Another instance of this is the hadith narrated by Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī and others from ʿUbādah ibn al-Sāmit, from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who said:

“The first thing Allah created was the Pen. He said to it, ‘Write.’ It asked, ‘What shall I write?’ He said, ‘Whatever will happen until the Day of Resurrection.’”

He created this Pen when He commanded it to record the decree in writing, fifty thousand years before the creation of the heavens and the earth. It was created before the heavens and the earth and was the first thing created belonging to this world. He created it after the Throne, as the scriptural texts indicate. This is the view of the majority of the early generations, whose statements I have cited elsewhere.

The purpose here is to explain what the texts of the Quran and Sunnah indicate. There are several grounds supporting this second view.

The first is that, in the words of the people of Yemen, “We have come to ask you about the beginning of this matter,” the matter referred to must mean either this world or created things in general. If the former was intended, then the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, answered them, because he told them about the beginning of Allah’s creation of this world. If the latter was intended, then he did not answer them, because he did not mention the beginning of creation in an absolute sense. Rather, he said:

“Allah existed, and nothing preceded Him. His Throne was upon the water. He wrote everything in the Record, then created the heavens and the earth.”

Thus, he mentioned only the creation of the heavens and the earth