Question and Answer Details

Answer

Wa`alykum As-Salaam Warahmatullahi Wabarakaatuh.

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Dear questioner, we would like to thank you for the great confidence you place in us, and we implore Allah Almighty to help us serve His cause and render our work for His Sake.

First of all, it is to be stated that the Original Sin doctrine is in utter contradiction to the Islamic belief. In this regard, we’d like to cite the following:

“Islam rejects the premises of the concept of Original Sin which is alien to Islam and inconceivable to the Muslim mind. Islam has a different version of the Fall. Adam acknowledged that he had gone astray and sincerely sought Allah’s forgiveness which was granted to him unconditionally. Adam and his progeny descended from bliss to the earth because of his error, and yet, none of his children inherited the blame for his error. The volitional implication of Fitrah is that man is responsible for his own wrong actions. It is inconceivable to Muslim thinking that mankind should be punished for wrong actions that others did. The concept of Divine forgiveness features strongly in the Qur’an, for Allah accepts the sincere repentance of His slaves.

Almighty Allah says: “But Satan caused them to deflect therefrom and expelled them from the (happy) state in which they were; and We said: Fall down, one of you a foe unto the other! There shall be for you on earth a habitation and provision for a time. Then Adam received from his Lord words (of revelation), and He relented toward him. Lo! He is the Relenting the Merciful.” (Al-Baqarah: 36-37)

Tawbah (literally, turning, i.e. away from wrong action, and to Allah) or repentance plays a very significant and decisive role in a Muslim’s life. Although man is born in a state of original goodness or Fitrah, he is also subject to temptation and folly. Allah has granted him the ability and opportunity to repent which means that he should admit his errors and turn remorsefully away from them to Allah.

Knowledge of Divine mercy as well as knowledge of the innate goodness of the human Fitrah, serves three very important functions: firstly it gives the believer hope of salvation and success; secondly, it gives him confidence in his own potential to do right and resist wrong; thirdly, it exhorts and admonishes him to actively pursue all that is right and resist all that is wrong. These are the merits of sincere repentance. Just as the Prophet Adam, peace be upon him, repented and was pardoned for his wrong action, so may his descendents repent and be pardoned for their wrong actions.”

Source: http://www.thetruereligion.org

Shedding more light on the question in point, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:

“According to the Qur’anic perspective, man has been created with the equal inclination for good or bad. Allah says in the Qur’an: “And a soul and Him Who perfected it. And inspired it (with conscience of) what is wrong for it and (what is) right for it. He is indeed successful who causeth it to grow, And he is indeed a failure who stunteth it.” (Ash-Shams: 7-10)

Based on this and other Qur’anic verses, all of us has the propensity to do good or bad. So, in Islam we can choose either of the two ways: right or wrong and we are rewarded accordingly.

Human beings themselves recognize when they do sin that they have the choice to avoid it. When they do something good they have the choice to do it and they feel good about it.

If human beings had been on sins and they had no choice but to do sins, then there is no wisdom behind punishment. Allah Almighty is All-Wise and All-Just. He has assured us in the Qur’an: “No soul will be questioned about what another soul has don.” (Al-Israa’: 15)

This means that the sin of Adam did not pass on to his offspring; he paid for his own sin and we must pay for our sins unless Allah forgives us.

The Islamic concept in this matter is fully consistent with reason and revelation. It is also consistent with the teachings of the Gospel and the Old Testament before the Christians invented the doctrine of the Original Sin. As historians have pointed out, the concept of Original Sin and the Jesus being crucified or the sins of humankind had been imported to Christianity from Pagan sources.”

Allah Almighty knows best.