You and I, and everyone who truly loves God and honours Him in his or her heart, hates to do what hurts God. You may question such a possibility, as Allah is described as ‘tansih’, transcendent, far removed from earthly concerns in His glory. The Bible does not agree with that:
“The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was evil all the time. The Lord was grieved . . . and His heart was filled with pain …” (Genesis 6:5-6).
But there is another hard reality, and we know it all too well. At times we are overwhelmed by temptation. At such an occasion, it is greater than our love for God. We do the wrong against better knowledge. We all did it. We all do it from time to time, and hide it, perhaps deny it. At best we are ashamed of it.
The urge to sin is universal. There was only one person who did not yield to sin. Jesus. You probably recall this from ‘The Message of Nabi Isa’. But it is part of our nature from childhood on. How often did we lie: “It is not my fault!” Or say, “but this was only a little mistake.”
Any honest person with a normally functioning conscience ought to be deeply concerned about our ever present readiness, not to say urge, to think or do what we know to be wrong. Even the prophets in the Bible succumbed to this pressure.
Adam disobeyed God. Abel killed his brother. Noah got deliriously drunk, Lot’s daughters slept with their father, Abraham lied to save his skin by declaring his wife to be his sister, Jacob was a deceiver, Moses was a murderer and acted against God’s orders, David committed adultery and planned a murder, and so it goes on.
At the very beginning, after Adam was created, God had given man the choice of acting in agreement with, or against Him. Without such an option man would be little more than a programmed robot. He would only be able to act on impulses from outside himself. He would plainly have no choice. He would not be able to love God, neither his fellowman. The ability to choose is foundational to our humanity. Without it there could be neither right, not wrong. There could be no accountability.
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