You said that every
child of Adam is a sinner. Does that mean we are born with sin?
No. Muslims believe that every child is born
in a pure, natural state. Left to their own, children will grow up
instinctively seeking the one true God, Allah. However, environmental
influences and parents turn a child away from the pure, natural state. A
saying of the prophet, on whom be peace and the blessings of God, confirms
this. It says that each child is born in a natural state just as, for
example a baby animal is born without any brand on its body; then the
owner brands it with his own mark. Similarly, parents too would give a
newborn their own religious identity (see Sahih al-Bukhari,
Arabic-English, vol.8, no.597 and Sahib Muslim, Eng. Trans. vol 4, no.
6423).
The saying "every child of Adam is a sinner" means that
every human being is a sinner, sin being an inevitable outcome of a
fallible human nature. No matter how righteous a person is, he or she may
at times disobey God through ignorance or forgetfulness. The prophet, on
whom be peace, meant to emphasize that the best person is the one who
seeks forgiveness for his or her sins. Furthermore, he said that one who
repents from sin is like one without sin. God says in the Qur'an that He
will replace the evil deeds with good for those who repent, believe, and
do righteous deeds (see Qur'an 25:70).
Another saying of the
prophet indicates that God actually intended that humans will be a species
that commit sins so they can turn to Him and He would forgive them (see
Sahih Muslim, Eng. Trans., vol.4, nos. 6620-2). This is a much better
explanation than the popular conception according to which God at first
sees that humans are good, then God discovers that they are wicked and so,
being sorry that He made them in the first place, God eventually decides
to wipe them off the face of the earth; but then he changes His mind again
and lets them eventually procreate and fill the earth although they are
still sinful as ever. The better explanation is that God knew in advance
that we would sin, and we turned out just the way God planned. God does
not discover new things - He knows everything always.
So, simply
put, the Islamic belief is that people are not born in sin but they will
eventually commit sins for which they should sincerely repent, and God
will wipe out their sins. People do not inherit sins. Sin is something you
do wrong. You couldn't have done anything before you were born, therefore
you were born without sin. The Qur'an teaches that God does not hold us
responsible for what others did before we were born, and no innocent
person would carry the guilt of another (see Qur'an 4:111; 6:164). This
coincides with our own sense of justice. No one considers it right to
blame children for the sins of their ancestors, or to punish the innocent
so that the guilty may go free. |