All praise be to Allah the Most Merciful, the Most Gracious, the Most Sufficient.
Sometimes we wonder why most Muslim clerics preach that we were all born Muslims or perhaps, when a non-muslim takes the shahada, we say such person is a revert and not a convert. You can only revert to what you once were. However, this statements could puzzle the mind because how can you say I was born a Muslim whereas am a Christian or Hindu or Jew without knowing anything about Islam from birth.
Islam says every soul is born without sin. When a child grows up and is able to distinguish between right and wrong, sin and virtue and intentionally does something wrong or commits a sinful act, then he/she commits the first sin.
Allah SWT says
By the soul and He (Allah) Who perfected it and inspired it with knowledge of what is wrong for it and what is right for it: indeed successful will be the one who purifies it, and indeed unsuccessful will be the one who corrupts it!
Al-Quran 91:7-10
A Muslim is one who submits to the will of Allah. All babies are born pure, sinless and with this will of submitting wholeheartedly but as time passes, shaitan speaks into their hearts to deviate from the path of Allah.
Idina sirantal mustakeem … Allahuma ameen
Everyone will bear the burden of one’s own sin and no one will be held for the sin of another
Allah SWT says
Say: “Should I seek another Lord besides Allah when He is the Lord of everything?” Every soul will reap the fruits of its own deeds; no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another. Ultimately you will return to your Lord, and He will resolve for you your disputes
Below is the prayer of Adam and Eve (peace be unto them) which they made after they were sent down to earth seeking forgiveness for their sin of disobedience to Allah
Allah SWT says:
قَالَا رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَآ أَنْفُسَنَا وَإِنْ لَّمْ تَغْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْخٰسِرِينَ
“They said, Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers.”
(QS. Al-A’raf 7: Verse 23)
When they repented, Allah forgave their sin of disobedience.
Allah SWT says:
فَأَزَلَّهُمَا الشَّيْطٰنُ عَنْهَا فَأَخْرَجَهُمَا مِمَّا كَانَا فِيهِ ۖ وَقُلْنَا اهْبِطُوا بَعْضُكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوٌّ ۖ وَلَكُمْ فِى الْأَرْضِ مُسْتَقَرٌّ وَمَتٰعٌ إِلٰى حِينٍ
“But Satan caused them to slip out of it and removed them from that [condition] in which they had been. And We said, Go down, [all of you], as enemies to one another, and you will have upon the earth a place of settlement and provision for a time.”
(QS. Al-Baqarah 2: Verse 36)
فَتَلَقّٰىٓ ءَادَمُ مِنْ رَّبِّهِۦ كَلِمٰتٍ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّهُ ۥ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
“Then Adam received from his Lord [some] words, and He accepted his repentance. Indeed, it is He who is the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful.”
(QS. Al-Baqarah 2: Verse 37)
Islam says that all children that die before the age the could distinguish between right and wrong shall entire Paradise. This is another major difference between Islam and Christianity.
If you think this is a lie, ask any Christian what is the fate of the babes and sucklings massacred at Amalek
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
1 Samuel 15:3 KJV
Ma salam
Funsho Animashaun @ knowislam.com.ng
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