What is the authenticity of the hadith: “Every child is born on the fitrah (the innate natural disposition),” and what is its meaning?

Question:
A message arrived from one of the brother listeners from Makkah al-Mukarramah. He says: A student of knowledge (H. F. H), our brother asks and says: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . What is the meaning of this hadith? Is this hadith in the sense of metaphor, or in the sense of reality? Please inform us, may Allah reward you.

Answer:
The hadith is valid (sahih); al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated it in the two Sahihs. It is in the sense of reality, not in the sense of metaphor. Indeed, a child is born on the fitrah. In another wording: . This is how it came in the authentic hadith. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . In another wording in al-Bukhari and others: . In another wording: . The meaning of this is clear: that he is born a Muslim on the fitrah of Allah, upon which He created people.
And in a hadith narrated by Muslim in the Sahih: : “Indeed, I created My servants as Hanifs (monotheists), but the Shayatins (devils) carried them away and commanded them to associate with Me that for which I have not sent down any authority”. So the Exalted made clear that He created His servants as Hanifs, monotheists, but shirk (associating partners with Allah) overtook them afterwards because of the misguiders among their fathers, mothers, and others. For this reason He said: , meaning: they call him to it and raise him upon shirk, so he departs from the fitrah because of his parents’ upbringing him in Judaism or Christianity or Zoroastrianism or other types of disbelief. He may also be raised by others than his parents, such as uncles, relatives, or maternal uncles who take charge of his upbringing when his parents are absent. He may also grow up in a polytheistic environment and be raised on what they raise him upon. This is the meaning of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) statement about Allah that He said: . So the Shayatins include the Shayatins of humans and jinn. Likewise, what humans do is from the adornment of the Shayatins... the Shayatins of the jinn do this for them so that they drag them to this falsehood through their whispers and adornment.
So the Shayatins of humans call to shirk, and so do the Shayatins of the jinn. The original state of the newborn is that he was born on the fitrah. If he remains upon it and is safe from these people and lives among the people of good, he lives upon the fitrah, guidance, and tawhid (the oneness of Allah). But if he is afflicted with misguided educators who take him out of his fitrah through their upbringing and their adornment of falsehood, except for whom Allah protects and has mercy upon by providing for him someone who raises him with Islamic upbringing and calls him to it.

The presenter: May Allah reward you. It may occur to one of the listeners, Your Eminence the Shaykh, what happened to the Prophet of Allah, Nuh (Noah), with his son. So what is your guidance, if you please?

The Shaykh: The disbelief of the son, or his shirk with Allah, or his disobedience does not save him from that, even if his father is the best of people, like Nuh (peace be upon him). He was a Messenger, and yet he could not guide his son. Rather, he called him to board the ship with him, but he refused and did not respond, so he became among the perished and the drowned in his disbelief and misguidance.
So the point is that Nuh (peace be upon him) was not able to guide his son, just as Ibrahim (Abraham) (peace be upon him) was not able to guide his father, and just as Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was not able to guide his two uncles, Abu Lahab and Abu Talib. The matter is in the hand of Allah , who says the Exalted: [al-Baqarah: 272].