Concerning His words, exalted is He:
“When We will something, all We say to it is, ‘Be!’ and it is.”
That thing is known before it is brought into being and before this address is directed to it; in this respect, it has already been ordained and decreed. For Allah, glorified and exalted is He, speaks and writes whatever He wills of what He knows. Thus, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said in the hadith narrated by Muslim in his Sahīh from Abd Allāh ibn Amr:
“Allah decreed the destinies of all creatures fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth.”
In Sahīh al-Bukhārī, Imrān ibn Husayn relates that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“Allah was, and nothing was with Him. His Throne was upon the water, and He wrote everything in the Record, then created the heavens and the earth.”
In Sunan Abī Dāwūd and elsewhere, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is reported to have said:
“When Allah first created the Pen, He said to it, ‘Write.’ It asked, ‘What shall I write?’ He said, ‘Whatever will happen until the Day of Resurrection.’”
These and similar texts show that, before a created thing is created, it is known, spoken of, and written down. It is therefore a thing in respect of its existence in knowledge, speech, and writing, even though its reality—its concrete existence—is not established outside the mind; rather, it is pure nonexistence and sheer negation. These are the four well-known levels of existence. Allah, glorified and exalted is He, mentioned them in the first surah He revealed to His Prophet, saying:
“Read in the name of your Lord who created—created man from a clinging clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen—taught man what he did not know.”
We have discussed this at length elsewhere. Accordingly, the address is directed to that toward which the will is directed and to which is connected