883 - Ubayd Allah ibn Hanbal ibn Ishaq ibn Hanbal informed me, saying: Asim ibn Ali narrated to us, saying: Bakr ibn Abd Allah al-Muzani narrated to us, from al-Hasan, who said: al-Aswad ibn Sari' said: I was with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) on a military expedition, or he said: in one of the expeditions. Some people went too far and reached the children to kill them, and this reached the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), so he said: "What is the matter with people who have gone too far and reached the children, killing them?" They said: "O Messenger of Allah, they are the children of the polytheists." He replied: "Verily, the best among you are the children of the polytheists. There is no soul that is not born upon the fitra (innate nature), then it continues to be so until it is able to express itself, then it becomes either a Jew or a Christian." I heard Abu Abdullah, and I asked him about the meaning of this hadith, and he said to me: We say: It is the fitra upon which Allah created His servants, concerning [both] misery and happiness.