The Quran

Preface

فَأَقِم وَجهَكَ لِلدّينِ حَنيفًا ۚ فِطرَتَ اللَّهِ الَّتي فَطَرَ النّاسَ عَلَيها ۚ لا تَبديلَ لِخَلقِ اللَّهِ ۚ ذٰلِكَ الدّينُ القَيِّمُ وَلٰكِنَّ أَكثَرَ النّاسِ لا يَعلَمونَ

Yusuf Ali

So set thou thy face steadily and truly to the Faith:¹ (establish) God’s handiwork according to the pattern on which He has made mankind: no change (let there be) in the work (wrought)² by God. that is the standard Religion:³ but most among mankind understand not.

For Ḥanīf see n. 134 to 2:135. Here “true” is used in the sense in which we say, “the magnetic needle is true to the north.” Those who have been privileged to receive the Truth should never hesitate or swerve, but remain constant, as men who know.
As turned out from the creative hand of God, man is innocent, pure, true, free, inclined to right and virtue, and endued with true understanding about his own position in the Universe and about God’s goodness, wisdom, and power (Cf. n. 682 and n. 5360). That is his true nature, just as the nature of a lamb is to be gentle and of a horse is to be swift. But man is caught in the meshes of customs, superstitions, selfish desires, and false teaching. This may make him pugnacious, unclean, false, slavish, hankering after what is wrong or forbidden, and deflected from the love of his fellow-men and the pure worship of the One True God (see also 30:41). The problem before spiritual Teachers is to cure this crookedness, and to restore human nature to what it should be under the Will of God.
In 9:36, I translated al-Din al-qayyim as “straight usage.” Here the meaning is wider, as it includes the whole life, thoughts and desires of man. The “standard Religion,” or the Straight Way is thus contrasted with the various human systems that conflict with each other and call themselves separate “religions” or “sects” (see verse 32 below). God’s standard Religion is one, as God is One.