drowned and died. I caught hold of a plank from the broken boat and began traveling upon the stormy waves of the sea. Finally, due to the sea waves, that plank also slipped from my hand. So, I was left swimming helpless in such a vast ocean. Eventually, the sea waves threw me onto the shore (and my life was saved).”

Hearing this, Imam JaꜤfar Sadiqرَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَـلَيْه  said: “When you entered the sea, you trusted the boat and the sailor to carry you across. When the boat broke, you clung to a plank, trusting it would carry you to the shore. Then, when that plank also slipped from your hand and you became completely helpless, did you still have hope of being saved?”

He said: "Yes! I had hope."

Imam JaꜤfarرَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَـلَيْه  said: "At that time, no support was present. In whom did you have trust then? On what reliance were you hoping to be saved?"

That person became silent. Imam JaꜤfar Sadiqرَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَـلَيْه  said: "In that terrifying state, the hope that was bound within you even against your will, the Being upon whom you had reliance—He is the Creator; He is the One who saved you from drowning." Upon hearing this wise point, that person immediately recited the Kalimah and embraced Islam.^[1]

In short, faith, religion, Oneness (tawḥīd) —all these things are part of our fiṭrah. Now, if someone turns away from religion, follows their imperfect intellect instead of religion, speaks of invented ideas of the human mind, shouts slogans of absolute freedom, or becomes "open-minded," then that person is forgetting their own nature. You can understand it like this: there is physical distortion (maskh), which is the distortion of the face, and there is spiritual distortion, which is the distortion of the soul. The person who forgets their nature and chooses a path against faith and religion is, in reality, distorting their soul. Therefore, we should always remain steadfast upon the natural disposition.

Matters of Natural Disposition (Fiṭrah)

It is narrated by the beloved Mother of the Believers, Sayyidah ꜤĀˈishah al-