Children of Unbelievers Who Die Before Reaching the Age of Legal Responsibility

The position of the ʿAdliyyah — the Zaydis, the Muʿtazilites, and some of the Imamis — against the doctrine of punishing children for the unbelief of their parents

The Position of the Ahl al-Sunnah

The Ahl al-Sunnah (Sunnis), as stated in Sharh al-Maqasid, are of two groups:

One group — the majority — says: their ruling on the Day of Resurrection is the same as the ruling of their parents, so they will abide eternally in the Fire.

The smaller group says: whoever God, the Exalted, knows would have believed and obeyed had he lived, God will admit him to Paradise; and whoever would not have, He will admit to the Fire.

They cited as evidence for this the children’s inclusion in the general threat (of punishment) found in the Qur’an, as well as hadiths they narrated from the Prophet ﷺ, among them: that Khadijah, may God be pleased with her, asked the Prophet ﷺ about her children who had died in the pre-Islamic era (Jahiliyyah), and he said:

“They are in the Fire.”

And he ﷺ said:

“The believers and their children are in Paradise, and the polytheists and their children are in the Fire,”

along with other such hadiths.

The Response of the ʿAdliyyah

The ‘Adliyyah — who are the Zaydis, the Mu’tazilites, and some of the Imamis — responded:

1. Punishing one who has committed no offense is injustice (zulm), and {And your Lord does not wrong anyone} [al-Kahf: 49].
2. The text from God, the Exalted, has come contrary to what the Ahl al-Sunnah say, for He, glorified is He, said: {And no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another} [Fatir: 18] — that is, no soul shall carry the sin of another soul.
3. It is established by consensus that the pen is lifted from the child until he reaches maturity. The meaning of “the pen being lifted” is that he is not held accountable, and that he is free of liability for what he does. If the matter were as the Ahl al-Sunnah claim, the pen would not be lifted from him, because from the moment he emerges from his mother’s womb, the sins of his parents — polytheism, unbelief, and so on — would be recorded against him.

The Counter-Argument of the Ahl al-Sunnah

The Ahl al-Sunnah said: God, glorified and exalted is He, {is not questioned about what He does} [al-Anbiya’: 23]. Thus it is His prerogative to punish children without any offense, and that would be justice and beneficence on His part, for nothing ugly (morally repugnant) can be deemed ugly coming from Him, the Exalted; {He does what He wills} [al-Hajj: 18], and {He decrees what He intends} [al-Ma’idah: 1].

The Response to the Ahl al-Sunnah

God, the Exalted, said: {Indeed, God does not wrong (anyone) by so much as an atom’s weight} [al-Nisa’: 40], along with other verses in which He praised Himself by negating injustice from Himself. There is no doubt that the word “injustice” (zulm) has a meaning understood in the language of the Arabs, and God, glorified and exalted is He, sent down the Qur’an in their language: {An Arabic Qur’an, without any crookedness} [al-Zumar: 28].