on such-and-such a day.” So they gathered, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to them, taught them from what Allah had taught him, and then said, “No woman among you who sends on ahead three of her children will find anything other than that they become a curtain for her against the Fire.” One of the women asked, “And if two?” He replied, “And two as well.” Agreed upon.

[Explanation]

The author—may Allah have mercy on him—in his book Riyad al-Salihin entitles this chapter “The Merit of Those Whose Young Children Die,” meaning the virtue granted to anyone whose small children die, provided he seeks the reward from Allah and remains patient. He then cites the reports of Anas, Abu Hurayrah, and Abu Saʿid, all of which indicate this merit: when a person’s little ones die before they reach the age of responsibility—that is, before puberty—they become for him a shield from the Fire by virtue of the mercy he felt toward them, for young children are the very objects of parental mercy. Once they grow up, they become independent, and their father no longer feels the same tenderness toward them that he felt when they were small.

Accordingly, if someone loses three small children and seeks his recompense from Allah, they will serve as a covering for him from the Fire, which will not touch him except for the taḥillat al-qasam (the fulfillment of the oath). What is meant by “the fulfillment of the oath” is Allah’s statement: “There is not one of you but will pass over it; this is, with your Lord, an inevitable decree” (Qur’an 19:71).