Foundations of Faith- Lesson 54: Harmony between Man's Free Will and his Fitrah
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In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Harmony between Fiṭrah (man's innate disposition) and free will:
The core pillars of at-Taklīf (divine moral responsibility) consist of the universe, reason, and fiṭrah (innate human nature). Just as intellect serves as an objective, rational measure for understanding reality, fiṭrah serves as an intuitive, psychological gauge for morality. It is through this innate disposition that you naturally distinguish truth (al-Haqq) from falsehood (al-Bātil). As Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ So set you (O Muhammad PBUH) your face towards the religion of pure Islamic Monotheism Hanifa (worship none but Allah Alone) Allah's Fitrah (i.e. Allah's Islamic Monotheism), with which He has created mankind. ﴿
Indeed, there is no command ordained by Allah except that He has woven a natural love for it into your very being; and there is no prohibition He has decreed except that He has instilled in you an instinctive aversion to it. As Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ …But Allah has endeared the Faith to you and has beautified it in your hearts, and has made disbelief, wickedness and disobedience (to Allah and His Messenger PBUH) hateful to you. ﴿
The ultimate secret to the profound happiness a person feels upon reconciling with their Lord is that they have, in essence, reconciled with their own true self and their original fiṭrah.
Furthermore, Allah the Almighty has surrounded us with the signs of the universe, and equipped us with fiṭrah, desires, and intellect. Crucially, He has also granted us free will. Without this freedom of choice, human actions would hold no moral weight. As Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ There is no compulsion in religion. ﴿
When a person chooses of their own free will to submit to their Lord and obey Him, their righteous deeds gain true moral value and spiritual worth.
