During the 4th century B.C., or thereabouts, a series of dialogues or discussions were penned by Plato, one of the greatest of the Ancient Greek philosophers, which dealt with a number of profound existential themes: the origins of moral virtue, the value of justice, the nature of love, the reality of the soul, what defines good governance. Many of the dialogues take the form of Plato’s teacher, Socrates, posing questions to a person or a group so as to help them examine the validity of their beliefs and to wean out any contradictions.
In one such dialogue, The Meno, Socrates takes an ignorant slave boy and, by asking him a series of questions, manages to extract from him the fundamental axioms and rules of geometry. Having done so, Socrates insists that the boy knew the foundations of geometry all along. He had merely forgotten them. In Plato’s belief, each person is born with an innate knowledge of things; including knowledge of what is good and evil, right and wrong. Thus a baby lives close to the truth, but as it grows up it forgets and so falls into ignorance. Through proper inquiry, Plato suggested, knowledge may again be “recollected”.
Now in Plato’s exaggerated conviction about knowledge lies an elemental truth about human nature. The Qur’an makes it known that simply by being born into the human condition, man possesses a certain intuitive knowledge of, and an attraction to, truth, beauty and goodness. In Islam, such an innate recognition is part of man’s primordial nature, or fitrah which, in a way, may be said to resemble the “conscience”. So set your face to the upright religion, the primordial nature which God has instilled in man, says the Qur’an [30:30]. Hence, as turned out from God’s creative hand, man is born pure and innocent, inclined towards virtue, possessing an inborn capacity to sense, as it were, God’s divinity. Man’s fitrah, therefore, is to love God, truth, and beauty, and to feel an aversion towards selfishness, falsehood and evil. Such is his true nature; much as the nature of a lamb is to be gentle or a horse to be swift.
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Islam’s view of human nature, therefore, is an optimistic one. Unlike in Christianity, which insists that everyone is born into a state of original sin, the Islamic faith begins with the premise that man is essentially a creature of goodness, and that any veering away from this norm is as a result of his socialisation and upbringing. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said: ‘Each child is born upon the primordial nature, but it is his parents that make of him a Jew, Christian, or Magian.’ [Bukhari, no.1358] These three religions, well-known to the Prophet’s companions and contemporaries, are here contrasted with the “primordial nature” which, as the Qur’an sees it, consists of man’s instinctive recognition of God. Fitrah, in other words, is here equated with Islam.
So in the cosmology of the Qur’an, every human being is born predisposed to Islam, the primordial religion (din al-fitrah), and is perfectly capable of receiving the truths manifested by the light of divine revelation: that God is One, Unique, possessing the attributes of perfection, and that none deserves to be worshipped save Him. But man, when entangled in customs, distractions, whims, selfish desires and false teachings, becomes contentious, slavish, hankering after what is forbidden, and deflected from the pure worship of the One true God. And it is precisely for this that prophets were sent and heavenly scriptures revealed: to help man recollect his purpose of creation and to retrieve this fitrah.
Greetings,
I very much like this post. Thank you so much for it.
One thing that long ago attracted me to Islam was precisely what you indicated here, that is, that, unlike Christianity, Islam recognizes that mankind is born in a state of goodness. That, to my limited understanding, implies that we are more a part of the Creator, and not isolated from Him.
Thank you again.
All good wishes,
robert
We are indeed part of our Creator’s care, compassion, love and concern and are not isolated from it. Man, above all other creatures, has been given the potential to know God and seek intimacy with Him to a degree not possible by other creatures. Our vocation is to fill our hearts with knowledge of God and loving submission to Him. As that transformation begins to take place within us, we are drawn ever closer to Him and His love.
May Allah grant us His love, and the love of those whom He loves, and the love of those deeds that will draw us closer to His love. Amin!
i agree with Robert..no human would have been placed on this earth without God’s absolute love….children of the universe of love…..born without any sin…….yet as life occurs, mistakes happen..and that is all part of the big picture of life…without that….we would nor could be human….which is rather wonderful…yet within those errors, rectification is expected…..so as to continue along an ordained path….yet some of us miss the signs and the understanding of simply saying….so sorry…..and moving on..to the next step , if we have faltered….it just takes a little longer to get onto the next rung of life……..
That more or less sums up the saga of Man: in our journey to Him we stumble and fall, yet with His grace and compassion we pick ourselves up; dust ourselves down; and continue on the path. We then stumble again, then pick ourselves up .… Such is the cycle of the seeker.
Thank you for that reminder, and may He help us to climb the rungs that lead to Him.
a beautiful piece, enjoyed reading, jazak’Allah
Barakallahu fikum Umm Shaakirah. May we each be made to recollect and retrieve.
Jazak’Allah khair Shaykh for another enlightening piece. This passage in particular I found interesting:
“In Plato’s belief, each person is born with an innate knowledge of things; including knowledge of what is good and evil, right and wrong. Thus a baby lives close to the truth, but as it grows up it forgets and so falls into ignorance. Through proper inquiry, Plato suggested, knowledge may again be “recollected”.”
When I read this the first thing that came to my mind was where Allah mentions that He “taught Adam the names of all things”. Of course that’s taking quite an interpretative look at it, the real reality of what Allah means is with Him alone.
Barakallahu fikum britishmisk. That’s quite an interesting take. How it squares with the classical commentaries on the said verse is a matter that requires some deliberation (and asking).
MashaAllah!
MashaAllah
Jazakumullahu khayran Ali Shah & Shabana.