What happens to children who die?

Children are innocent and enter Paradise. Because their souls could not yet mature on earth, God sees to it in the hereafter that they grow and come to know His love.

For parents who have lost a child, this question is often the hardest of all. The answer of Islam is clear and comforting. Children are innocent. They have not yet reached the age at which a person bears responsibility before God for his actions. So they cannot be punished for anything. Every child is born with a pure nature, and with that purity it returns to God.

One question remains, however. Paradise is not a place one simply arrives at. It is a joy that the soul must be ready to receive. An adult prepares for it by loving God and doing good during his life. A child has not yet had that chance. Its soul is pure but not yet unfolded.

Islam teaches that God in His mercy provides for this too. In the hereafter these children are lovingly guided until they have come to know the love of God and the joy of the spiritual life. In this way they can truly enjoy Paradise.

Heaven and hell should not be imagined as spaces with walls and gates. They are spiritual realities. The growth of these children is therefore not a movement back and forth between places, but a ripening within nearness to God. And the second verse above gives believing parents a special hope. They will be united with their children again.