that is possible, and of what does not exist and is impossible. He knows what existed in the past, such as Adam and the prophets, and what will occur, such as the Resurrection and the Reckoning. He also knows how something that did not occur would have been had it occurred, just as he knows what Allah has said concerning the people of the Fire:
“If they were sent back, they would return to what they were forbidden to do.”
And that:
“Had Allah known any good in them, He would have made them hear.”
And that:
“Had there been gods in the heavens and the earth besides Allah, both would have been ruined.”
And that:
“Had there been other gods with Him, as they say, they would have sought a way to the Lord of the Throne.”
And that:
“Had they gone forth among you, they would only have increased you in confusion.”
And that:
“Were it not for Allah’s favour and mercy upon you, not one of you would ever have become pure.”
There are other such conditional statements in which the condition is known either not to hold or to hold.
These things that we know and conceive—whether we deny their existence in external reality, affirm it, or remain uncertain—do not acquire an established individual reality outside our knowledge and minds merely because we conceive them. Thus, we can conceive a mountain of ruby, a sea of mercury, a man of gold, or a horse of stone. A thing’s being established in knowledge and determination is not the same as its individual reality being established externally. Rather, someone may know a thing, speak of it, and write it down, although its essence has no established reality or existence whatsoever outside the mind.
Such is the nature of Allah’s decree preceding His creation, as reported in Sahīh Muslim from ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr, from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said:
“Allah wrote the decrees of all creatures fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth.”
And in Sunan Abī Dāwūd, it is reported from ‘Ubādah ibn al-Sāmit, from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said:
“Allah first created the Pen and said, ‘Write.’ It said, ‘My Lord, what shall I write?’ He said, ‘Write