The Jekyll in Us

I am sure many have read ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. A story that stresses the theme of Good versus Evil. I am not going to discuss the story but what I am highly interested in is the theme. The binary opposition of Good/Evil is represented through ONE man. The manifestation of the conflict within one man allows the idea that every man is of good and evil. As if there were templates labelled ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ embedded in us and it was natural for human beings to manifest their inner potentials, which can be good or evil or both. It allows and acknowledges the belief that that we all have this bad side lurking behind in the dark waiting to be discovered. This ridiculous notion is a way of saying that it is natural that some people were born to be bad. If we actually live by this system, why must we punish the criminals? Because they can reason that it’s not their fault that their behaviour and desires are of evilness since everyone was born with built-in compartments of Good and Evil and it is highly likely that some will exude a higher inclination towards one over the other, or in this case, evilness over goodness. It is also no surprise then that some treat this as a matter of personal choices and hence revealing their dark nature to the world whenever deemed necessary. The bigger concerns are, if we accept this dualistic nature of human being, we should wonder why God created Heaven and Hell in the first place, why bother with rewards and punishments, and worst of all, why do good deeds when misdeeds are fine and approved of?

No. That is obviously not the case. There are no such templates in us. Evilness is not an inherent trait. It permeates us as soon as our morality starts to tumble down. We are all tested with unnecessary (and evil) urges. Yes, they are urges. Not traits. These urges are not meant to stay with us forever. But they’re not to be realised either. I see these urges as tests imposed by God on us. The most challenging test is our ability to hold ourselves from succumbing to the urges. What do we need then? One word; Faith. Nourish and nurture your faith in God. Build a great big wall of faith so that no evil forces can penetrate their way through it. Darkness comes in the absence of light. Evilness in the absence of faith.

Treating the negative traits as if we were all born naturally with them is just an immoral justification to make us feel good about ourselves and our wrongdoings. It is also our running away from being responsible and taking the blame of our own actions. Maybe some of us do not boldly declare their belief in the inherent evil traits. But it does not require words to see how we have actually been living according to such a distorted way of life. Let me give you an example which I deem might trigger a faintest sense of familiarity in some of us. We have been exposed to the immoral yet sadly, typical lifestyle of enjoying the teenage years with meaningless and frivolous activities, running through the pursuit of material aims and gains during adulthood and remembering God during later years of life, or simply put, during the traces of life left. Classifying our live like that is admitting that it’s fine to be faithless in our younger years because we can always repent later. Sure. That is if you still find yourself breathing after reading this very sentence. Grow up and learn the fact that your wrongdoings are attributed to your slackening in building up your faith and time does not wait on us.

Why do we only have Him wholeheartedly during our final phase of life when He spares us one complete cycle of it?




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