Another misconception which must be removed in this connection is that relating to God setting seals on hearts. The misconception in this case is that it is thought that God has created some men with seals on their hearts, while others have been created with free and open hearts. No trace of any such distinction is met with anywhere either in the Holy Qur’ān or in Ḥadīth. All men are created sinless, all men are created pure, that is the express teaching of Islām. The Holy Qur’ān says: “So set thy face for religion being upright, the nature (fiṭrah) made by Allāh in which He has created men. There is no altering Allāh’s creation. That is the right religion” (30:30). According to this verse all men have been created in pure nature, and a ḥadīth of the Holy Prophet, which is really an explanation of this verse, says: “Every child that is born conforms to fiṭrah (human nature), and it is his parents who make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian” (Bu. 23:80). The idea that some men are born with a seal on their hearts is directly opposed to this teaching. The Holy Qur’ān does speak of God setting seals on some hearts, but it says expressly that seals are set on the hearts of the reprobate, the hardened sinners who pay no heed to the call of the Holy Prophet. In the very beginning of the Holy Qur’ān, it is stated: “Those who disbelieve — it being alike to them whether thou warn them or warn them not — they will not believe. Allāh has sealed their hearts and their hearing; and there is a covering over their eyes” (2:6, 7). It should be noted that though sealing is spoken of here, yet it is in connection with those who have so hardened their hearts that they do not pay any heed to the Holy Prophet’s warning. They refuse to open their hearts to receive the truth, and do not lend their ears to listen to it, nor use their eyes to discern the truth from falsehood. As is elsewhere stated: “They have hearts wherewith they understand not, and they have eyes wherewith they see not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not. They are as cattle” (7:179). And again, they are made to say: “Our hearts are under coverings from that to which thou callest us, and there is a deafness in our ears, and there is a veil between us and thee” (41:5). It is always the reprobate whose heart is said to be sealed. “Thus does Allāh seal every heart of a proud, haughty one” (40:35). The fact that the cause of the seal is