There were three brothers: one of them died young and the other two reached the age of puberty. One of these two chose faith, while the other chose disbelief. On the Day of Judgment, the one who died young asks, “O Lord, why don’t You grant me my brother’s rank in Paradise?” Whereas, the one who enters Hell asks, “O Lord, why did you not make me die young so that I could to be in Paradise?” What is the answer to this?

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu 'alyhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

What the questioner mentioned is part of the debate that took place between Shaykh Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash‘ari and Al-Jubbaa’i the Mu‘tazili, who believed, like all the Mu‘tazilah (a deviant sect) do, that Allaah The Almighty must do what is best for His slaves and that what He does to each slave is the utmost that He can do. They claim, and this is one of their incorrect beliefs, that Allaah The Exalted is incapable of doing to disbelievers what would make them all believe, for if He chooses not to do this despite His ability to do so, it would be out of miserliness and foolishness, and Glorified is He and High Exalted above what they say.

Ahlus-Sunnah (the People of the Sunnah) refuted this false claim. As-Saffaareeni mentioned that the claim of the Mu‘tazilah is invalid for a number of reasons. They are:

1 – Voluntary acts are certainly in man’s best interest to perform. Had what is best been obligatory upon Allaah to do, then they would have been made obligatory by Allaah upon His slaves.

2- Had it been obligatory upon Allaah to do only what is in the best interest of mankind, then He should not have created the devil, because then all of mankind would have been pious and Iblees (Satan) would not have strayed them away from the right path. It would thus have been better for mankind if Iblees and his soldiers had not been created.

3- The question that Imaam Abu’l-Hasan Al-Ash‘ari addressed to Al-Jubbaa’i is that he asked him about three brothers, one of whom died young and the other two lived until they reached the age of maturity. One of these two chose faith while the other chose disbelief. The believer was granted a rank in Paradise higher than that of his brother, who died young, because of his good deeds. Hence, the young brother asked Allaah The Almighty why he had not been granted the same rank as his brother, and the answer was that it was because he had lived longer and performed acts of worship that made him worthy of that rank. The young one then asked why Allaah The Almighty did not let him live longer so that he could do what his brother had done. The answer was that because Allaah The Almighty knew that if he had lived longer, he would have chosen disbelief, and that was why He chose what was best for him. At this point, Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash‘ari refuted the false claim of the Mu‘tazilah by putting the following question to Al-Jubbaa’i saying, “What if the second brother, who chose disbelief, asked Allaah The Almighty why He did not let him die young in order not to disobey Him and make him worthy of Hell, what would be the answer to this?” Al-Jubbaa’i was dumbfounded and could not answer.

Actually, Al-Ash‘ari was himself initially from the Mu‘tazilah, but then he repented and stopped propagating this sect’s claim that the Quran and the justice of Allaah were created.

Ibn Al-Qayyim mentioned that those who believe that Allaah The Almighty must do what is best for His slaves must either believe that He must cause all the children whom He knows will choose disbelief upon reaching puberty to die young, or otherwise, they – the Mu‘tazilah - must deny His prior knowledge of what will happen. Indeed, such were the beliefs of their wicked ancestors who were identified as disbelievers according to the consensus of the righteous predecessors. In fact, their only way out of this is to adhere to the methodology of Ahlus-Sunnah Wa’l-Jamaa‘ah (the Sunni mainstream) meaning, to acknowledge that the actions of Allaah The Almighty cannot be realized by their limited intellect and that they cannot be compared to their defective actions.

In brief, neither the actions of Allaah The Almighty nor His attributes or His essence can ever be compared to those of His creatures for there is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing and the Seeing, and He creates what He wills and chooses, and He is not to be questioned about what He does but His slaves will be questioned, and He is the One who decides and none can alter or delay His decision, and He is swift at reckoning.

Allaah Knows best.