THE FIṬRAH is an innate faculty within every soul at birth in which there is a subconscious acknowledgement of a Lord, Creator and Maker, with a natural disposition towards good and aversion to evil. This makes it predisposed to the message of the sent Prophets and revealed Books that instruct and nurture this fiṭrah to perfection of character upon the foundation of Tawḥīd.
Allāh the Exalted said: “So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth. [Adhere to] the fitrah of Allah upon which He has created [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.” (30:30-). And the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: “Every child is born upon the fitrah (natural disposition) and it is his parents that turn him into a Jew, or turn him into a Christian, or turn him into a Magian. Just like a camel is born whole (intact), do you perceive any defect?”[1]
As such, every child is born innocent, pure, and inclined to truth. It is not as the Christians say, with a burden of sin and guilt and it is not as the ethnosupremacists among the Jews say, with special genes and “chosenness” (as it relates to them), and it is not as the Hindus say, reincarnated based upon a past life, and it is not as the Atheists and Materialists say, nothing more than dust gathered together through chance interactions, with belief in a Creator and religion being just a primitive survival mechanism and so on.
There also other basic elements in the fiṭrah such as anticipation of justice and simple axiomatic truths, such as a thing not being in two places at the same time. Hence, it is from the fiṭrah that axiomatic truths emanate and on top of which the scientific method of inquiry itself is built and in which the causes and effects and studied and comprehended, in corroboration of He who created and placed them. As such, genuine scientific inquiry and study, with sound reason, is inseparable from belief in a Creator and from fiṭrah. Hence, there can never be any conflict between uncorrupted fiṭrah, sound reason and authentic revelation.
WHEN SPEAKING about the fiṭrah and the ḥadīth, “Every child is born upon the fiṭrah”, Muslims often say that a child is born a “Muslim”, with the meaning of being upon Islām the religion. However, the fiṭrah is an innate faculty placed in every child that makes it inclined towards and accepting of Islām, the religion, absent any contrary influences and obstacles.
Shaykh Al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (رحمه الله) said:[2]
It is not binding from [the fact] that they are born upon the fiṭrah (original disposition), that they practically believe in Islām at the moment of birth, for Allāh brought us out of the wombs of our mothers while we know nothing. However, it is the safety of the heart and its acceptance of and desire for the truth which is Islām in the sense that if it was left without anything to change it [from this disposition], it would not be except a Muslim. This [innate] strength [of the heart’s] knowledge and action which by itself necessitates Islām, so long as no obstacle prevents it, is the fiṭrah of Allāh upon which He created mankind.
He also said:[3]
When it is said: “He is born upon the fiṭrah of Islām”, or “He was created ḥanif (upright)” and what is similar to that, then it is not intended by this that when he came out of his mother’s womb [that] he knows this religion and desires it. For Allāh the Exalted said: “And Allāh brough you out of the wombs of your mothers and you knew nothing.” (16:78-). However, its fitrah necessitates and requires the religion of Islām, acquaintance with Him and love of Him. Hence, the fiṭrah itself necessitates affirmation of its Creator, loving Him and making the religion sincerely for Him alone. The necessities and requirements of the fiṭrah are acquired incrementally, in accordance with the perfection of the fiṭrah, when it is safe from preventing obstacles.
He (رحمه الله) also said:[4]
فكلما حصل فيه قوة العلم والإرادة، حصل من معرفتها بربها، ومحبتها له، ما يناسب ذلك كما أنه ولد على أنه يحب جلب المنافع ودفع المضار بحسبه، وحينئذ فحصول موجب الفطرة، سواء توقف على سبب، وذلك السبب موجود من خارج، أو لم يتوقف، على التقديرين يحصل المقصود. ولكن قد يتفق لبعضها فوات الشرط أو وجود مانع، فلا يحصل مقصود الفطرة
When it is established that the fiṭrah itself necessitates His acquaintance and love, then the objective is attained through that, even if the fiṭrah of everyone does not independently achieves that. Rather, many of them, in the acquisition of that, need a cause that supports the fiṭrah, such as teaching and specialisation. [This is because] Allāh sent Messengers and revealed Books, and they called people to the fiṭrah’s necessity, [which is] knowing Allāh and His Tawḥīd.
When there is no preventive barrier that hinders the fiṭrah [from this], it will respond to Allāh and His Messengers, because within it is what necessitates [that response].
It is known that his saying: “Every child is born upon the fiṭrah”, that it is not intended by this that when the mother gives birth to him, that He is acquainted with Allāh, singling him out [in worship], in the sense that he comprehends that, for Allah says: “And Allāh brought you out from the wombs of your mothers while you know nothing” (16:78-). And we know by necessity that there he has no knowledge of this affair. However, his birth upon the fiṭrah necessitates that the fiṭrah necessitates that, and will necessitate it in accordance with [state and strength of the fiṭrah].
For every time strength of knowledge and desire is acquired therein, it will acquire such knowledge of its Lord and love of Him that is appropriate to it. [This is] similar to how it is born upon [the instinct] of loving the drawing of benefit [to itself] and repelling of harm [from itself], appropriate to itself. Thereby, the attainment of the fiṭrah’s necessity [which is knowing and loving its Lord], regardless of whether it depends on a cause, and that cause being external to it, or does not depend [on such a cause], in either of the two scenarios, the objective will be attained. However, to some [souls] there can coincide [from Allāh’s decree] the absence of a condition or the presence of a preventive barrier, and as a result, the objective of the fiṭrah is not attained.
Notes
01 Ibn Taymiyyah has explained that what is meant by the “fiṭrah” mentioned in the Qurʾān and the Sunnah is an innate faculty of the heart’s propensity, strength and inclination to know, desire, and accept the truth, being free and innocent, at birth, of what is false, and being inclined to sound beliefs.
02 This original disposition, if left alone, intact, and without any obstacles, will lead it necessarily to Islām, in the legislative sense, the religion of Islām, which is Tawḥīd, the pillars of Islām and the pillars of Īmān. The hearts are naturally desirous of seeking tranquility through worship and remembrance of Allāh, and it is only obstacles and diversions, from parents and the environment, that take the hearts away from that.
03 Hence, when it is said that the fiṭrah is Islām, it means the fitrah necessitates Islām. When a child is born therefore, it is born upon the fiṭrah and does not come out of its mother’s womb as a “Muslim”, but upon the fiṭrah that necessitates Islām. Islām is the dīn (religion) of fiṭrah.
04 Elsewhere, Ibn Taymiyyah (رحمه الله) said that the Messengers were not sent except for the corroboration (taqrīr) and perfection (takmīl) of the fiṭrah through revealed guidance. Hence, sound, uncorrupted revelation completes and perfects the fiṭrah and that is only the Qurʾān and Sunnah, with all prior revelations lost, altered and abrogated.
05 Thus, when a child is born and is left alone, intact, absent any other contrary teaching, it’s innate affirmation of a Creator, coupled with what it observes and enjoys of bounties and favours, as it grows and its faculties develop, will make it naturally inclined to gratitude and worship and then when it is taught and instructed in revealed guidance, then its fitrah is completed and perfected, this being the Islām that Allāh revealed, and to which He made the hearts naturally inclined to.
06 However, if there is contrary teaching, such as altered and abrogated religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Magianism or any other contrary ideology or philosophy in which there is associationism (shirk) and false beliefs, superstitions and fabrications, then this is considered to the child’s fiṭrah as acquired defects and wounds are to an animal that is born whole (intact) and healthy. This is why the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said in the ḥadīth of the fiṭrah: (كَمَا تُنَاتَجُ الإِبِلُ مِنْ بَهِيمَةٍ جَمْعَاءَ هَلْ تُحِسُّ فِيهَا مِنْ جَدْعَاءَ) “Just as a camel is born whole (intact), do you perceive any defect?” In the same way, the child is born whole and intact in terms of its innate disposition and recognition of its Creator and its desire to show worship and gratitude for observed and experienced favours.
Footnotes
1. Related by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.2. Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (4/247).
3. Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wal-Naql (8/383).
4. Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wal-Naql (8/460-461).
