Steve (as 41oo) wrote:There is no such thing as a muslim 'revert' in any case. The idea that all of mankind is born muslim and only those drifting away from the true path become Christian, Jewish etc is a wicked lie. Children are not born with relgious ideas. They get them from their parents and adults. The child is brain washed into Islam he does not 'revert' at age 9. Filling a child's head with nonsense is one thing, but telling that child the punishment for non belief is eternal damnation in the fires of hell is child abuse of the first order.
Remember, Steve, that "Islam" means "submission". There are two types of submission: physical and spiritual.
I think you will agree that every person on earth submits to the physical laws made by God. Everyone eats, sleeps, needs oxygen, grows, dies... So everyone is somehow Muslim (which is the Arabic word for "submissive") in relation with the physical laws.
Just like every human being is born "physically submissive", he/she is also born "spiritually submissive". In other words, just as the child submits to the physical laws which Allah has put in nature, his soul also submits naturally to the fact that Allah is his Lord and Creator. But, his parents try to make him follow their own way and the child is not strong enough in the early stages of his life to resist or oppose the will of his parents.
But when I say that a child is born Muslim, this does not mean he knows from the beginning of his life how to pray, how to fast Ramadan, how to perform the Pilgrimage... The submission of a child means he naturally knows that he has a Creator. If there is no external pressure from his parents and social surrounding, he will be brought up submissive and believer in Allah. He can then learn the details of the religion (Prayer, Fasting, Pilgrimage, Jihad...) from the teachings of the Messengers of Allah.
On this issue, The Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) reported that Allah says,
"I created my servants in the right religion but devils made them go astray". The Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon him) also said,
"Each child is born in a state of "Fitrah"(1), then his parents make him a Jew, Christian or a Zoroastrian, the way an animal gives birth to a normal offspring. Have you noticed any that were born mutilated?"
And Allah knows best.
(1) :
Fitrah means "state of innate goodness", "natural state of purity". "Religion of Fitrah" is equivalent to "Islam".