need no explanation but it even removes the obscurity of the so-called explanations; for it speaks plainly of the bringing forth of the children, not from the loins of Adam but from the loins of the “children of Adam”. The verse, therefore, clearly refers to every human being as he comes into existence, and the evidence referred to is that which is afforded by human nature itself, that God is its Creator. This is said elsewhere too: “So set thy face for religion being upright, the nature made by Allāh in which He has created men. There is no altering Allāh’s creation. That is the right religion, but most people do not know” (30:30). Both these verses announce in clear words that every human child is born into the world in a pure state; none comes into life with the impress of hell on it. Human nature is so made that it is not compelled to follow the evil course. It is free from every taint. Even Ḥadīth states that “every child is born in the fiṭrah” (the right state or the condition of Islām), and that it is his parents who later on “make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian” (Bu. 23:80, 93). Thus both the Holy Qur’ān and the Ḥadīth cut at the root of the doctrine of predestination.
It is quite in consonance with this principle that Islām recognizes that all children, whether born of believing or unbelieving parents, go to Paradise if they die before attaining the age of discretion. Even if this had not been expressly stated, it would have been a foregone conclusion of the principle laid down above on the basis of the Holy Qur’ān and the Ḥadīth that every child is born with a pure nature, a Muslim. But there is a clear ḥadīth to that effect. It is related that the Holy Prophet saw in a vision an old man at the foot of a large tree and around him were children, and in the vision he was told that the old man was Abraham and the children that were around him were the children who died before attaining the age of discretion (‘ala-l-fiṭrah). “At this some of the Muslims asked him: And the children of polytheists, too, O Messenger of Allāh!” The Holy Prophet replied: “The children of polytheists as well” (Bu. 92:48). Being with Abraham clearly meant being in Paradise. According to another report, when the Holy Prophet was questioned about the children of the polytheists, he is reported to have said: “When Allāh created them, He knew what they would do” (Bu. 23:93). These words have been variously interpreted, but it would be wrong to give them a significance contradicting the