12 Factors behind Man’s Distancing from Fitrat
Fitrat sometimes is crystal clear and sometimes not. What follows are the factors that can block the shining of the Fitrat.
1) Blind imitation from others
2) Materialism
3) Being influenced by the immediate environment. Hazrat Musa (AS) and his people went to an area where residents were worshipping idols. Seeing these idols, the prophet was asked by his people to bring an idol like what they saw. “The Israelites demanded Moses to make gods for them like those of the idol-worshippers. Moses told them, ‘You are an ignorant people’.” (Surah Al-A’raf, verse 138)
4) Wrong propagation. Targeted and wrong propagation may introduce good deeds as bad. One of the examples is the way the Pharaoh talked about him being a god: “saying, ‘I am your supreme lord’.” (Surah Al-Nazi'at, verse 24)
5) Intimidation by enemies of religion
6) Losing self-confidence and submitting to the thoughts and beliefs of other religions
7) Following deviant artists. When Hazrat Musa (AS) went to Mount Sinai to worship God and receive revelations, an artist named Samiri used this opportunity and created a special calf, deceiving people to worship it: “Then the Samiri forged the body of a motionless calf which gave out a hollow sound.” (Surah Taha, verse 88)
8) Following popular norms. Sometimes we know that a belief or path is wrong but we still adhere to it because the majority of society likes that.
9) Satan’s temptations
10) Being mocked. Sometimes people abandon their correct Fitrat inclination because they want to avoid being mocked by others.
11) Nafs and worldly desires
12) Bad friends. People sometimes are guided to the wrong path by a bad friend. The Holy Quran reads: “Woe to us! Would that we had not been friends with so and so. He led me away from the true guidance after it had come to us. Satan is a traitor to people.” (Surah Al-Furqan, verses 28-29)
This article was derived from a book written by Quran teacher Hojat-ol-Islam Mohsen Qara’ati
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