Episode 3 - Innate Nature and the Computer
Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah, beloved. Today, we will begin with the foundation of foundations: establishing the existence of Allah, the Exalted, to lay the groundwork from which we proceed.
Brothers, what indicates to us the existence of Allah? It is the innate disposition (fitrah) and the intellect. We will first discuss the innate evidence.
What is Fitrah?
We often hear this word, what does it mean? And how does it indicate the existence of Allah, the Exalted?
Fitrah is a set of powers and inclinations deposited in the human soul, whose effects appear during his growth and interaction with his environment, beginning with his sucking of his mother's breast to nurse, then his attraction to sound principles and good morals.
Fitrah can be likened to the operating system of a computer. This operating system has components that cooperate and work together to produce a balanced human being.
Notice the saying of Allah, the Exalted: "Indeed, We have created man in the best of stature" [At-Tin: 4]. The best of stature includes the innate components necessary to achieve the purpose of man's creation. It is also understood from the saying of Allah, the Exalted, narrating about Musa, peace be upon him: "Our Lord is He who has given everything its creation, then guided it" [Ta-Ha: 50].
For indeed, among those whom He guided is man; Allah, the Exalted, has perfected man's stature and guided him with fitrah.
Guidances of Fitrah
He guided him with fitrah to:
- Acknowledge that he has a Creator and Sustainer for this universe, and feel the need for this Creator, as well as resorting to Him during hardships.
- And He guided him with fitrah that will form in him the intellectual premises, with which he understands the speech of this Creator and His command to him.
- And He guided him to ask about the purpose of his existence and his fate after death, which forms the driving force to seek the affair of his Creator and work with it.
- And He also guided him to the moral inclination of a natural love for good, justice, and righteousness, and hatred for evil, injustice, and corruption, in harmony with the legislative commands of the Creator, to which man inclines and loves.
- And He guided him to the feeling of free will, which makes him a chooser of his actions in obeying the Creator or disobeying Him: "And We have shown him the two ways" [Al-Balad: 10].
- And He guided him to the instincts necessary for his balanced living, as long as he is in the testing period on this earth; such as the instinct of motherhood and the instinct of self-preservation.
This expanded definition of fitrah is found close to it in the speech of Ibn Ashur in Al-Tahrir wa Al-Tanwir, at the saying of Allah, the Exalted: "Indeed, We have created man in the best of stature" [At-Tin: 4]. It is therefore an innate package that cooperates in a wondrous manner to produce a balanced human being who works for a purpose.
What Obscures Fitrah
Fitrah may be obscured during the course of man's life. Man may resist it, close his ears to its call, even suppress and extinguish it; so he no longer hears this deep call.
However, all of this does not negate the fact that it is originally and initially present within him, before this resistance. And it remains to attack him time after time, and is attracted to what uncovers it and clears the accumulated rubble on it.
The Dilemma of Atheists with Fitrah
Therefore, fitrah poses a great dilemma for atheists; for fitrah constitutes for them an external intervention from an omniscient, omnipotent force, transcending random biochemical interactions.
The dilemma of atheists is like that of a person who said to you: this computer device was formed by mere chance, its parts were assembled and harmonized without a maker, but rather a violent, turbulent wind gathered it in this manner.
We opened the computer... and found a complete, harmonized operating system, and programs, each with a purpose. How do you explain the existence of these programs, O atheist? If we swallow your laughable lie about "the solid body of the computer," how do you explain the existence of this "software content" on the device?
Bare biological and chemical interactions, random mutations, and natural selection... even if we go beyond that they cannot create a human being and grant him life, and we concede to you, and say: they created a human being and instilled life in him, these blind meanings... from where do they deposit in the mind and soul of this human being this harmonized, directed package? And how do you explain the formation of this package - it is it - in every new soul that is born?
Some atheists have acknowledged the dilemma, among them the British atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel in his famous book entitled: "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception Of Nature is Almost Certainly False" (Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False).
The book reviews three basic issues, indicating the inability of materialistic Darwinism to provide a solution to them: consciousness, perception, and values. And yet, the author remained an atheist!
Atheists' Dealings with the Dilemma of Fitrah
As for the general atheists, how did they deal with the dilemma? They hesitated between denying the innateness of these components; that is, some of them denied the existence of these components in man - from the beginning - with his birth, and considered them to be the effects of upbringing and the social environment. And among them are those who acknowledged their existence but tried to find materialistic explanations for them.
Both parties fell into wonders of stumbling, contradiction, and the illogical, as we will see, God willing.
Conclusion and What is to Come
This was an explanation of the definition of fitrah and the general problem of atheists with it. In the coming sessions... we will see the miserable dilemmas of atheists with each component of the mentioned components of fitrah to say with full conviction after that: "Praise be to Allah who has guided us to this, and we would not have been guided if Allah had not guided us" [Al-A'raf: 43].
It is worth mentioning that in these sessions about the innate evidence for the existence of Allah, the Exalted... I have greatly benefited from the book "Shumou' Al-Nahar" by Engineer Abdullah Al-Ujairi, may Allah preserve him.
Our next session, God willing, will be about the inclination towards religion, so be with us. And peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.