This is like His saying:

“And when your Lord declared that He would surely send against them, until the Day of Resurrection, those who would inflict grievous torment upon them.”

And His saying:

“I will surely fill Hell with you and all those among them who follow you.”

And His saying:

“Were it not for a word that had already gone forth from your Lord and an appointed term, punishment would have been inevitable.”

And His saying:

“Our word has already gone forth to Our servants, the messengers: they will surely be helped, and Our forces will surely prevail.”

And His saying:

“Had it not been for a prior decree from Allah, a tremendous punishment would have befallen you for what you took.”

The written record itself cannot have existed from eternity.

In a hadith transmitted by Hammād ibn Salama, from al-Ash‘ath ibn Abd al-Rahmān al-Jarmī, from Abū Qilāba, from Abū al-Ash‘ath al-San‘ānī, from Shaddād ibn Aws, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Allah wrote a book two thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth. From it He sent down two verses with which He concluded Sūrat al-Baqara.”

Al-Tirmidhī narrated it and described it as singular.

Allah, glorified is He, sent down the Quran on the Night of Decree from the Preserved Tablet to the House of Honour in the lowest heaven. Many works on the foundations of religion and speculative theology contain innovated views but omit the position conveyed by the Quran and Sunnah. Thus al-Shahrastānī, despite his writings on religions and sects, lists, on the question of speech