[Ibn Taymiyyah’s commentary]

I said:

As for whether children are to be judged as unbelievers in the Hereafter, Ahmad withheld judgment. Sometimes he declined to answer, and sometimes he referred their case to Allah’s knowledge, saying:

“Allah knows best what they would have done.”

This is the better of his two answers. Muhammad ibn al-Hakam reported that he asked him about the children of the polytheists, and he replied:

“I follow the Prophet’s statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: ‘Allah knows best what they would have done.’”

Abū Tālib reported from him that Abū ‘Abd Allāh was asked about the children of the polytheists. He replied:

“Ibn ‘Abbās used to say, ‘Then his parents make him a Jew or a Christian,’ until he heard, ‘Allah knows best what they would have done.’ He then abandoned his earlier statement.”

Ahmad said:

“These reports are sound, and their chains of transmission are all sound. Al-Zuhrī used to say, ‘Some hadiths are narrated in their various forms.’”

As for Ahmad’s declining to answer, ‘Alī ibn Sa‘īd reported that he asked him about the statement, “Then his parents make him a Jew or a Christian.” He replied:

“That is the issue. People have differed, and we have reached no conclusion concerning it that I know of.”

Al-Khallāl said:

“I saw in a book belonging to Hārūn al-Mustamlī that Abū ‘Abd Allāh said: ‘If a man asks whether the children of the polytheists will be with their fathers, this is the root of all