180 — Al-Firyābī also informed us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba narrated to us, saying: Zayd ibn al-Hubāb narrated to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Sālih narrated to us, saying: Ayyūb ibn Ziyād al-Himsī narrated to me, from ʿUbāda ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿUbāda ibn al-Sāmit, from ⦗515⦘ his father, who entered upon ʿUbāda while the latter was ill and appeared close to death. He said, “Father, give me your counsel and spare no effort.” He replied, “Sit down. You will never taste faith or attain the full reality of faith until you believe in divine decree, both its good and its evil.”

I asked, “How am I to know its good and its evil?” He replied, “Know that whatever passed you by could never have befallen you, and whatever befell you could never have passed you by. I heard the Messenger of Allah say: ‘The first thing ⦗516⦘ Allah Most High created was the Pen. He said to it, “Write,” and at that very moment it wrote everything that would occur and come into being until the Day of Resurrection. If you die while believing otherwise, you will enter the Hellfire.’”