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Born Muslims Have Unfair Advantage?
Don’t people born in Muslims families have an unfair advantage over those born in non Muslim families?
For example, a common person born in a muslim family believes in Allah because he is taught that in his childhood. He firmly believes it to be True and never bothers to study other religions in his life time thinking those are false. He is basically following what he found his ancestors to be following. But since, he believes in Allah, he is not a Mushrik, and also belives in Prophet Muhammad.
Similar is the behavior of a common person raised in a non-muslim family. Most of the people don’t bother to study other religions thinking that the religous beliefs of their parents are the right ones.
So, the question is, the behavior of common people is the same in all religions. Then, isn’t a person born in a muslim family having an unfair advantage over non-muslims since he is not committing shirk and believes in Prophet Muhammad which are necessary conditions for maghfirat?
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8 Replies
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Born Muslims Have Unfair Advantage?
updated 3 years, 7 months ago
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8
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If we understand what the belief really means then the answer to your question about children born into Muslim families having an undue advantage is a resounding no. Belief in God, for example, in very few words, means that we have intellectually concluded the existence of God through the evidences that He has provided us. Furthermore, we have accepted Him to be the Creator of this universe and have consciously and willingly submitted our own wills to that of His. What this subsequently means is that we strive to do everything in our power to fulfill all that He commands us to do, no matter what gets in the way – our egos, our biases, our prejudices, our families, our nations – no matter what. Conversely, we strive to stay away from all that He has forbidden for us, deeply believing that if we’re patient in this world, one day He will grant us an eternal life of ultimate pleasure. When we truly believe then all our moral values and priorities in life naturally derive from our faith. We make the best effort in everything in life but are always content no matter what the results. When we stumble, we repent quickly, get up, dust off and continue our journey.
Ghamidi sahab has explained different aspects of belief in a lot of detail in the following thread:
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Quite the contrary, in my opinion. Whatever advantage we seem to have is lost when we don’t work towards knowing our religion and understanding what exactly Allah wants from us.
Allah has stated in atleast two places in the Quran that being born into a religion is not a freepass to Jannah. One needs to strive hard to achieve it.
If you ask me, we (muslims) find ourselves in a more stringent predicament as we conveniently tend to think that being born in a Muslim family is enough for us. Its not. The non-muslims who tend to study religions and seek the truth are evidently and eventually more closer to the essence and scheme of Allah SWT.
As for those non-muslims who don’t seek the truth and are at ease with their current belief of their religion being truthful of them all, their test would commensurate with their knowledge.
We won’t have it that easy, brother. The odds are against it.
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I agree with the fact that just being born in a Muslim family will not suffice for acquittal on Judgement day. That’s why I said that being not mushrik and believing in Prophet Muhammad are necessary conditions, but not sufficient. But, my point is that being born in a certain religion sets one off with a highly biased initial condition, which will define the thought process and ultimately the belief, if one spends the effort. Being born in a Muslim family will encourage you to find out more about Islam first before any other religion. You will spend most of your life to strengthen your own belief, to learn what Allah wants from you and live life according to that because, as you said that is what is ultimately required from us. Even if one reads about other religions, its most of the time, to find faults to strengthen your own belief rather than the mindset that the other religion could be the right one. I believe that will be true for other people too, born in non-muslim families. They will set off being biased towards their own belief system, and will likely hear arguments, read books etc. that strengthen that belief, let alone read about other religions. But, if that results in Shirk, deprives them of the necessary condition for maghfirah.
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What you described above is a matter of mindset where one allows biases, prejudices, ego, arrogance, and other such human attributes get in the way of striving to find and accept the truth.
What God really requires from the true believers is to rise above this mindset and accept or reject anything on the basis of merit. This is required for born Muslims as well as those who are born into other faiths. God has categorically stated His law of guidance in the Quran (short video below). Guidance and subsequently reward is granted to those who work in accordance with this law.
To conclude, it’s the intention and the attitude towards truth that really counts. If a person with sincere intention makes a sincere effort to be guided, God has promised to help that person find guidance. Even still if that person arrives at the wrong conclusion, he will still find his reward with God on the day of judgement. The basis of salvation is not in the sticker label that reads “Muslim”, but in fact the attitude towards truth and falsehood, along with sincere intention and effort. I must add that this is a lifelong journey, not an event when one has finally received guidance and is now considered safe for life.
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Why should someone value the truth? If someone says they just want to follow lies what do we say?
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Not a word. We call the insane house to tell them that we spotted one!
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Great 😂
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The law of guidance explained in depth:
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