What is the ruling concerning a child born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother? Does he follow his father's religion? And what are the Shar'i (Islamic legal) evidences for this from the Quran and Sunnah?

If one parent is Muslim and the other is a disbeliever (kafir), the child follows the Muslim parent, giving precedence to the better of the two religions.

Scholars have unanimously agreed that the father's conversion to Islam removes the ruling of disbelief from the child, but they differed concerning the mother.

The Malikis hold that the child follows only his father in Islam, not his mother or grandfather.

The wisdom behind this is that the child is subordinate to his parents, so it is wise and just for him to follow the one with the better religion.