Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD

Abstract

This analysis explores the idea of an innate knowledge of God across two traditions: the philosophical perspective of Alvin Plantinga and the theological perspective of the Qur’an. It first examines Plantinga’s views – notably his Reformed Epistemology – which hold that belief in God can be “properly basic” (justified without inferential evidence) by virtue of an inborn sensus divinitatis (sense of the divine). It then provides a scholarly commentary on Qur’an 7:172, the verse of the primordial covenant (al-mithāq) in which all human souls testified to God’s lordship before birth. Classical Islamic exegeses (Ibn Kathīr, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, al-Qurṭubī) and modern interpretations are surveyed to explain how this verse establishes an innate, pre-temporal acknowledgment of God (fiṭra or natural disposition). Finally, Plantinga’s account of innate knowledge of God is compared with the Islamic concept of the primordial covenant – highlighting both convergences (e.g. the notion of a natural awareness of God and explanations for unbelief) and divergences (e.g. philosophical vs. scriptural frameworks) – and the implications for cross-tradition understanding of belief in God are discussed.

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