He said:
“A number of narrators related this hadith from al-Hasan, including Bakr al-Muzanī, al-‘Alā’ ibn Ziyād, and al-Sarī ibn Yahyā. It has also been narrated through al-Ahnaf, from al-Aswad ibn Sarī‘.”

He said:
“This is a sound Basran hadith.”

He said:
“‘Awf al-A‘rābī narrated from Samurah ibn Jundub that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: ‘Every child is born upon the natural disposition.’

The people called out to him: ‘O Messenger of Allah, even the children of polytheists?’

He replied: ‘Even the children of polytheists.’”

I say:
As for what he mentioned concerning Ibn al-Mubārak and Mālik, it may be said that the intended meaning is that the end of the hadith makes clear that Allah already knows what children will do when they reach maturity: some will believe and enter Paradise, while others will disbelieve and enter the Fire.

Thus, the statement, “Every child is born upon the natural disposition,” cannot be used as evidence to deny divine decree, as the Qadariyyah have used it, nor to establish that all the children of unbelievers are in Paradise because they were born upon the natural disposition. The imams’ intent would therefore be to base the determination concerning children on what appears at the end of the hadith.

As for Muhammad’s statement, he considered that the settled ruling of the Sharia was that the child of a Jew or Christian follows his parents’ religion with respect to worldly rulings, so the ruling of unbelief applies to him in