[Section One:
The First Degree of Belief in the Divine Decree]
• The Saved Group—Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah—believes in the decree, both its good and its evil.

214- Faith in the decree has two degrees, and each degree comprises two elements.

215- The first degree is to believe:
(1) that Allah, exalted is He, has known everything the creation will do through His eternal knowledge with which He has always and forever been described; and that He knew all their conditions—acts of obedience and disobedience, their provisions, and their lifespans;
(2) that thereafter Allah, exalted is He, recorded in the Preserved Tablet the measurements allotted to every creature.

216- The very first thing Allah created was the Pen. He said to it, “Write!” It replied, “My Lord, what shall I write?” He said, “Write down everything that will take place until the Day of Resurrection.”

217- Whatever befalls a person could never have missed him, and whatever misses him could never have befallen him. The pens have dried and the scrolls have been folded away.