Barahin-e-Ahmadiyya Part III — Page 82
BarĀhĪn-e-a H madiyya — Part three 82 point. No sensible person can deny that human beings are divided into different levels with respect to intelligence, righteousness, fear of God, and love of God. Just as the operations of the laws of nature produce the beautiful and the ugly, the seeing and the blind, the sharp-sighted and the weak-sighted, the perfect and the imperfect, similarly, the difference, to varying degrees, in the ranks of intellectual and spiritual powers is also patent and visible. It is true that every individual—provided he is not absolutely insane or deprived of sense—can make progress in his reason, his righteous- ness, and his love of the Divine; but it should be borne in mind that no one can grow beyond the limit of his capacity. Let us take, for example, the case of someone who is congeni- tally deficient in mental capacity [and suffers from microcephaly— the abnormally small circumference of the head], who in our part of the country is nicknamed by the common people as doulay sh a h k a ch u h a ; it is obvious that no matter how much effort is put into training and educating such a person, and no matter how great a philosopher is employed as his tutor, he will not be able to progress any further than the limit God has defined for him. On account of his limited sphere of ability, he cannot attain the heights of a man with greater ability. This is such a self-evident fact that I cannot imagine that any sane person who reflects on it would deny it, but I would not be surprised if someone totally bereft of reason did so. Clearly, if there were no such differences in intellect, why would different people differ in their acquisition and grasp of knowledge, and why would some outshine others. Those belonging to the teach- ing profession must be well aware of the fact that some students are so intelligent that the slightest hint or gesture is sufficient to make them understand, and some are so ingenious that they even come up with wonderful ideas of their own. Conversely, some are inherently so dull and slow-witted that no matter how much you exert your mental energies on them, they will not understand. Even if they come to learn something, after you have worked yourself very hard to teach them,