men, on condition that any male child belongs to the man and is a Muslim, while any female child is a polytheist—a Jew, a Christian, or a Zoroastrian?’

He replied, ‘Any of these children who refuses Islam is to be compelled to embrace it, because their fathers are Muslims. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said:

“His parents make him a Jew or a Christian.”

They are all to be brought back to Islam.’)

There are many similar statements in his responses. He cites the hadith as evidence that a child becomes an unbeliever only through his parents; if he is not with two unbelieving parents, he is a Muslim. If the natural disposition were not Islam, the absence of his parents would not make him a Muslim, for the hadith establishes only that he is born upon the natural disposition.

Al-Maymūnī reported from him that the natural disposition is the religion, and that it is the original natural disposition.

Al-Khallāl said:

(Al-Maymūnī informed me that he said to Abū ‘Abd Allāh, ‘“Every child is born upon the natural disposition”: does the case of his parents present a difficulty here—meaning that children are to have their parents’ status while they are young?’

He said to me, ‘Yes, but this presents a difficulty for you.’

We then debated the difficulties this statement presented for me and the implications of his position.

I said to Abū ‘Abd Allāh, ‘What do you yourself say about this, and which position do you adopt?’

He said, ‘What am I to say