Concerning the Divine Decree

Allah, exalted is He, created all things out of nothing. He has always been, from pre-eternity, perfectly knowing everything before it came to be. He alone ordained and apportioned all things, and nothing in this world or the Hereafter occurs except by His will, His knowledge, His judgment, and His decree. He recorded all of that in the Preserved Tablet, yet He wrote it as a description, not as a compulsory ruling. Judgment, decree, predestination, and will are His eternal attributes, without asking how.

Allah knows what does not yet exist while it is still non-existent, and He knows how it will be when He brings it into existence. He knows what exists while it is existing, and He knows how its annihilation will occur. He knows a person standing while he is standing; and when he sits, He has known him sitting at the very moment of his sitting—without His knowledge undergoing any change or any new knowledge arising for Him. Change and variation occur only in created beings.