Allah says:

“Allah brought you out of your mothers’ wombs knowing nothing.”

We know necessarily that a child has no knowledge of this matter. Yet being born upon innate nature means that this nature itself entails such knowledge and calls for it in accordance with its capacity.

As the child’s capacity for knowledge and will develops, his innate nature acquires a corresponding degree of knowledge and love of its Lord, just as he was born disposed to seek benefits and ward off harms according to his capacity. Thus, whether the realization of what innate nature entails depends upon a cause that exists externally, or does not depend upon such a cause, the intended point is established in either case.

In some instances, however, a necessary condition may be absent or an obstacle present, so that the intended outcome of innate nature is not realized.

[The Third Argument]

It may be said:

It is well known that when souls have a teacher and a particularizing influence, they acquire knowledge and will accordingly.

It is also well known that every soul is receptive to knowledge and to desiring the truth.

Mere teaching and particularization would not produce knowledge and will unless the soul possessed a capacity to receive them.

Otherwise, if someone were to teach animals and inanimate objects and urge them on, they would not acquire what human beings acquire. The cause is the same in both cases, so we know that the difference lies in their respective capacities to receive its effects.

Thus, people hear the same Quran, yet differ in its effects upon their knowledge and inner state. The same applies to all other speech.

This being so, we know that souls possess a capacity that gives rise to knowledge and will.