Ibn Taymiyyah analyses the meanings of fiṭrah in the hadith “Every newborn is born upon the fiṭrah.” He reviews and critiques the views of some scholars, and clarifying the sound understanding of what fiṭrah is. He says:
- Fiṭrah is not mere potential or capacity. If it only meant the capacity for knowledge, there would be no need to mention parents changing it, and children who die young would not be distinct. Adults also have greater capacity, yet are disbelievers. So mere capacity cannot be the meaning.
- Fiṭrah is not simply qadar (pre destination). Some said fiṭrah means what Allah began creation upon in terms of life, death, happiness, or misery. Ibn Taymiyyah rejects this, because if so, the parents’ role in making the child a Jew or Christian would be meaningless, since everything is already just decree. It would also make no difference between teaching Islām or teaching any other belief.
- The correct meaning of fiṭrah is that the newborn is created already oriented towards īmān, tawḥīd, and monotheism, with a natural love of Allah and sincerity of religion for Him, similar to how a newborn desires milk. This inclination is then corrupted or changed by upbringing and external influences.
- Evidence for this: the hadith analogy of the sound beast whose ear is cut off shows that the fiṭrah (innate disposition) is intact at birth and then altered by others. Also, the Prophet’s words “upon this millah (religion)” and “I created My servants ḥunafāʾ (monotheists)” confirm it.
In short, Ibn Taymiyyah is clarifying that fiṭrah is an inborn orientation towards īmān, and tawḥīd, not mere capacity, nor predestination, and that deviation comes from external influences like parents or environment.
Translation: The very fiṭrah itself necessitates acknowledgment of its Creator, His love, and sincerity of religion for Him. The obligations and requirements of fiṭrah come about little by little, in proportion to the perfection of fiṭrah, if it is free from opposition. The intended meaning is not merely that fiṭrah has a stronger capacity for accepting this than other things, just as every newborn is born loving what suits his body, like the milk that suits him from the foods and drinks, so he desires it.
This is from the saying of Allah, “Our Lord is He who gave everything its creation, then guided it” (Ṭā Hā 50), and His saying, “He who created and proportioned, and He who determined and guided” (al-Aʿlā 2–3). So He, glorified is He, created the animal guided to seek what benefits it and repel what harms it, then this love and aversion develop in it little by little according to its need. Yet many bodies may be affected by things that corrupt what they were born upon of sound nature and correct habit.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (d. 463 AH) said: As for the disagreement of the scholars regarding the meaning of fiṭrah mentioned in this hadith and similar ones, a group said: fiṭrah in this place means the creation upon which the newborn was created of knowing his Lord.
It is as if he said: every newborn is born upon a creation by which he knows his Lord when he reaches the level of knowledge, meaning a creation different from the creation of beasts, which by their creation do not reach knowledge of that. They said: because al-Fāṭir is the Creator.
He said: They denied that the newborn is born upon īmān or kufr, or upon knowledge or denial.
Ibn Taymiyyah said: The one who holds this view, if he intends by fiṭrah merely the potential for knowledge and the capacity for it, then this is weak. For mere capacity does not necessitate that one is a monotheist, nor that he is upon the millah, and there would be no need then to mention his parents changing his fiṭrah, such that one would ask about one who died young. Also, capacity is greater in the adult than in the child.
When the Prophet forbade them from killing children, they said: but they are the children of the idolaters. He said: are not the best of you the children of idolaters? There is no newborn except that he is born upon fiṭrah. If what was meant was capacity, then adults would also be the same, while they are idolaters deserving of being killed.
If it is said he meant by fiṭrah the capacity for knowledge along with the will for it, then complete capacity together with complete will necessitates the existence of what is willed and capable. This proves they were created upon the capacity for knowledge and its will, and this necessitates īmān.
He said: Others said the meaning of his saying, peace and blessings be upon him, “every newborn is born upon the fiṭrah,” is the beginning upon which He began them. Meaning he is born upon what Allah began His creation upon, that He began them for life and death, happiness and misery, and what they will end up at upon reaching maturity of taking from their parents their beliefs.
They said: fiṭrah in the language of the Arabs means beginning, and al-Fāṭir is the one who begins and originates. So it is as if he said, peace and blessings be upon him, he is born upon what Allah began him upon of wretchedness or happiness and other than that from what he will end up upon and Allah created him upon. They used as proof His saying, “As He began you, you will return, a group He guided and a group upon them misguidance was decreed” (al-Aʿraf 29–30).
It was narrated with its chain from Ibn ʿAbbas, that he said: I did not know what “Fāṭir (Originator) of the heavens and the earth” meant until two Bedouins came disputing about a well, and one of them said: I am the one who faṭartuhā (began it), meaning I began it.
And they mentioned what is narrated from ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, in his supplication: O Allah, compeller of the hearts upon their fiṭrah, both the wretched and the happy.
Ibn Taymiyyah says: The reality of this saying is that every newborn is born upon what has preceded in the knowledge of Allah that he will end up upon. And it is known that all created beings are like this, so all the beasts are born upon what has preceded in Allah’s knowledge for them, and the trees are created upon what has preceded in His knowledge for them. In that case every created being is created upon fiṭrah.
Also, if this is what was meant, then his saying, “then his parents make him a Jew, or a Christian, or a Magian,” would have no meaning, for they only did with him what was the fiṭrah he was born upon according to this opinion. So there would be no difference between his parents making him a Jew or a Christian, and between their teaching him Islām and instructing him in it, and between teaching him other crafts, since all of that would fall under what has preceded in Allah’s knowledge.
Also, his analogy of this with the beast that is born whole then has its ear cut off shows that his parents changed what he was born upon.
Also, his saying, “upon this millah,” and his saying, “Indeed I created My servants ḥunafāʾ,” contradicts this.
Also, there is no difference between the state of birth and all the other states of a human being, for from the time he was a fetus to what has no end of his states, all of it is upon what has preceded in Allah’s knowledge. So to specify birth as being upon what corresponds to decree is a specification without a reason.
And it has been established in the authentic narration that before the soul is breathed into him, his provision, lifespan, deeds, and whether he is wretched or happy are written. So if it were said: every newborn into whom the soul is breathed is born upon fiṭrah, this would be closer to that meaning, even though the breathing of the soul comes after the writing.
Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wal naql (8/383-388)
