Original Testimony
\r\n Al-Araf (The Heights) - Chapter 47: Verse 4 (partial)
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"And when your Sustainer took the offspring of Adam from his loins to bear witness about themselves: 'Am I not your Lord?' they replied, 'Assuredly, yes. We bear witness to it.' This is a reminder lest on the Day of Judgment you say: 'We did not know!'"
The story of creation, as it is told in the Quran, is remarkable. It all began, one may say, with a testimony and a covenant. Indeed, Revelation tells us that in the first stage of creation the Only One brought together the whole of mankind and made them bear witness. This original testimony is of fundamental importance for the formation of the Islamic conception of humanity. It teaches us that in the heart and consciousness of each individual there exists an essential and profound intuitive awareness and recognition of the presence of the Transcendent. Just as the sun, the clouds, the winds, the birds, and all the animals express their natural submission, as we have seen, the human being has within it an almost instinctive longing for a dimension that is "beyond." This is the idea of the fitra, which has given rise to numerous exegetical, mystical, and philosophical commentaries, so central is it to the Islamic conception of the human being, faith, and the sacred.
\r\nThis "original testimony" has impressed each person's heart with a mark, which is a memory, a spark, a quest for transcendence. This statement from the first age, in which human beings declared their recognition of the Creator, fashions their relationship with God: they are bound by a sort of original covenant to which their consciousness presses them to stay faithful. There is no original sin in Islam: every being is born innocent and then becomes responsible for his or her faithfulness to the covenant. Those who do not believe, the un-faithful (kafir), are those who are not faithful to the original covenant, whose memory is faint and whose sight is veiled. In the notion of kufr in Arabic there is the idea of a veiling that leads to the denial of the Truth. Only God decides whether human beings will be enlightened or veiled. Their responsibility consists in their constant action and personal effort to keep the memory alive.
\r\nCompiled From:
\r\n \"Western Muslims and The Future of Islam\" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 16, 17