Discover the meaning of the term Al-fṭra (فطرة) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readThe innate constitution prepared to receive the religion.
With kasra, on the pattern of khilqa. In the language: creation, religion, nature, beginning. In some books of fiqh, like the Mukhtasar al-Wiqaya: al-fitra in 'the fitra of barley', with the complement suppressed, that is, the alms of fast-breaking, that is, the alms of created man; it reverts to the zakat of heads, for it is its cause of the alms with the majority. The fitra has then this meaning: the created one.
The innate constitution prepared to receive the religion; al-Jurjani mentioned it. The beginning and the inventing; Allah originated the creatures: to create them and begin them. One says: 'I was the first to originate it'; it is then taken from the breaking (as of bread). The hadith: 'every newborn is born upon the fitra'.
The innate constitution prepared to receive the religion, so Ibn al-Kamal (al-Ta'rifat, 175). Al-Raghib said (al-Mufradat, p. 382): what Allah composed in man of his power to know the faith.
The attribute of every existent at the first time of its creation: the innate constitution prepared to receive the religion; and also the alms of fast-breaking.
The alms of fast-breaking. (plural) fu tur. The constitution of every existent at the beginning of its creation. The sound nature unstained by defect. In the Quran: [al-Rum, 30: 'So set your face to the religion, upright in nature: the fitra of Allah upon which He created mankind.'], that is: turn your face and persevere in the religion Allah legislated for you, while remaining upon your sound nature upon which Allah created the creatures, for He originated them upon the knowledge of Him and His oneness, and that there is no god but He. The religion. Islam. The sunna. In the noble hadith: 'Five things are of the fitra: circumcision, shaving the pubic hair, trimming the nails, plucking the armpits and cutting the moustache.' Al-Khattabi said: most of the scholars held that the fitra in this hadith is the sunna. Al-fatur: what the faster takes to break with. Al-futur: the taking of food after the fast.