Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Jawzī, and others state that after the Pen came the tenuous cloud, and after it the Throne.
They adduce as proof the ḥadīth recorded by Imām Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Tirmidhī from ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit — may Allah be pleased with him — who related that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“The first thing Allah created was the Pen. He then said to it, ‘Write,’ and in that very moment it wrote down everything that will occur until the Day of Resurrection.”
This is the wording found in Aḥmad’s Musnad, and al-Tirmidhī graded the report ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ gharīb.
The position of the vast majority, however, as transmitted by the ḥāfiẓ Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Hamadhānī and others, is that the Throne had already been created before that. Ibn Jarīr likewise narrated this view through al-Ḍaḥḥāk from Ibn ʿAbbās. It is further supported by the ḥadīth Muslim records in his Ṣaḥīḥ:
“Allah inscribed the decrees of all creatures fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth, and His Throne was upon the water,”
related by ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ.
They explained that this “inscription” is the writing of destinies by means of the Pen. The ḥadīth therefore shows that the writing occurred after the creation of the Throne, establishing that the Throne preceded the Pen with which the decrees were written — exactly as the majority have maintained. The ḥadīth of the Pen is thus understood to mean that it was the first of the creatures belonging to this world.
This interpretation is reinforced by the report al-Bukhārī transmits from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, who said: “The people of Yemen said to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, ‘We have come to you…’”
(1) al-Tabari, History (vol. 1, p. 32 ff.).
(2) al-Tabari, History (vol. 1, p. 37 ff.).
(3) The addition in manuscript B follows the stylistic pattern of Ibn Kathir.
(4) Narrated by Ahmad in al-Musnad (vol. 5, p. 317); by Abu Dawud in Sunan (no. 4700) under the chapter “Al-Sunnah”; by al-Tirmidhi in al-Jami‘ (no. 2155) under “Al-Qadar” and in his Tafsir (no. 3319).
(5) In al-Tirmidhi’s chapter on Qadar he comments: “This hadith is strange (gharib) in this respect.” In his Tafsir he calls it “a good (hasan), strange, and authentic hadith,” and it is the same report on which al-Mizzi relied exclusively in Tahdhib al-Kamal and Tuhfat al-Ahwazi; it is considered authentic.
(6) al-Tabari, History (vol. 1, p. 39). The correct view is that the Pen (al-qalam) was the first of Allah’s creation; there is no explicit report from the Prophet ﷺ stating that the Throne was created first—it is an inference (ijtihad). Hence the error of those who claim, “The first of what Allah created is the one upon whom you invoke blessings,” meaning the Prophet (who, while the best of creation, was neither the first created nor the chief of Adam’s offspring).
(7) In manuscript A the name appears as al-Jubli; in B as al-Khitli; and in Ṭ as al-Jayli—all scribal corruptions. The correct nisba is al-Hubali (with a ḥā’ and a bā’ bearing a single dot), referring to Hayl in Yemen. Abu ‘Abd al-Raḥman al-Hubali is ‘Abd Allah ibn Yazid, a Tabi‘i of Egypt (al-Ansab of al-Sam‘ani, 4:50). Others render it al-Hubali with a fatḥa on the bā’.
(8) Narrated by Muslim in his Sahih (no. 2653) under “Al-Qadar,” including the additional phrase; and likewise by al-Tirmidhi in his Sunan (no. 2156) in the chapter on Qadar.
(9) Narrated by al-Bukhari in his Sahih (nos. 3190 & 3191) in the chapter on the Beginning of Creation (Kitab “What was narrated regarding Allah’s statement: ‘He it is Who begins creation and then reproduces it’ [Q 30:27]); also in nos. 4365 (Al-Maghazi), 4386 (chapter “The arrival of the Ash‘aris and the People of Yemen”), and 7418 (Kitab at-Tawhid). It was further transmitted by Ahmad in his Musnad (vol. 4, pp. 426, 431, 433, 436) and by al-Tirmidhi in …