What is the reason the Prophet (peace be upon him) likened humans to beasts in the hadith: "Every child is born upon Fitra (natural disposition), then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian, just as a beast gives birth to a whole beast—do you find any mutilation in it?"

The Prophet's (peace be upon him) character is the most perfect of characters. Likening humans to animals is not absolutely forbidden, as the Holy Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah have used this analogy for various purposes:

1. For dispraise and deterrence: As in likening disbelievers to donkeys and dogs because they do not benefit from Allah's verses, and as the Prophet forbade certain actions by likening them to animal behaviors, such as the pecking of a rooster and the squatting of a dog. 2. To clarify a specific meaning: Such as likening the vision of Allah to the moon to illustrate the clarity of the vision, not to liken Allah to the moon. And in the hadith, "Every child is born upon Fitra (natural disposition)...", the analogy to a beast born complete and then mutilated, is to explain that a newborn is born complete upon Fitra, and then deficiency occurs through Judaization or Christianization. The intention is to liken the introduction of deficiency into something perfect, not to equate humans with animals.

Rhetoric permits analogy for two things sharing a specific meaning (the point of resemblance) without intending complete equivalence.