Fazle Umar
Belief in the truth of his father and its consequences There were many factors helping to establish the path Hadhrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad’s [ra] life would take. Some were visible and some were hidden; some were specific while others were general. There are certain general factors that have a definite effect on building the child’s personality. We will examine a very critical factor, which played an unforgettably important part in building his personality. When a child is born its mind is almost like a clean slate on which very little has yet been written. Children usually cannot dictate the choices their parents make. As they grow up, it is the choices made by the parents and others around them that, increasingly and progressively, differentiates them from their fellows; in this process, a ‘personality’ emerges and we begin to take on responsibility for our actions. A potter moulds a vase from clay on his turning wheel. At the beginning of the process, he has a shapeless lump of clay. During the creative act he fashions a recognisable image by giving it form. When it has form it has identity, it has a ‘self ’. Once a strong sense of self has developed during the later years of childhood and teens, the new and mostly unimportant day-to-day experiences of life usually serve to reinforce or at worse only slightly modify the status quo structure of the personality. Unless the child is a simpleton, a mother or father cannot hide his or her personality and inner leanings from the child no matter how tightly they wrap them in deceit and deception. This plays the most prominent part in establishing the direction of a child’s thoughts by creating and developing the features of his inner self. The fact that the picture of the psyche of the mother and father is gradually painted on the child’s heart and mind is absolute and cannot be refuted. As a result of this, psychological
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