Our God — Page 39
Logical Arguments for the Existence of God 39 َْمْر َ اَی ْ اِخْتَرَعَہ، وَابْتَدَءَہ، وَاَنْشَاءَہ ال فُلَن ٌ فَطَر َ ا Thus, fa t ara means to make something that did not exist before; he originated it and—having brought it into existence from noth- ing—enabled it to progress further in life. On this basis the lexi- cologists have translated fi t rah as: الصفۃ التی یتصف بھا کل ّ مولود فی اوّل زمان خلقتہ. That is, fi t rah is the name given to those qualities invested in every child from the moment of its creation. According to this definition, human fi t rah [nature] means the features and charac- teristics which are not developed under the influence of environ- mental factors, but are endowed in man, through the process of creation and in his nature, in order to enable him to explore the avenues of progress. Everything has certain characteristics known as its natural traits. The sum total of such characteristics is fi t rah. These characteristics and attributes are either suppressed or aug- mented under the influence of environmental factors and on that depends the progress or decline of the person. Everyone can ana- lyse themself and find out which way their inborn qualities are heading. For instance, truthfulness is an innate quality; i. e. it is an innate feature of man to utter only that which is in accordance with the facts. Therefore, every child initially conforms to this innate quality. However, when he sees that his parents sometimes become upset when they see him doing a particular thing which he very much likes to do, the desire to do that act grows in him, but fearing their displeasure he tries to hide it from them. That is the first veil that befalls his fi t rah. Gradually he is prepared to