348 — Abū ʿUbayd ʿAlī ibn al-Husayn ibn Harb, the judge, informed us, saying: Abū al-Ashʿath Ahmad ibn al-Miqdām al-ʿIjlī narrated to us, saying: al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated to us, saying: ʿIsma Abū ʿĀsim narrated to us, from ʿAtā ibn al-Sāʾib, from Miqsam, from Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both), who said:

“Indeed, the first thing Allah, Mighty and Majestic, created was the Pen. He brought it into being through the spelling of its name and said, ‘Qalam (a pen)?’ It then took shape as a pen of light whose shadow spanned the distance between heaven and earth. He said, ‘Write upon the Preserved Tablet.’ It asked, ‘My Lord, what shall I write?’ He replied, ‘Everything that will occur until the Day of Resurrection.’

“When Allah, Mighty and Majestic, created His creatures, He appointed guardians over them to keep a record of their deeds. When the Day of Resurrection comes, their deeds will be presented to them, and it will be said: ‘This is Our record, speaking against you in truth. We were indeed transcribing whatever you did’ [al-Jāthiya: 29]—that is, from the Preserved Tablet.”

He said, “The two records will then be compared and found to be identical.”