the water, and He inscribed in the Record everything that would come to be, and He created the heavens and the earth.

We have already set out its various wordings and transmission routes, along with another report that Muslim records in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, where the Prophet—may God’s blessings and peace be upon him—said:

“God decreed the destinies of all creatures fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth, and His Throne was upon the water.”

Muslim also transmits in his Ṣaḥīḥ a further ḥadīth from Abū Hurayrah, that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—used to say:

“You are the First; nothing is before You. You are the Last; nothing is after You. You are the Most High; nothing is above You. You are the Most Near; nothing is nearer than You. Discharge my debt for me and protect me from poverty.”

We have also noted that al-Bukhārī relates the ḥadīth of ʿImrān in three different places with three distinct wordings: in one version, “God was, and there was nothing before Him”; in another, “and there was nothing with Him”; and in yet another, “and there was nothing…”