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Islam is your Birthright By (Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips)
The question which arises here is: How can all people be
expected to believe in the one true God, given their varying backgrounds,
societies and cultures? For people to be held responsible for worshipping
the one true God they all need to have access to knowledge of Him. The
final revelation teaches that all human beings have the recognition of
the one true God imprinted on their souls as a part of their very nature
with which they are created.
In the seventh chapter of the Quran (AlA'raaf, verses 172-173),
God explained that when He created Adam He caused all of Adam's descendants
to come into existence and He took a pledge from them saying:
" Am I not your Lord ? ' To which they all replied,'Yes, we testify to it." Allah then explained why He had all of mankind bear witness that He is their creator and the only true God worthy of worship. He said: "That was in case you (mankind) should say on the day of Resurrection, 'Verily we were unaware of all this. " (Soorah Al-A'raaf 7:172)
That is to say, we cannot claim on that day that we had
no idea that Allah, was our God and that no one told us that we were only
supposed to worship Allah alone. Allah went on to further explain that:
"It was, also in case you should say, 'Certainly
it was our ancestors who made partners ( with Allah ) and we are
only their descendants; will you then destroy us forwhat
those liars did ?(Soorah Al-A'raaf 7:173)
Thus, every child is born with a natural belief in God and an in-born inclination to worship Him alone. This in-born belief and inclination is called in Arabic the " Fitrah The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) reported that Allah said,
"I
created my servants in the right religion, but devils made them
go astray. " The Prophet (pbuh) also said," Each child is
born in a state of fitrah (in-born belief and inclination).
Then his parents make him a Jew, Christian or a Zoroastrian. " If
the child were left alone, he would worship God in his own way, but all
children are affected by their environment. So, just as the child submits
to the physical laws, which Allah has imposed on nature, in the same way
his soul also submits naturally to the fact that Allah is his Lord and
Creator. But, if his parents try to make him follow a different
path, the child is not strong enough in the early stages of his life to
resist or oppose the will of his parents. In such cases, the religion,
which the child follows is one of custom and upbringing, and God does not
hold him to account or punish him for this religion up to a certain stage
of his or her life.
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