Al Qurtubi explains the hadith:

“Allah created for Paradise its people while they were in the loins of their fathers, and He created for the Fire its people while they were in the loins of their fathers” 

to mean that Allah already knows the reality of every person before they are born.

So when the Prophet ﷺ said this to Aishah, may Allah be pleased with her, the purpose was to stop her from speaking with certainty about a specific child being from Paradise without revelation confirming it.

Aishah رضي الله عنها said:

“A bird from the birds of Paradise. He did not do evil and did not reach it.”

Al Qurtubi explains that she said this because she built her understanding upon two principles:

1. Every child is born upon the fitrah of Islam.
2. Allah does not punish until a messenger is sent.

So she assumed from this that the child must certainly be from Paradise.

The Prophet ﷺ replied:

“Or other than that?”

Meaning: Do not speak with certainty about matters of the unseen without revelation.

Then he ﷺ said:

“Allah created for Paradise its people… and He created for the Fire its people…”

Al Qurtubi explains this as referring to Allah’s eternal knowledge and decree. Meaning, Allah already knows who will ultimately be from the people of Paradise and who will ultimately be from the people of the Fire before they even come into existence.

He then explains the hadith:

“Allah knows best what they would have done when He created them”

Meaning, Allah knows the disposition and nature each person was created upon, and what their final outcome would be.

So the main point in al Qurtubi’s explanation is not simply about the child itself. Rather, it is about not being absolutely certain regarding hidden matters without revelation, because Allah alone fully knows the final reality of His creation from the very beginning.

Full Passage

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From Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68AH), he said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about the children of the polytheists, so he said: “Allah knows best what they would have done when He created them.” (Reported by Sahih al Bukhari 1383; Sahih Muslim 2660; Sunan Abi Dawud 4711; Sunan al Nasaʿi 59/4.)

And they will be commanded to enter it, so whoever obeys among them will enter Paradise, and whoever disobeys among them will enter the Fire.

A group said, and I think they are not from Ahl al Sunnah (people of the Sunnah), that they will be in a barzakh (intermediate realm). The reason for the difference between the 3 views is the difference in the narrations about that, and the contradiction of some of them with the apparent meaning of the saying of Allah Most High:

وَمَا كُنَّا مُعَذِّبِينَ حَتَّى نَبْعَثَ رَسُولًا

“We would not punish until We send a messenger.” (al Isra 15)

The child and the insane do not understand, and they are not addressed, so they are like animals.

No messenger was sent to them, so they will not be punished.

The outcome of all of that, and it is the correct view that runs upon the foundations of the people of truth, is that the punishment that follows taklif (moral obligation) is not given to the one who was not obligated.

Then Allah Most High may punish whomever He wills at the outset, without taklif, whether a child, or an insane person, or other than that, according to the Maliki madhhab, and that there is no restraint upon Him, and no binding ruling, so He would not be unjust in any of that if He did it, as we set out in the chapter before this.

This is indicated by His saying, in the hadith of ʿĀʾishah: “Indeed Allah created for Paradise its people, and they were in the loins of their fathers, and He created for the Fire its people, and they were in the loins of their fathers.” We have already put forward that deeds are indicators, not causes.

His saying: “Allah knows best what they would have done when He created them” means: Allah knows best what disposition He formed them upon, and what nature He stamped them upon. Whoever Allah Most High created upon the disposition of the obedient is from the people of Paradise, and whoever He created upon the disposition of the disbelievers, with hardness and opposition, is from the people of the Fire. This is like what he said about the boy of al Khidr: “He was stamped, on the day he was stamped, as a disbeliever.”

This reward and punishment is not arranged upon taklif, and it is not connected to it. Rather, it is by the ruling of His knowledge and His will.

As for the one who said that they are in the Fire with their fathers, his support is his saying: “They are from their fathers.” (Reported by Musnad Ahmad, 38/4 and 71; Sahih Muslim 1745, 28; Sunan Abi Dawud 4712; Jamiʿ at Tirmidhi 1570.) There is no proof in it for 2 reasons.

The 1st is that the matter is one of knowledge, and this is a single report, and it is not a clear text on the matter.

The 2nd is that even if we accept it, we say this is in the rulings of this life, and it was asked about, and this hadith came because of that. They said: “O Messenger of Allah, we raid the people of the house from the polytheists at night, and among them are the children.” So he said: “They are from their fathers.” This means, regarding the permissibility of killing in a night raid, and other than that from their fathers’ worldly rulings. Allah Most High knows best.

The saying of ʿĀʾishah (d. 58AH) about the deceased child from the Ansar, “a bird from the birds of Paradise”, she only said this because she built it on the fact that every newborn is born upon the fitrah (natural disposition) of Islam, and that Allah Most High does not punish until He sends a messenger, so she graded that by it, and the Prophet ﷺ replied to her with what he mentioned.

His saying: “They were in the loins of their fathers” does not contradict what has preceded from his saying that it is written, while he is in his mother’s womb, wretched or happy, because we have already put forward that the decree and predestination of Allah returns to His knowledge and His power, and they are eternal, with no beginning to them. The aim of all these hadiths is that the decree of Allah comes before the coming into being of created things, and that Allah Most High shows from that whatever He wills, to whomever He wills, whenever He wills, before the existence of things.

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From him, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb (d. 30AH), he said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The boy whom al Khidr killed was stamped, on the day he was stamped, as a disbeliever. If he had lived, he would have burdened his parents with rebellion and disbelief.” (Reported by Ahmad, 121/5; Sahih Muslim 2661; Sunan Abi Dawud 4705 and 4706; Jamiʿ at Tirmidhi 3150.)

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From ʿĀʾishah (d. 58AH), she said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was invited to the جنازة (funeral) of a child from the Ansar, so I said: “O Messenger of Allah, glad tidings for this one, a bird from the birds of Paradise. He did not do evil, and he did not reach it.” He said: “Or other than that, O ʿĀʾishah. Indeed Allah created for Paradise its people, He created them for it while they were in the loins of their fathers, and He created for the Fire its people, He created them for it while they were in the loins of their fathers.” (Reported by Ahmad, 208/6; Sahih Muslim 2662, 31; Sunan Abi Dawud 4713; Sunan al Nasaʿi 57/4; Sunan Ibn Majah 82.)

Al Mufhim Lima Ashkala Min Talkhis Kitab Muslim by Abu al Abbas al Qurtubi 6/678–679