, as the conviction in his mind that the door of improvement and progress has been shut upon him. Despair prevents a man from making an effort for success and thus leads him to certain failure and destruction. Islam does not countenance the view that man can ever be debarred from self-improvement and progress, and thus opens wide the door to moral development. The Holy Quran says, 'We have created man with the best capacities. ' 122 That is to say, he is endowed with the highest faculties 121 Muslim. 122 Al-T i n, 95:5.