education based on inner nature (fiṭra) (inner nature-oriented education) with an emphasis on ayatollah shāhābādī’s viewpoint: modelling of fiṭra with the trihedral pyramid

as one of the most fundamental discourses of islamic humanism and islamic education system, inner nature (fiṭra) has always been of interest to muslim thinkers, philosophers, and educators. nevertheless, given the difference of the perspective and position that each thinker has adopted, various, and to some extent, different interpretations of fiṭra have been presented; therefore, the definition, dominion, and variations that are considered for fiṭra, have a direct impact on the pattern presented concerning the psychological structure of man from the islamic point of view. ayatollah shāhābādī is among the most prominent contemporary thinkers who has explored into the discourse of fiṭra and has accordingly attempted to establish a new foundation for many of major discourses of islam, hence being called as “fiṭra philosopher”. having accepted the hypothesis that fiṭra as a religious exposition of man’s common disposition can play a major role in the definition, dominion, goals, pillars, principles, and methods of islamic education, this article is intended to present an image of man’s psychological structure based on fiṭra with the use of the opinions and statements of this contemporary philosopher, master jurist (mujtahid), and mystic. besides maintaining such features as being unacquired and universal among all human beings for the fiṭra, ayatollah shāhābādī points out other features like being potential, free from error, and constant, as well. pointing out different manifestations of fiṭra (including theoretical [‘ālima], revelatory [kāshifa], liberal [ḥurriyat], and love of comfort fiṭras), he introduces love (‘āshiqa) fiṭra as the core of human psychological structure. on this basis, human primordial dispositions (fiṭriyāt) can be described in a trihedral pyramid (with dimensions of science, love, and power), the basis of which has enjoyed love with the centrality of “self”. all the fiṭriyāt (sides of the pyramid and its ridges) are rooted in the love fiṭra and “love” would be man’s keyword