This led some to say that this hadith—namely, his statement, “Every child is born upon the natural disposition”—predated the revelation of the legal rulings, as Abū ‘Ubayd related from Muhammad ibn al-Hasan. Once it is understood, however, that their being born upon the natural disposition does not preclude their following their parents’ status under worldly rulings, the confusion disappears.

In the lands of disbelief, there may be someone who inwardly believes but conceals his faith, whose true state is unknown to the Muslims. When they fight the disbelievers, they may kill him; he is neither washed nor given a funeral prayer, and he is buried with the polytheists. Yet in the Hereafter he is among the believers, the people of Paradise. Conversely, hypocrites are subject to the rulings governing Muslims in this world, yet in the Hereafter they will be in the lowest depths of the Fire. Thus, the ruling in the Hereafter differs from the ruling in this world.

His statement, “Every child is born upon the natural disposition,” was intended only to describe the true state in which they were created, upon which reward and punishment in the Hereafter are based, when its dictates are acted upon and it remains free of opposing influences. He did not intend to describe worldly rulings. For it is an indisputably established part of the Messenger’s law that the children of disbelievers follow their parents’ status under worldly rulings, and that their children are not taken away from them if the fathers have a covenant of protection. If, however, they are at war with the Muslims, their children are enslaved and are not treated like the children of Muslims.

There is no disagreement among Muslims that the children of disbelievers remain with their parents while their parents are alive. They have differed, however, over whether a child is to be deemed Muslim if both parents, or one of them, die. It is reported from