“Allah existed, and there was nothing other than Him.”

Another version in al-Bukhārī reads:

“And there was nothing before Him. His Throne was upon the water, and He wrote everything in the Record, then created the heavens and the earth.”

Another version reads:

“Then He wrote everything in the Record; then He created the heavens and the earth.”

In Sahīh Muslim, ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Amr reports that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

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

We have discussed this at length in a later section, where the author of the foundational treatise cites this hadith of ‘Imrān and mentions the created things whose origination and restoration the Quran describes, together with the related matters.