Did Jesus Redeem Mankind? — Page 36
36 capital punishment. This Brahmin, therefore, leaving the dead cow looked up in his house made off. Wherever on the way he came across men in twos and threes engaged in talk, he would walk up to them and ask what they meant by their reference to the cow. They would invariably deny that they had made any mention of the animal in the course of their talk. He would protest saying it was not so and that they were only hiding the fact from him and would insist that it was certainly the topic of their conversation. He would then proceed further and would on encountering another two engaged in talk, ask what was it that they had just said about the calf. If they replied that they had had no word about it, he would insist that there was definitely something of the sort in their mind. The result was that he had hardly reached the other end of the street when he was suspected and ultimately hauled up by the people. . A search of his house revealed the carcase of a cow. . Admittedly, whenever one commits his first sin irrespective of its nature, his conscience upbraids him and he feels ashamed. A thief feels out of sorts after committing his first act of burglary and so does a highwayman after his first case of brigandage. If sin were hereditary, the way to sin would not be an uphill one and it would not call for an ascent. قال ربنا الذي أعطى كل شيئى خلقه ثم هدى :Again God says (6) i. e. , Moses (peace be on him) said to Pharaoh: Our Lord is the One who endowed every object with powers according to its capacity and directed it to the means of its progress (20:51). أعطى كل شيئى خلقه Here the words are inclusive of the creation of man. The Bible, too, says that man has been created to seek communion with God and he