When a child is born, it has a natural belief in God. This natural belief is called „Fitrah“ in Arabic. [1] If the child were left to its own devices, it would grow up knowing that there is only one God; but all children are exposed to the influences of their environment, be it directly or indirectly. The Prophet, God’s blessings and peace be upon him, reported that God said,
„I created My servants with the right religion, but the devils let them wander.“ [2]
The Prophet also said:
“Every child is born in the“ Fitrah ”state, but his parents make him a Jew or a Christian. It’s like an animal having normal offspring. Did you see anyone (a young animal) who was born maimed before you maimed it? ”[3]
Just as a child’s body submits to the physical laws that God has set in nature, so too does his soul naturally submit to the fact that God is their Lord and Creator. But his parents try to get him to follow their own way of life and the child is not strong enough in the early stages of his life to resist or contradict his parents. The religion that the child follows at this stage is that of tradition and education; and God will not be held accountable or punished for this religion. If the child matures and clear evidence of the wrongness of its religion is provided, then the adult must follow the religion of its knowledge and understanding. ”[4] At this point the devils try their best to to make him stay the way he is or to mislead him even more. The evil is made pleasant to him and he lives from now on in a fight between his Fitrah and his desires to find the right way. If he chooses his Fitrah, God will help him overcome his cravings, even though it may have taken almost his entire life to find refuge, because many people only embrace Islam at an older age, even though they do had already been inclined to do so.
Because of these powerful forces that fight the Fitrah, God chose certain righteous men and clearly revealed to them the right way of life. These men, whom we call prophets, have been sent to help our Fitrah fight their enemies. All the truth and best practices in these contemporary societies around the world come from their teachings; without their teachings there would be no peace and security in the world. For example, the laws of most western countries are based on the „Ten Commandments“ of the Prophet Moses, such as „you must not steal“ and you must not kill „etc., even if they pretend to have“ secular „governments that are free from any influence of religion are free.
It is therefore man’s duty to follow the path of the prophets because it is the only way to live in true harmony with his nature. He should also be very careful not to do anything just because his parents and their parents did, especially when he knows that these things are wrong. If he does not follow the truth, he will surely be one of the misguided people of whom God says in the Quran:
“And if they are told:“ Follow what God has sent down „, they say:“ We do we follow the one with whom we found our fathers „, even if their fathers did not understand anything and were not properly guided?“ (Quran 2: 170)
God forbids us to obey our parents when they ask us to do something that is contrary to the way of the prophets. He says in the Quran:
“And we told man to do good for his parents. But if they want to force you to put aside what you have no knowledge of, do not obey them. ” (Quran 29: 8)
Born as a Muslim
Those who are lucky enough to be born into Muslim families must be aware that not all such “Muslims” are automatically guaranteed paradise because the Prophet warned us that a large part of the Muslim nation did not Will follow Jews and Christians so closely that if they went into hiding a lizard, the Muslims would also climb after them. [5] He also said that before the last day, some races will actually worship idols. [6] Today there are Muslims all over the world who worship the dead, build tombs and mosques on graves and even perform rituals of worship around them. There are even some who claim to be Muslims and worship Ali as God. [7] Some have turned the Quran into a lucky charm, which they hang on chains around their necks. Therefore, those born Muslims around the world who just blindly follow what their parents did or believed to do must stop and remember that they are simply Muslims, whether by accident they are Muslims or by their own choice Islam is that which her parents, tribe, country or nation followed; but Islam is what the Prophet and his companions did.
Footnotes:
[1] Al-‚Aqiedah at- Tahaawieyah, (8th ed .. 1984) p.245.
[2] Sahieh Muslim
[3] Sahieh Al-Bukhari, Sahieh Muslim
[4] Al-‚Aqiedah at-Tahaawieyah, (5th ed .: 1972). P.273.
[5] Sahieh Al-Bukhari, Sahieh Muslim
[6] Sahieh Al-Bukhari, Sahieh Muslim
[7] The Nusayris in Syria and the Druzes in Palestine and Lebanon.
Source: https://www.islamland.com/deu/articles/die-fitrah