Page 230 - Quranic Wisdom - New.indd

Sensitivity as an Inner Check

hand, never fails. Conscience is the strongest check against
wrongdoing.
The difference between a man and an animal is that a man
has a conscience, while an animal is quite lacking in this faculty.
Animals are not sensitive to right and wrong. They entertain
no such ideas. But man has the highly distinctive quality of
possessing a conscience.
Anyone who wants to live on this planet as an honest person
or as a man of character must keep a guard upon his conscience
or moral sensitivity. Nothing else can guarantee one’s personal
morality.

Anyone who listens to his inner voice is surely saved
from becoming a victim of evil forces. But one who
fails to pay heed to it will lose the opportunity to
act righteously. And that will be his last chance.

There are numerous examples in history of many men
and women who decided to do some evil deed and then their
conscience was aroused, their moral sensitivity was awakened
and the result was positive: they abandoned their evil plan.
They refrained from indulging in the evil practices that they
had had in mind. Conscience, or the faculty of sensitivity, is the
greatest bounty from God to man. Conscience, or the faculty of
sensitivity, is like a divine judge sitting in everyone’s heart.
There are some who observe that human sensitivity is a kind
of natural weakness. Should one adopt the formula of tit for
tat? This would be an unwise course to follow, for the ‘tit for tat’
formula has nothing positive about it. It is simply a reaction. And
reaction cannot work. You have to see things in terms of result
and not in terms of your own sentiments. When you are living in
a society, you cannot afford any kind of arrogant behaviour. You
have to be a realist. You have to be tolerant. You have to adjust

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