“And He found you lost, so He guided [you]”

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, Word For Peace 

There is an authentic hadith narration attributed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in which he is reported to have said:

کل مولود یولد علی الفطرۃ

“Every child is born in a state of fiṭrah (a natural disposition, or a natural state of being).”

The full hadith report goes like this:

قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: ” ما من مولود إلا يولد على الفطرة، فابواه يهودانه، وينصرانه ويمجسانه، كما تنتج البهيمة بهيمة جمعاء، هل تحسون فيها من جدعاء؟

Every child is born in a state of fiṭrah (a natural disposition, or a natural state of being). But their parents make them Jews, or Christians, or Magaians [Majusis—a term meaning Zoroastrians of the Prophet’s times], just as a cow gives birth to a calf (in a natural state). Do you observe any among them that is maimed or mutilated?

(Sahih Muslim: Kitab al-Qadr, Hadith number: 6755).

The above hadith, and the express meaning of the “nature” in this hadith and the connotation of “being born in a state of fiṭrah”, is open to various interpretations.  Both modernist and classical Islamic scholars have their own takes on it. But what cannot be disputed is the Prophet’s emphasis on a child’s basic right to remain in his/her ‘natural state’—a state of original disposition or natural constitution, or innate nature—depending on howsoever you translate or interpret the Arabic word of fiṭrah. The major interpretations of the term and its coinage in the Islamic divinity include the above two understandings.

In fact, there is no unanimously agreed upon meaning of the entire hadith either. Therefore, in this essay, an interdependent and neutral attempt is being made in order to understand as to what Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) meant by basically stating that “Every child is born in a state of fiṭrah“.

In one of his sermons delivered by Maulana Maududi in 1952, which were compiled and is famously known as “Khutbaat”, there’s an interesting discussion on this. Significantly, Maulana Maududi has expressed the idea that “man does not carry with him Islam from his mother’s womb”.

This understanding contradicts the conventional interpretation of the above hadith, as rendered by our local preachers and proselytizers. According to them, it is generally taken to mean that every child is born with the ‘natural religion’, which is none other than Islam. Therefore, Maulana Maududi’s above statement which is derived from his Khutbaat, has been objected to by most of his followers themselves, not to speak of those who disagree with his school of thought. But the correct way would be to understand his position from himself, rather than from someone else.

Maulana tried to answer this question in his bid to dispel the doubts of his contemporary Ulema and Islamic clergymen:

“The fact stated in this hadith is that man does not come to this world from God with disbelief or polytheism or atheism. But rather, he comes with a pure nature which does not know any deity or god other than one God and His divine principles and natural laws. Man is accustomed to nothing but natural principles. If man persists in this nature and the prevailing atmosphere does not corrupt him and turns him towards polytheistic thoughts or deeds of disbelief and misguided morals and attributes, then he should not hesitate to accept the teachings of the Prophets. He would rather take their teachings as something that belonged to him only, as if it were his own thing that someone else brought and gave back to him”.

(Tarjuman al-Qur’an, October, November, 1952)

But that is only one aspect of the truth. The other aspect is that what we call “Islam” does not come to a person automatically, but only through Prophets and Messengers of God. A person becomes a Muslim only when he/she accepts the religion as presented by the Prophets after properly knowing and understanding it. Knowing the religion and believing in it by heart is essential, even if a person adheres to the nature on which God has created him. Until he/she reaches the age of consciousness, his/her embrace of the faith will depend on recognizing the fact that he/she has received the religion and accepted it through any of the Prophets (peace be upon them).

The person who does not believe this, is actually saying that the ‘nature’ that man brings from his mother’s womb is the whole of Islam and that is enough for man to be rightly guided. In other words, it means that the revelation of the Scriptures and the coming of the Prophets is absolutely unnecessary. However, the Qur’an repeatedly states in clear terms that man, after all, needs guidance from God in any way, and that it can be achieved by a person only through the Prophets not directly.

Man’s salvation depends on accepting and following this divine path, as the Qur’an addresses mankind:

فَإِمَّا يَتِيَنَّكُم مِّنِي هُدًى فَمَن تَبِعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

(Al-Baqarah: 38)

“So, if guidance comes to you from Me, then those who follow My guidance will have no fear, nor will they grieve.”

It is patently clear now that the nature of man is itself divine in origin. God has endowed every human being with an inner guidance and commonsensical knowledge of the good and the bad, righteousness and immorality, even if he/she follows no organized religion. Everyone is born in this sound natural state, which is sufficient enough to guide him/her towards the divine truth. But to reveal the truths, prophetic guidance is essential.

This is precisely what the Prophetic tradition “Every Child Is Born In A Natural State Of Being” implies.

Nature’s capacity is so great that when the path of truth is presented to someone through revelation, he/she recognizes and confirms it, but it is not in man’s power to guide himself without revelation. Who can be saner than the holy Prophet? His condition was such that until the revelation gave him guidance, he was in a disarray i.e. he was lost and was not certain whether where his path was, as the holy Qur’an states below:

وَوَجَدَكَ ضَالًّا فَهَدَىٰ