During 1924 Hazrat Inayat Khan answered some questions about the teachings in “The Soul: Whence and Whether.” The question reported below does not clarify which ‘types’ referred are being referred to, but we can understand it as asking if it is possible to improve ourselves.

Question : Is it possible to change the type as one improves?

Answer : All is subject to change; one can change entirely from one type to another, even at such a vast difference as that between the sinner and the saint. I am always unwilling to admit wickedness when I am told that this person behaved very wickedly last month. I would say last month is too far away to judge – even if he were wicked yesterday, today there is hope for him. Man by nature is good, goodness is his very self, wickedness is only a cloud over him; it is an ever floating thing, sometimes here, sometimes removed. The clouds do not remain, so evil in man is just a cloud, it comes and goes, and if you trust in his goodness the clouds will disappear. Our very trust will disperse them, for the depth of every soul is good. It is only belief in this doctrine which can give reason for the belief in the goodness of God. God cannot be good if man is always wicked, for the goodness of man is from God.