And whoever says that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was a prophet before revelation came to him is a disbeliever by the consensus of the Muslims. Rather, the meaning is that Allah recorded his prophethood, making it known and proclaiming it after creating Adam’s body but before breathing the soul into him. Similarly, the Prophet related that Allah records a child’s provision, lifespan, deeds, wretchedness and blessedness after creating his body but before breathing the soul into him. Thus, in the hadith of al-ʿIrbād ibn Sāriya, narrated by Ahmad and others, the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“I am the servant of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets.”

Another version reads:

“I am the servant of Allah, indeed recorded as the Seal of the Prophets while Adam still lay in his clay. I shall tell you of the earliest signs of this: the supplication of my father Abraham, the glad tidings of Jesus, and my mother’s vision. When she gave birth to me, she saw a light emerge from her that illuminated the palaces of Syria.”

Many ignorant people, including authors and others, narrate it as:

“I was a prophet while Adam was between water and clay,”

or:

“While Adam was neither water nor clay.”

They take this to mean that he himself already existed. Yet Adam was not between water and clay; rather, water is a constituent of clay, not its counterpart.

Since this is so, if he says that what preceded was blessedness and wretchedness themselves, he has spoken falsely. Blessedness can occur only after the blessed person exists; likewise, wretchedness can occur only after the wretched person exists. Similarly, deeds and provision exist only after the doer exists, and provision becomes such only after its recipient exists. What precedes is only the knowledge and predetermination of these things, not the things themselves in their actual existence. Since this is so, deeds also precede in the same sense that blessedness and wretchedness precede. Both are known and decreed, and both