He said:

“Ahmad alluded to this in the report transmitted by ‘Alī ibn Sa‘īd. When asked about ‘Every child is born upon the natural disposition,’ he replied: ‘Upon wretchedness or blessedness.’

“Likewise, Muhammad ibn Yahyā al-Kahhāl reported that he asked him about ‘Every child is born upon the natural disposition.’ He replied: ‘It is that upon which He originally created people: wretched or blessed.’

“Hanbal likewise reported from him: ‘The natural disposition upon which Allah created His servants, whether wretchedness or blessedness.’”

He said:

“All these statements of his indicate that what is meant here by the natural disposition is the beginning of a person’s creation in his mother’s womb.”

[Ibn Taymiyya’s Commentary]

I say: Ahmad did not mention the first covenant. He merely said: “The original natural disposition upon which He created people,” which is religion. Elsewhere, he stated that if an unbeliever’s parents, or one of them, die, he is judged to be a Muslim. He cited this hadith as evidence:

“Every child is born upon the natural disposition; then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian.”

This shows that he understood the hadith to mean that the child is born upon the natural disposition of Islam, as is explicitly stated in the hadith. Had this not been the case, his citation of the hadith as evidence would not have been valid.

His statement elsewhere that a person “is born upon the wretchedness or blessedness for which he was originally created” does not contradict this. Allah Most High has decreed wretchedness and blessedness and written them down. He has also decreed that they come about through the causes that bring them about, such as the parents’ actions. Thus, the parents’ making their child a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian is among the things Allah Most High has decreed. The newborn is born with a sound natural disposition, and is born such that this sound natural disposition