30. Sura ar-Rum [Rome], Mecca 84

[[ The Arabic word ‘fitratulla’ is translated as the natural disposition or the unchanging pattern of a human by the translators. ]]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًا...

30:30. So set thou thy face steadily and truly to the Faith:

C3540. For Hanif see n. 134 to 2:135.

Here "true" is used in the sense in which we say, "the magnetic needle is true to the north."

Those who have been privileged to receive the Truth should never hesitate or swerve but remain constant, as men who know.

...فِطْرَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا...

(Establish) Allah's handiwork according to the pattern on which He has made mankind:

...لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ...

no change (let there be) in the work (wrought) by Allah:

C3541. As turned out from the creative hand of Allah, man is innocent, pure, true, free, inclined to right and virtue, and endued with true understanding about his own position in the Universe and about Allah's goodness, wisdom, and power.

That is his true nature, just as the nature of a lamb is to be gentle and of a horse is to be swift.

But man is caught in the meshes of customs, superstitions, selfish desires, and false teaching. This may make him pugnacious, unclean, false, slavish, hankering after what is wrong or forbidden, and deflected from the love of his fellow-men and the pure worship of the One True God.

The problem before the Prophets is to cure this crookedness, and to restore human nature to what it should be under the Will of Allah.

...ذَلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ ...

by Allah: that is the standard Religion:

C3542. In 9:36, I translated Din Qaiyim as "straight usage." Here the meaning is wider, as it includes the whole life, thoughts and desires of man.

The "standard Religion," or the Straight Way is thus contrasted with the various human systems that conflict with each other and call themselves separate 'religions" or "sects" (see verse 32 below).

Allah's standard Religion is one, as God is One.

... وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٣٠﴾

but most among mankind understand not.

Asad’s Version:

30:30 AND SO, set thy face 25 steadfastly towards the [one ever-true] faith, turning away from all that is false, 26 in accordance with the natural disposition which God has instilled into man: 27 [for,] not to allow any change to corrupt what God has thus created 28 - this is the [purpose of the one] ever-true faith; but most people know it not.

Yuksel’s version

30:30 So establish yourself to the system of monotheism. It is the nature that God has made the people on. There is no changing in God's creation. Such is the pure system, but most people do not know.*

[[ Asad’s notes –

25 I.e., "surrender thy whole being"; the term "face" is often used metonymically in the sense of one's "whole being".

26 For this rendering of hanif, see note 110 on 2:135.

27 See 7:172 and the corresponding note 139. The term fitrah, rendered by me as "natural disposition", connotes in this context man's inborn, intuitive ability to discern between right and wrong, true and false, and, thus, to sense God's existence and oneness. Cf the famous saying of the Prophet, quoted by Bukhiri and Muslim: "Every child is born in this natural disposition; it is only his parents that later turn him into a 'Jew 1 , a 'Christian', or a 'Magiari." These three religious formulations,

best known to the contemporaries of the Prophet, are thus contrasted with the "natural

disposition" which, by definition, consists in man's instinctive cognition of God and self- surrender (islam) to Him. (The term "parents" has here the wider meaning of "social influences or environment").

[2:135 AND THEY say, "Be Jews" - or, "Christians" - "and you shall be on the right path." Say: "Nay, but [ours is] the creed of Abraham, who turned away from all that is false, 110 and was not of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God."

Note 110 The expression hanif is derived from the verb hanafa, which literally means "he inclined [towards a right state or tendency]" (cf Lane II, 658). Already in pre-Islamic times, this term had a definitely monotheistic connotation, and was used to describe a man who turned away from sin and worldliness and from all dubious beliefs, especially idol-worship; and tahannuf denoted the ardent devotions, mainly consisting of long vigils and prayers, of the unitarian God-seekers of pre-Islamic times. Many instances of this use of the terms hanif and tahannuf occur in the verses of pre-Islamic poets, e.g., Umayyah ibn Abi's - Salt and Juan al-Awd (cf. Lisan al-'Arab, art. hanafa). ]]]