Süleymaniye Foundation
Centre of Research on Religion and Nature
Fitrah is an Arabic word which defines the rules of creation. Everything on earth forms and operates according to these natural rules of creation.
Religion is the divine law that calls people for adopting and practicing the realities, clarified by the scriptures and norms revealed through messengers for those who use their mind. It is the decretive law that designates the relationship of human beings with their Creator and the rest of the existence.
All of these laws and the existence based on it are mentioned in Qur’an as an “ayah”, and “ayat” in plural. In terminology, an ayah basically means “verse”. Its lexical meaning on the other hand is “data”, “sign” and “evidence”. There is a complete harmony and correspondence between the ayat in Quran and the ayat in nature.
Allah the Almighty commands:
فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًا فِطْرَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ ذَلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
“Set your face truly towards the religion, the Fitrah of Allah on which He created mankind according to it. There is nothing to replace what Allah creates. That is the steady religion, but most of the people do not know it.” (Rum 30:30)
According to this verse, the religion is called the Fitrah. That’s the reason Quran repeatedly emphasizes Fitrah and that all the examples in Quran are chosen from nature.
There is a system in the relations of existence within itself and each other. Everyone knows this at the rate of his/her knowledge and experience. Similarly, there is a system between the verses and the norms in Quran within each other and this system, is completely in accordance with the Nature.
The major problem in our time lies in the relationship between religion and science. We think that the source of science is Fitrah.
It would be a great service to mankind if the relationship between religion and Fitrah can be fully established.
We hope that our foundation carries out this kind of service with its works.
This is the main reason why we call ourselves a “Centre of Research on Religion and Nature”.
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