what will occur until the Day of Resurrection.’”

Ibn ‘Abbās said:

“Allah created creation and knew what they would do. Then He said to His knowledge, ‘Become a book,’ and it became a book. He then revealed confirmation of this in His Book, saying: ‘Do you not know that Allah knows what is in heaven and earth? Indeed, that is in a Book.’”

This is the meaning of the hadith narrated by Ahmad in his Musnad from Maysarah al-Fajr, who said:

“I asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, when were you a prophet?’”

In another narration: “When were you recorded as a prophet?” He replied: “When Adam was between spirit and body.” This is the wording of the authentic hadith.

As for what these ignorant people narrate—such as Ibn ‘Arabī in al-Fusūs and other ignorant laypeople—“I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay,” and “I was a prophet when Adam was neither water nor clay,” this has no basis. None of the truthful scholars narrated it, nor does it appear with this wording in any authoritative scholarly book. Rather, it is false, for Adam was never between water and clay. Allah created him from dust, mixed the dust with water until it became clay, and dried the clay until it became sounding clay like pottery. Thus, he was never in a state between water and clay, composed of water and clay. Had it been said, “between water and dust,” that would have been less impossible, although there would still have been nothing distinctive about that state.

Rather, he said, “between spirit and body,” and, “while Adam was still lying in his clay form,” because Adam’s body remained for forty years before the spirit was breathed into it. As Allah Most High says:

“Has there come upon man a period of time”—the verse.

And Allah Most High says:

“And when your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am creating a human being from sounding clay’”—the two verses.

And Allah Most High says:

“He who perfected everything He created and began the creation of man from clay”—the two verses.

And Allah Most High says:

“When your Lord said