The fourth point: He said in it:

“Allah existed, and nothing existed before Him—or with Him, or other than Him—and His Throne was upon the water, and He wrote everything in the Record.”

He thus related these three matters using the conjunction “and,” without using “then” in any of them. “Then” occurs only in his statement, “He created the heavens and the earth.” Some narrators related the creation of the heavens and the earth using “then,” while others used “and.” As for the three preceding clauses, the narrators agree that he connected them with “and.”

It is well known that “and” does not imply chronological sequence, according to the correct view held by the majority. It therefore does not indicate that some of these matters preceded others. Even if we assume that chronological sequence was intended—either because of the order in which he mentioned them, placing some before others, or because of the conjunction “and,” according to those who hold that it implies sequence—all this would indicate is that His existence preceded His Throne’s being upon the water; that His Throne’s being upon the water preceded His writing everything in the Record; and that His writing everything in the Record preceded the creation of the heavens and the earth.

There is no mention here of the very first created thing. Indeed, it does not even state that the Throne and the water were created, although all of that is created, as he stated elsewhere. Rather, in answering the people of Yemen, his purpose was only to inform them about the beginning of the creation of the heavens, the earth, and everything between them—the things created in six days—not about the beginning of what Allah created before that.

The fifth point: He mentioned those things in terms indicating their being and existence