He said:

“Others said that the meaning of his statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ‘Every newborn is born upon the natural disposition,’ is the initial state in which He created them. That is, each is born upon the state in which Allah first created His creatures: He created them for life and death, felicity and wretchedness, and whatever state they would reach upon maturity through adopting their parents’ beliefs.”

“They said: In Arabic, fitrah means ‘beginning,’ and al-Fātir means ‘the Originator and Initiator.’ Thus, it is as though he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: ‘Each is born upon the state in which Allah first created him, whether wretchedness, felicity, or any other condition he will eventually reach and upon which Allah created him.’ They cited as evidence His words, Most High:

‘As He originated you, so will you return. A group He guided, while another group deserved to go astray.’

He also related, through his chain of transmission, that Ibn ‘Abbās said: ‘I did not know what “Originator of the heavens and the earth” meant until two Bedouins came disputing over a well. One of them said: “I