666 — Umar ibn Ayyūb al-Saqatī narrated to us, saying: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us, saying: Wakī ibn al-Jarrāh narrated to us, from Sufyān, from Abū Hāshim, from Mujāhid, from Ibn Abbās, who said:

“Allah—Mighty and Majestic is He—rose over His Throne before creating anything. The first thing He created was the Pen, which He commanded to write all that would occur until the Day of Resurrection. People are merely proceeding according to a matter that has already been settled.”