The word fiṭrah
Now, we shall begin with the first issue. What kind of word is the word fiṭrah as it appears in the Qur’an?
فِطْرَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا لاَ تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ
…the origination of Allah according to which He originated mankind. (30:30)
The root-word faṭara (فطر) is repeatedly mentioned in the Qur’an:
فَطَرَهُنَّ
…originated them. (21:56)
فَاطِرِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأرْضِ
…the originator of the heavens and the earth. (6:14, and five other verses)
إِذَا السَّمَاءُ انْفَطَرَتْ
When the sky is rent apart. (82:1)
مُنْفَطِرٌ بِهِ
…wherein will be rent apart. (73:18)
In all instances, origination (ibdā‘) and creation (khalq) are embedded in the meaning of the word. In a sense, ibdā‘ means creation without any precedence. The word fiṭrah with this form (ṣīghah) – that is, upon the rhythm of fi‘lah – only appears in one verse and it refers to the human being and religion by saying that the religion is “the origination of Allah” (fiṭrat Allāh):
فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًا فِطْرَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا لاَ تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ
So set your heart on the religion as a people of pure faith, the origination of Allah according to which He originated mankind. There is no altering Allah’s creation. (30:30)
We shall later present at some length the exegesis of this verse.
Those who are familiar with the Arabic language know that the rhythm (wazn) fi‘lah signifies a type or kind. Jalsah means sitting while jilsah means a particular kind of sitting.
جَلَسْتُ جِلْسَةَ زَيْدٍ,
“I sat the way Zayd sat.”
Ibn Mālik says in Alfiyyah,[1] thus:
وَفَعْلَةٌ لِـمَرَّةٍ كَجَلْسَهْ وَفِعْلَةٌ لِهَيْئَةٍ كَجِلْسَهْ[2]
As we have said, in the Qur’an the word fiṭrah appears in relation to the human being and his relationship with religion:
فِطْرَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا
That is, in the same particular type of origination that we have given to the human being; in other words, the human being is created in a unique way. This term that they describe today as “man’s characteristics” – if we believe in the human being as having a set of characteristics in the essence of creation – suggests to mean fiṭrah. Man’s fiṭrah means the characteristics which exist in the essence of man’s creation or origination.
Ibn Athīr’s words
One of the authoritative books which have been written on ḥadīth terminology is a book entitled Al-Nihāyah by Ibn Athīr – who is somehow famous and since we want to cite evidence from authoritative sources, we quote from this book[3] – just as Al-Mufradāt[4] by Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī is a very fine treatise on the terminology of the Qur’an. Rāghib closely scrutinized the etymology of Qur’anic terms while Ibn Athīr did the same for ḥadīth terminologies.
In Al-Nihāyah, Ibn Athīr appropriately quotes this famous tradition:
كُلُّ مَوْلُودٍ يُولَدُ عَلىٰ ٱلْفِطْرَةِ…
“Everyone born is born in [the state of] fiṭrah…”[5]
That is, every person born is born in the Islamic state of fiṭrah but his parents (external factors) make him deviant by making him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian. We shall discuss this tradition later. As he quotes this tradition, he defines the word fiṭrah, thus:
أَلْفِطْرُ: ألْإِبْتِدَاءُ وَالْإِخْتِرَاعُ.
“Fiṭr: initiation and creation.”
That is, initial creation. What is meant by “initial creation” – which is also occasionally called ibdā‘ – is non-imitational creation. God’s handiwork is fiṭr; it is ikhtirā‘ (invention or creation) but that of a human being is usually taqlīd (imitation). Even in a human invention, there are elements of imitation. What does it mean?
Human handiworks are an imitation of nature. In other words, earlier there is something which exists in nature and the human being takes it as the model and designs something on the basis of it, builds something, or carves something. Occasionally, a person invents or innovates also and has the ability to invent and innovate, but basic foundations of any human invention or innovation is the nature itself. That is, he copies it from nature. (In Islamic sciences – in Nahj al-Balāghah[6] and the like – this point has been much highlighted and definitely such is the case.) [But] God’s handiwork is not copied from any other’s handiwork, for whatever exists is His handiwork and there is nothing which precedes His handiwork.
As such, the word fiṭr is equivalent to initiation and invention; that is, an action which is not imitated from something else.
Ibn Athīr then says, thus:
وَٱلْفِطْرَةُ أَلْحَالَةُ مِنْهُ كَالْجِسْلَةِ وَٱلرِّكْبَةِ.
“And fiṭrah means a [unique] state [or type] of it (creation) such in the case of [the words] jislah (a particular way of sitting) and rikbah (a particular way of standing).”[7]
وَٱلْمَعْنىٰ أَنَّهُ يُولَدُ عَلىٰ نَوعٍ مِنَ ٱلْجِبِلَّةِ وَٱلطَّبْعِ ٱلْمُتَهَيِّئِ لِقَبُولِ ٱلدِّينَ فَلَوْتُرِكَ عَلَيْهَا لاسْتَمَرَّ عَلىٰ لُزُومِهَا.
That is, the human being has been created with the particular kind of nature, disposition and essence in that he is perceptive to the acceptance of religion unless external and compulsive factors stand along his way.
Ibn Athīr then says that the word fiṭrah repeatedly appears in the corpus of ḥadīth. For instance, it is thus stated in a tradition from the Holy Prophet (ṣ),[8] which Ibn Athir did not quote earlier:
عَلىٰ غَيْرِ فِطْرَةِ مُحَمَّدٍ.
In other words,
عَلىٰ غَيْرِ دِينِ مُحَمَّدٍ.
That is, here instead of the word dīn (religion) what appears is the word fiṭrah. Imām ‘Alī (‘a) is also reported to have said:
وَجَبَّارُ ٱلْقُلُوبِ عَلىٰ فِطَرَاتِهَا.[9]
God, the Exalted, who has created the hearts, is the jabbār[10] of the hearts on the basis of their dispositions. Here, fiṭrah takes plural form – fiṭarāt. What we can observe here is that what is considered intrinsic to the human being from the Islamic viewpoint is not only one; in fact, the human being has fiṭrahs. Ibn Athīr thus says:
عَلىٰ فِطَرَاتِهَا أى عَلىٰ خِلَقِهَا.[11]
[1] Al-Khulāṣat al-Alfiyyah, better known shortly as Alfiyyah, is a rhymed book of Arabic grammar written by Ibn Mālik (Abū ‘Abd Allāh Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Mālik) in the 13th century. Having at least 43 commentaries written about it, this work is one of the two major foundations of a beginner’s education in Arab societies until the 20th century. [Trans.]
[2] ‘Abd al-Laṭīf ibn Muḥammad al-Khaṭīb, Matn Alfiyyat Ibn Mālik (Kuwait: Maktabat Dār al-‘Arūbah Li’n-Nashr wa’t-Tawzī‘, 2006), 33 – Abniyat al-Maṣādir,line 455. [Trans.]
[3] There were three brothers who were all known as Ibn Athīr, each of whom was a prominent Muslim scholar. They were ‘Izz al-Dīn, Majd al-Dīn and Ḍiyā’ al-Dīn. Kāmil al-Tawārīkh and Usd al-Ghābah are written by ‘Izz al-Dīn while Jāmi‘ al-Uṣūl which is a book on ḥadīth and Al-Nihāyah which is one of the fine and rigorous books which explain ḥadīth terminology are authored by Majd al-Dīn.
[4] Al-Mufradāt, or Al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qur’ān in full, is a dictionary of Qur’anic terms by the Muslim scholar Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (Abū’l-Qāsim al-Ḥusayn ibn Mufaḍḍal ibn Muḥammad), which is widely considered prominent among works of Qur’an-related Arabic lexicography. [Trans.]
[5] Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, “Kitāb al-Janā’iz,” sections (abwāb) 80, 93.
[6] Nahj al-Balāghah (The Peak of Eloquence) is a collection of speeches, sayings and letters of the Commander of the Faithful, Imām ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (‘a) compiled by Sharīf al-Raḍī Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn (d. 406 AH/1016). Its contents concern the three essential topics of God, man and the universe, and include comments on scientific, literary, social, ethical, and political issues. With the exception of the words of the Glorious Qur’an and of the Holy Prophet (ṣ), no words of man can equal it in eloquence. So far, over a hundred commentaries have been written on the Nahj al-Balāghah, indicating the importance of this treatise to scholars and learned men of research and investigation. For further information, visit: http://www.al-islam.org/nahjul. [Trans.]
[7] I mention these in particular so that when we define it (fiṭrah) it later, you would know that the said definition is based upon literal meaning of the word. Prominent grammarians used to describe it as correct literal meaning.
[8] The abbreviation, “ṣ”, stands for the Arabic invocative phrase, ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa ālihi wa sallam (may God’s blessings and peace be upon him and his progeny), which is mentioned after the name of the Holy Prophet Muḥammad (ṣ). [Trans.]
[9] [There is a similar saying mentioned in Najh al-Balāghah:
وَجَابِرُ ٱلْقُلُوبِ عَلىٰ فِطَرَاتِهَا.]
[10] That is, the Compensator or Creator.
[11] Ibn Athīr, Al-Nihāyah, vol. 3, p. 457.
(An excerpt from Murtada Mutahhari, Fitrah: Man’s Natural Disposition, trans. Mansoor Limba, pp. 12-17)
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