both have a child, his loyalty (wala') would be to the patron of his father, not the patron of his mother. And even if the father were a slave and the mother a freedwoman (mawlah), and the slave was emancipated, he would draw the loyalty of his child to his own patrons. Furthermore, the child is ennobled by the nobility of his father and is affiliated with his tribe rather than the tribe of his mother, so it is necessary that he follow his father in his religion, whichever religion it may be. Al-Thawri said: When he attains maturity, he is given a choice between the religion of his father and the religion of his mother, and whichever he chooses, he remains on that religion. He perhaps relies on the hadith of the young boy whose father embraced Islam while his mother refused to embrace it, so the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave him the choice between his father and his mother. Our argument is that the child follows his parents in religion, and if they differ, it is necessary that he follow the Muslim among them, just like the child of a Muslim man from a woman of the People of the Book. Also, because Islam is superior and nothing is superior to it, and Islam is prioritized by several factors: among them is that it is the religion of Allah which He is pleased with for His servants and with which He sent His messengers as callers for His creation; among them is that through it, happiness is attained in this world and the hereafter, and one is saved in this world from killing, enslavement, and the payment of jizya, and in the hereafter from the wrath of Allah and His punishment; and among them is that the land is a land of Islam, such that a foundling within it is judged to be Muslim, as is one whose state is unknown. And when he is judged to be Muslim, [he is coerced into it] if he refuses, by execution, just like the child of two Muslim parents. Furthermore, he is a Muslim, so if he turns back from his Islam, he must be killed due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Whoever changes his religion, kill him," and by analogy to others. Our argument against Malik is that the mother is one of the two parents, so her child follows her in Islam, just like the father; rather, the mother has a stronger claim to him because she is more specific to him as he is created from her in reality, and she is distinguished by carrying him and breastfeeding him, and he follows her in bondage, freedom, tadbir (conditional manumission), and mukataba (covenant of manumission). Furthermore, among all animals, the young follows the mother rather than the father, and this contradicts what he mentioned. As for giving the boy a choice, that pertains to custody, not to religion.

1548- Issue: He said: (And likewise, whoever among the two parents dies in his state of disbelief, his share of the inheritance is distributed, and he was considered a Muslim by the death of whichever of them died.)