he becomes a lump of flesh for a similar period. Then Allah sends the angel to him, who breathes the spirit into him and is commanded to record four things: his provision, his lifespan, his deeds, and whether he will be wretched or blessed.” Through another chain, and in another narration:

“Then He sends the angel to him, who is commanded concerning four things and told: ‘Record his provision, his deeds, his lifespan, and whether he will be wretched or blessed.’ Then he breathes the spirit into him.”

In this authentic hadith, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, thus explained that the angel is commanded to record a person’s provision, lifespan, deeds, and whether he will be wretched or blessed after the body of that descendant of Adam has been created, but before the spirit is breathed into him. Allah’s recording of the prophethood of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him—the foremost of Adam’s descendants—after creating Adam’s body but before breathing the spirit into him was of this same kind. This is also conveyed in another hadith in al-Musnad and elsewhere, narrated by ‘Irbād ibn Sāriya from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said:

“I am recorded with Allah as the Seal of the Prophets while Adam still lies in his clay.”

This and similar cases concern the existence of individual entities in written records.

The existence of speech in written records, however, is a different matter. Thus, Ibn Qutayba reported that the position of the people of hadith and the Sunnah is that the Quran is in the written copy in a real sense, not metaphorically, as some speculative theologians claim. One of the “Jahmī doctrines” that Ahmad denounced—and the gravest of them—was the claim of those who alleged that the Quran is neither in people’s hearts nor in written copies, and that anyone who affirms its presence in hearts and written copies has adopted the Christians’ position, as was reported to him concerning Mūsā