why did you rule that they should be included among the apostates? the apostate is one who adheres to the true religion and embraces it then he abandons it becoming an apostate and denying it. these people never adhered to the truth but rather they grew up with this belief. why did you not include them among the original disbelievers? we said what we mentioned is clear regarding those who adopted their religions and converted to them believing in them after believing in their opposite or after separating from them. as for those who grew up with this belief hearing from their fathers they are the children of the apostates because their fathers and their fathers fathers must necessarily impose on them the abandonment of this religion after separating from it. on his authority it is not a belief based on a prophet and a revealed book like the belief of the jews and christians but rather it is the innovations introduced by groups of atheists and heretics in these recent and late ages and the ruling on the heretic is also the ruling on the apostate it does not differ from him in anything at all but the consideration remains with the children of the apostates and it has been said about them that they are followers in apostasy like the children of the infidels from the people of war and the people of the covenant and based on this if he reaches puberty he is demanded to convert to islam otherwise he is killed and he is not satisfied with the jizya or slavery and it was said they are like the original disbelievers since they were born in disbelief. when they reach maturity and prefer to continue in the disbelief of their fathers it is permissible to impose the jizya on them and to impose slavery on them. it was said that their islam is ruled because the apostate is held accountable for the ties of islam. if he reaches maturity and remains silent then the ruling of islam continues until islam is presented to him. if he speaks about it then that is it. if he reveals the disbelief of his parents at that time then we rule that he has apostatized immediately. this is the chosen opinion among us regarding the children of the batiniyyah because if he is a tie of the ties of islam then he is a disbeliever. it is sufficient to rule that children are muslims and the bond of islam remains with every apostate as he will be held accountable for the rulings of islam in the event of his apostasy. the prophet may god bless him and grant him peace said every newborn is born in a state of fitrah then his parents make him a jew a christian or a zoroastrian.
ولماذا حكمتم بإلحاقهم بالمرتدين والمرتد من التزم بالدين الحق وتطوقه ثم نزع عنه مرتدا ومنكرا له وهؤلاء لم يلزموا الحق قط بل وقع نشوؤهم على هذا المعتقد فهلا ألحقتموهم بالكافر الاصلي قلنا ما ذكرناه واضح في الذين انتحلوا أديانهم وتحولوا اليها معتقدين لها بعد اعتقاد نقيضها أو بعد الانفكاك عنها وأما الذين نشئوا على هذا المعتقد سماعا من آبائهم فهم أولاد المرتدين لأن آباءهم وآباء آبائهم لابد أن يفرض في حقهم تنحل هذا الدين بعد الانفكاك عنه فإنه ليس معتقدا يستند إلى نبي وكتاب منزل كاعتقاد اليهود والنصارى بل هي البدع المحدثة من جهة طوائف من الملحدة والزنادقة في هذه الاعصار القريبة المتراخية وحكم الزنديق أيضا حكم المرتد لا يفارقه في شيء أصلا وانما يبقى النظر في أولاد المرتدين وقد قيل فيهم إنهم أتباع في الردة كأولاد الكفار من أهل الحرب وأهل الذمة وعلى هذا فأن بلغ طولب بالإسلام وإلا قتل ولم يرض منه بالجزية ولا الرق وقيل إنهم كالكفار الأصليين إذ ولدوا على الكفر فإذا بلغوا وآثروا الاستمرار على كفر آبائهم جاز تقريرهم بالجزية وضرب الرق عليهم وقيل إنه يحكم بإسلامهم لأن المرتد مؤاخذ بعلائق الإسلام فإذا بلغ ساكتا فحكم الإسلام يستمرإلى أن يعرض عليه الإسلام فأن نطق به فذاك وأن أظهر كفر أبويه عند ذلك حكمنا بردته في الحال وهذا هو المختار عندنا في صبيان الباطنية فإن علقة من علائق الإسلام كافية للحكم بإسلام الصبيان وعلقة الإسلام باقية على كل مرتد فإنه مؤاخذ بأحكام الإسلام في حال ردته وقد قال صلى الله عليه وسلم كل مولود يولد على الفطرة فأبواه يهودانه وينصرانه ويمجسانه