Besides being an expression of ignorance, folly, and error, this amounts to requiring people to do what is beyond their ability. Hence the saying: “Obsessive misgivings arise only from an impairment of reason or ignorance of Islamic law.”

The jurists agree that if a boy performs ritual purification before puberty, he is not required to repeat his ablution upon reaching puberty. Likewise, if he owes debts and pays them, or his guardian pays them on his behalf, he is not required to pay them again after puberty. Indeed, if he performs an obligatory prayer at the beginning of its prescribed time and then reaches puberty, there is a well-known disagreement among the scholars over whether he must repeat the prayer. The position of al-Shāfiʿī is that repetition is not obligatory, and this is also one position within Ahmad’s school.

Some consider this position weak, though it may well be stronger than the alternatives. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, never instructed any boy to repeat his prayer, although it is known that many boys reach puberty through a nocturnal emission at night, having already performed the night prayer while its prescribed time has not yet ended.

The point here is that the early generations and the leading scholars agree that the first thing people are commanded to do is to pronounce the two testimonies of faith. They also agree that anyone who has done so before puberty is not commanded to renew them immediately upon reaching puberty.

The testimony entails acknowledging the Creator, exalted is He, and His Messenger. Yet mere knowledge of the Creator does not make a person a believer. Indeed, even knowing that He is the Lord of all things does not make him a believer until he testifies that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah; nor does he become a believer