It is mentioned in the hadith that character traits are divided; does this mean that a person cannot change his bad character?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, it is mentioned in the hadith that character traits are divided like sustenance; does this mean that a person cannot change the character traits he possesses?
The Shaykh:
Yes, innate character traits are from Allah, and a person cannot make them part of his nature. As for acquired character traits, character is of two types: character that Allah has created in him, and character that he trains himself in and grows up with. This training is called acquired character. Yes.
The presenter:
Do you understand?
The Shaykh:
And Allah the Exalted knows best.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, it is mentioned in the hadith that character traits are divided like sustenance; does this mean that a person cannot change the character traits he possesses?
The Shaykh:
Yes, innate character traits are from Allah, and a person cannot make them part of his nature. As for acquired character traits, character is of two types: character that Allah has created in him, and character that he trains himself in and grows up with. This training is called acquired character. Yes.
The presenter:
Do you understand?
The Shaykh:
And Allah the Exalted knows best.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [4088- 4717] ورد في الحديث أن الأخلاق مقسمة فهل معنى هذا أن الإنسان لا يستطيع تغيير خلقه السيء؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.