He only informed the Pen to write what will occur up to the Day of Resurrection, whereas in their view the Pen is the originator of the entire cosmos and the lord of everything after the First. Moreover, the Prophet related that Allah decreed and wrote all of this fifty-thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth, and that after He had recorded everything in the Preserved Tablet He then brought the heavens and the earth into being. According to them, however, both the Pen and its effect are eternal without beginning; the heavens and the earth have always existed alongside it, proceeding from it and never lagging behind it for even an instant—let alone for fifty-thousand years.

They also claim that from the First Intellect there proceeds the Second Intellect, the Soul, and the celestial sphere; bringing the Intellect into existence is, in their estimation, a far greater act than producing the Soul and the sphere, while producing those is greater still than merely inscribing knowledge in the Soul. As for the celestial soul, most of them say it is an accident inhering in the sphere, though Ibn Sīnā and a small group maintain it is a self-subsisting substance. How, then, can the First Intellect be named after its weakest function while its loftiest and greatest acts are ignored? If such nomenclature were admissible, one might just as well call the Necessary Being Himself a “pen,” since He taught the First Intellect exactly what He teaches the Soul.

They further assert that the intellects are the angels mentioned by the messengers. If intellects are to be called “pens” because they inscribe knowledge upon souls, then angels must also be called “pens.” Anyone who says that angels are pens is more misguided than the dullest of cattle. By the same logic every teacher would have to be called a pen—and that finds no footing in the Arabic language, whether literally or metaphorically.

Besides, Allah said to the Pen:

“Write whatever is to be until the Day of Resurrection.”