Did Jesus Redeem Mankind? — Page 37
? EVIL AN EXTERNAL INFLUENCE 30 30 In short, in these verses, Allah the Excellent has pointed out that he (the Satan) would have to adopt external agencies to incite man to sinfulness, which means that intrinsically man is secure. But the origin of inherited sin is internal; it does not enter from outside. For instance, a person through sucking at the breast of a consumptive mother in his infancy, absorbing thus the germs of T. B. would be said to be suffering from an internal disease should he fall prey to it. On the contrary, another person who contracts this disease through contact with a consumptive patient during attendance on him, the germs of the disease having found their way in him through the exhaled breath and clothes of the patient, he will be said to have been a victim of these externally, while the former contracted, the malady internally. There are similarly many other maladies that children inherit from their parents. One such disease is hysteria. Generally, the children of epileptic parents fall prey to spasms of epilepsy. The same is true of lunacy. We have observed cases in which lunacy was transmitted to as many as three generations in succession. As a man cannot live long, therefore, an extended experiment is not possible in this connection. But it is quite possible that with the establishment of an institute for conducting research in this behalf, this malady may be observed to go down as far as seven to eight generations. One form of syphilis is