Fitra (innate disposition)

In Muhammad Farid Wajdi's book the fitra is the soul's disposition to religion — and Islam is that very fitra; the author holds religion a sense of the natural bond between man and the spirit of the cosmos, and that man cannot live without religion ¹. This is the author's philosophical reading, presented as his view, not ascribed to consensus.

In Education in the School of Prophethood Sha'rawi argues that faith in God is a necessity before it is a rule. A person who faces grief and calamity needs a power above his own means, and faith is what keeps him from despair ². He treats faith as a rational necessity: someone who looks for proof of God is already moved by a prior sense of God in his nature ³. He argues from language: the name Allah is found in human languages, and the word kufr itself means covering something that was already there, so faith comes before unbelief ⁴. These are the author's arguments, presented as his view and not as a settled position.