Souls are undoubtedly created. They do not cease to exist or perish; rather, their death consists in their separation from the bodies. At the second blast of the Trumpet, the souls will be returned to the bodies. Those who enter Paradise will have the form of their father Adam, peace be upon him, each standing sixty cubits tall, as established in authentic hadiths.

Some people have said that the children of unbelievers will be servants of the people of Paradise, but this view has no foundation. It is established in the two Sahīh collections that Paradise will have space left beyond what is occupied by the people of this world. Allah will therefore create other beings for it and settle them in Paradise. If He settles those whom He creates from Paradise, who are not descendants of Adam, in its remaining spaces, then what of Adam’s descendants who enter it and are settled elsewhere within it? They are therefore no more entitled to be among the people of Paradise than those who are created afterward and inhabit its remaining spaces.

As for the coming to Hell mentioned in the words of Allah Most High:

“There is not one of you who will not come to it,”

the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, explained it in the authentic hadith narrated by Muslim in his Sahīh from Jābir:

“It means passing over the Sirāt.”

The Sirāt is the bridge; everyone who enters Paradise must cross it, whether they were young children in this world or not.

(The youths who attend to the people of Paradise are beings created from Paradise, not children from this world. Rather, when the children of the people of this world enter Paradise, their physical form will reach its perfection, like that of the other people of Paradise: in the form of Adam, aged thirty-three and standing sixty cubits tall, as mentioned earlier. It has also been reported that their width is seven cubits. And Allah knows best.