Actualizing our Fitra

The Islamic view of spiritual growth

Learning to trust ourselves — to have faith in our inherent capacity for truth and growth — is a profoundly rewarding, and healing, pursuit. It rids us of guilt and self-doubt, instills in us an unshakable sense of dignity and self-worth, and launches us on a path to acceptance and self-love.

This trust in our basic goodness is a core spiritual truth in Islam. It is known as our fiṭra, and it refers to the innate spiritual disposition possessed by humankind. In light of this spiritual truth, Islam defines spiritual growth as a process of recognizing and cultivating our fitra, which serves as a guide to actualize our highest potentials.

In this article, the concept of fiṭra and its treatment in Islamic philosophy will be explored. We’ll learn how this fundamental Islamic principle leads us towards introspection and insight, serving as our basis for spiritual development.

A spiritual mold

The root F-T-R, from which the term fiṭra is derived, means ‘to cleave or split’. The primordial meaning of fiṭra is therefore ‘something cleaved or split’. Later on, the term gained an additional signification of ‘something created’, with the active verbal noun fāṭir meaning ‘creator’.