Before imperfect people, we were perfect people!

Given the imperfection of man, his lapses and the promised punishment that awaits those lapses, I’m sometimes tempted to ask why a perfect Creator would create such an imperfection, only to penalise him for what could’ve been prevented. 

It would’ve been an easy resolve if we were ordinary inventions. We would’ve declared some of us ‘defective goods’- either not just fit for our intended purposes or inadequate in needed information or instructions, in order that we may be entitled to a replacement or repair. Commercial students that are familiar with the ‘Sale of Goods Act’ should overstand what I am talking about.

However, when this kind of thoughts hit, I don’t just yell ‘Astafirullah’ and stop there. I do some analogical thinking to agree with my faith in the original perfection of creation, and mostly I take the computer to draw nearest parallel. I believe we were perfect when God first created us, and our brains and hearts like the computer CPU were as pure as the driven snow, but with the means or freewill to be as bad as anything could be.

I believe that from birth, we were untouched computer hardware. Just that some may be catalogued as supercomputers, some minicomputers and some personal and very convenient computers, but still by way of “freewill”, each and every one of us is created with the capacity to select and run any software package or programme, depending on our individual tastes and requirements.

In the case of man, the act of installing and using these programmes and software are contained in divinely revealed sacred texts, just as computer users are given user’s guides or manuals to give them assistance in using a particular computer system; and even during installation or use, we’re prompted that some programmes once done cannot be undone, while some can, and perhaps that also explains the different sins and degree of forgiveness.

For the computer, whatever you install is what’s operated on by the system processor. Similarly, things that we have seen, are being told or pressured into, and those that we freely dig up by ourselves become the things that command our doings. Sometimes and due to the hardware disparity I mentioned above, there are humans who have the capacity to influence the character, development and behaviour of other humans.

Such influences are supposedly motivated by the devil and they include hypocrites, sycophants, liars, thieves, cheats, and so forth.  In computer science they are called viruses. They are malware programmes that when executed, will replicate and insert copies or modified copies into other computer programmes, corrupting data files or the boot sector of the hard drive. When this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected".

However, computers have software designed to detect and destroy these viruses. In the case of humans, the scripture is what guides us aright and of course the Will of God is what protects us from such people, which ‘Will’ also makes our journey to the straight path easy.

When we get stuck with our computers, we consult specialists, folks who’ve got relevant skills in computer science, information systems and software engineering to help in the maintenance of our IT equipment. Same way, humans also have spiritual, legal and psychological experts who are knowledgeable enough to advise and give rulings on matters, some will look to their parents and other respectable folks for inspiration and guidance.

I could’ve cut a long story short and save y’all the long read by simply saying that before imperfect people, we were perfect people...but then, even though it is 2015, not every computer is digital yet, some are still stuck in the analogue era and have to be fed with immense physical quantity :-P