Is Fitrah Knowledge of Truth IN ITSELF, or just a feeling of readiness/acceptance/inclination TOWARDS Truth?

[Hassan_'Abd_Allah]

Assalamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu

The following is an excerpt from Shaykhul Islaam ibn Taimiyyah:

The Fitrah is to the truth as the light of the eye is to the sun. Everyone with eyes can see the sun if there are no veils over them. The erroneous beliefs of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism act like veils, preventing people from seeing the truth. It is common experience that the people whose natural sense of taste is not spoiled love sweets; they never dislike them unless something spoils the sense of taste.

However, the fact that people are born with Fitrah does not mean that a human body is actually born with Islamic beliefs. To be sure, when we come out of the wombs of our mothers, we know nothing. We are only born with an uncorrupted heart which is able to see the truth of Islam and submit to it. If nothing happens which corrupts the heart we will eventually become Muslims. This power to know and to act which develops into Islam when there is nothing to obstruct it or affect its natural working is the fitrah on which God has created man.

This makes it seem as if Fitrah entails no knowledge per se, just a sense of receptivity. There is no "data" stored in fitrah, so to speak.

However, in another fatwa of this blessed shaykh I came across the following:

No Prophet has ever addressed his people and asked that they should first of all know the Creator, that they should look into various arguments and infer from them His existence, for every heart knows God and recognizes His existence. Everyone is born with the fitrah, only something happens afterwards which casts a veil over it. Hence, when one is reminded, one recalls what was there in one's original nature (fitrah).

That is why God sent Moses (and Aaron) to Pharaoh. He said, "Speak (to him) in soft words, he might recall" [20:44] [that is, he might recall] the knowledge inherent in his original nature regarding his Lord and His Blessings on him, and that he depends upon Him completely.

This second quote makes it seem life fitrah actually contains a degree of knowledge in regards to the oneness of God.

So how do we reconcile between the two quotes, and which is the correct view?

[AbdulWahaab]

There are two types of fitra 1) Fitrah of human body, 2) and fitrah of human concious. Both type of fitra can be reprogramed, and in connection with second one prophet (sa) stated child is born Muslim but the parents make him christian or jew, in other words they reprogram his concious with set of belief values. The phisical fitrah earliest form of alteration is cutting of ears of dogs and shaytan said in Quran I will make son of Adam (as) to slit the ears of cattle.

So he is talking about two different fitrah. Here he mentions phisical fitra: "It is common experience that the people whose natural sense of taste is not spoiled love sweets; they never dislike them unless something spoils the sense of taste." in other words when phisical fitra is for what ever reason changed the person dislikes sweets." When the taste buds are spoiled the person will not like sweets, in other words when the Fitrah is corrupted the person will not like teaching of Islam, but this does not mean that person did not have pure Islamic Fitrah ( Fitrah of concious). Every person is born with Islamic Fitrah but after corruption he becomes what ever:

No Prophet has ever addressed his people and asked that they should first of all know the Creator, that they should look into various arguments and infer from them His existence, for every heart knows God and recognizes His existence. Everyone is born with the fitrah, only something happens afterwards which casts a veil over it. Hence, when one is reminded, one recalls what was there in one's original nature (fitrah).

One statement explains the other. You have to fully understand the concept of fitrah and its types. You have to infer some info which is absent from this to fully understand it, i did add some.