They said: “For ‘the Originator’ means ‘the Creator.’”

He said: “They denied that a newborn is created with faith or disbelief, recognition or denial.”

I say: If the proponent of this view means by the natural disposition the capacity and ability to know one’s Lord, then this is a weak interpretation. Mere capacity for such knowledge does not imply that a person is an upright monotheist or follows the religion. Nor would there be any need to mention his parents changing his natural disposition, leading to the question about someone who dies in childhood. Moreover, this capacity is more complete in an adult than in a child.

When the Prophet forbade them to kill children, they said: “They are the children of polytheists.” He replied:

“Are not the best of you children of polytheists? Every newborn is born upon the natural disposition.”

If capacity were what was meant, adults would possess it too, despite being polytheists deserving of being killed.

If, however, he means by the natural disposition the capacity for this knowledge together with the will to attain it, then complete capacity coupled with a fully determined will necessarily entails the realization of what is willed and lies within one’s power. This indicates that they were created with both the capacity to know their Lord and the will to do so, which necessarily entails faith.