Description: The predisposition in humans to worship One God.
By Dr. Bilal Philips
When a child is born, it has with it a
natural belief in God. This natural belief is called in Arabic the
“Fitrah”. If the child were left alone, it would grow up aware of God in
His oneness, but all children are affected by the pressures of their
environment whether directly or indirectly. The Prophet, may God praise
him, reported that God said,
“I created My servants in the right religion but the devils made them go astray.”Saheeh Muslim
The Prophet also said,
“Each child is born in a state of
“Fitrah”, but his parents make him a Jew or a Christian. It is like the
way an animal gives birth to a normal offspring. Have you noticed any
(young animal) born mutilated before you mutilate them?”Saheeh
Al-Bukhari, Saheeh Muslim
So, just as the child’s body submits to
the physical laws which God has put in nature, its soul also submits
naturally to the fact that God is its Lord and Creator. But its parents
try to make it follow their own way and the child is not strong enough
in the early stages of its life to resist or oppose its parents. The
religion which the child follows at this stage is one of custom and
upbringing and God does not hold it to account or punish it for this
religion. When the child matures in youth and clear proofs of the
falsehood of his religion are brought to him, the adult must now follow
the religion of knowledge and reason.” At this point the devils try
their best to encourage him to stay as he is or to go further astray.
Evils are made pleasing to him and he must now live in the midst of a
struggle between his Fitrah and his desires in order to find the right
road. If he chooses his Fitrah, God will help him overcome his desires
even though it may take most of his life to escape, for many people
enter Islam in their old age although most tend to do so before that.
Because of all these powerful forces
fighting against the Fitrah God chose certain righteous men and revealed
to them clearly the right path in life. These men whom we call prophets
were sent to help our Fitrah defeat its enemies. All the truths and
good practices present in societies around the world today came from
their teachings, and if it were not for their teachings, there would be
no peace or safety in the world at all. For example, the laws of most
Western countries are based on the “Ten Commandments” of Prophet Moses,
like “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not kill” etc., even though
they claim to be “secular” governments, free from the influence of
religion.
Thus, it is man’s duty to follow the way
of the prophets since it is the only way which is truly in harmony with
his nature. He should also be very careful not to do things simply
because his parents and their parents did it, especially if knowledge
reaches him that these practices are wrong. If he does not follow the
truth, he will be like those misguided people about whom God says in the
Quran:
“If
they are told to follow what God has revealed, they say: ‘No, we will
continue to follow what we found our foreparents doing!’ Even though
their foreparents did not comprehend anything nor were they rightly
guided.” (Quran 2:170)
God forbids us from obeying our parents if what they want us to do is against the way of the prophets. He said, in the Quran,
“We
advise man to be good to his parents, but if they try to make you do in
My name what you know to be false, do not obey them.” (Quran 29:8)
Born Muslim
Those who are fortunate to be born in
Muslim families must be aware that all such “Muslims” are not
automatically guaranteed paradise, because the Prophet warned that a
large part of the Muslim nation would follow the Jews and Christians so
closely that if they entered the den of a lizard, Muslims would climb in
after them as well. He also said that before the Last Day some people
would actually worship idols. All of these people will have Muslim names
and consider themselves Muslims, but it will be of no benefit to them
on the Day of Judgement. Today, there are Muslims all around the world
praying to the dead, building tombs and masjids over graves and even
performing rites of worship around them. There are even some who claim
to be Muslim and worship Ali as God. Some have turned the Quran into a
good luck charm which they hang on chains around their necks, in their
cars or on key chains etc. Therefore, those born into such a Muslim
world who blindly follow whatever their parents did or believed, have to
stop and think whether they are simply a Muslim by chance or a Muslim
by choice, whether Islam is what their parents, tribe, country, or
nation did or does, or what the Quran teaches and what the Prophet and
his companions did.
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