Moreover, this rests on the view that the children of disbelievers, who were not subject to religious obligations in this world, will be subject to them in the Hereafter, as reported in several hadiths. This is the view that Abū al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī attributed to Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah. For the position transmitted from the imams, such as Imam Ahmad and others, is to withhold judgement regarding the children of polytheists, as established in the two Sahīh collections: when the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was asked about them, he said:

“Allah knows best what they would have done.”

It is also established in Sahīh al-Bukhārī, in the hadith of Samurah, that some of them will enter Paradise. And it is established in Sahīh Muslim that the boy whom al-Khidr killed was formed as a disbeliever on the day he was formed.

If, among children and others, there are both the wretched and the blessed, and if that is due to their being tested in this world, then their being tested in their graves is not precluded. This, however, rests on the view that one does not testify that each particular child of the believers is in Paradise, even if this is affirmed of them in general. Even if it is affirmed of them in general, a child born among Muslims may be a hypocrite among believers. And Allah knows best.