say:

Neither Allah nor any of His creatures has the power to make the two of them Jews, Christians, or Magians. Rather, they have made themselves such, without any power exercised or action performed by anyone else. Thus, you have no evidence in his words:

“Then his parents make him a Jew” …

Ahl al-Sunnah agree that no one other than Allah has the power to place guidance or misguidance in anyone’s heart.

The Muslim community therefore agrees that what is meant here is the parents’ calling their children to these beliefs, encouraging them to embrace them, raising them upon them, and similar things that teachers and educators do with those they teach and raise. The parents are mentioned because this is ordinarily the case, since every child has two parents. Otherwise, this may be done by just one parent, or by others besides the parents, in fact as well as in legal terms.

[Return to Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr’s discussion and Ibn Taymiyyah’s commentary on it]

As for those other than the Qadariyyah, Abū ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Barr said:

“The scholars have differed greatly concerning the natural disposition mentioned in this hadith. They have likewise differed concerning children and their status in this world and the Hereafter.”

He then cited what Abū ‘Ubayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām had mentioned in his well-known work on unfamiliar expressions in hadith, reporting Ibn al-Mubārak as saying:

“The end of the hadith explains it, namely the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: ‘Allah knows best what they would have done.’”

Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr said:

“This is how he reported it from Ibn al-Mubārak, without adding anything further.”