Malfuzat – Volume X — Page 462
Malfuzat - English translation of Urdu Volume 10 462 Almighty has given man a choice up to a limit. Even there he can change sides; he maintains the strength to carry out vir- tue and the option to perpetrate evil. Thereupon, he reaps the reward according to whatever he does. Look, if there were no bad manners, then what could be called good manners? Vile conduct only exists when virtuous conduct exists simultaneously. Whenever any evil conduct appears in the human mind, then man, picturing it in his mind, condemns it; yet he assigns virtuous conduct the name of any act of distinction and praises it. If the mind holds no image of any evil act, then virtuous conduct similarly ceases to exist. Virtue is always distinguished from evil. Had only one aspect been created, then there certainly would not have been any reward nor any satisfaction. ( Joy is produced out of sorrow, delight out of misery, light out of darkness, sweet out of bitter, antidote out of poison, good out of evil, and virtue out of sin. Had these opposites not been created in the world, then life itself would have been totally bland. ) Had only one aspect existed, it would have then permeated the design of nature, in which case how could there be any reward or recompense? How could it be a source for pleasure? It would have been an involuntary impulse from the corresponding actions that proceed instinctively from man. Keep in mind that man has been made to be endowed with choice. Man has a choice to do good or evil, to be kind or cruel, to be magnanimous or miserly, and only through the persistent evaluation of both sides can an opinion be formed regarding any particular individual being good or bad. The very mean- ing of deeds is to wield the ability of the other extreme as well. The one wielding the power to take revenge who does not take revenge, carries out a virtue. However, how can he who does not even have a hand with