The first level is knowledge: to believe that Allah has known everything from pre-eternity—every event that has taken place and every event that will take place, without end. Allah knew it all before it existed or occurred, by His ancient, everlasting knowledge with which He is described forever. This is the level of knowledge; whoever denies it is a disbeliever.

The second level is writing in al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ (the Preserved Tablet): Allah has written everything in the Preserved Tablet. Nothing happens without already being inscribed there; no occurrence is left unwritten. Allah the Exalted says, “No calamity befalls the earth or yourselves but that it is in a Book” (Qur’an 57:22)—that Book is the Preserved Tablet in which Allah recorded the decree of all things. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The first thing Allah created was the Pen. He said, ‘Write.’ It replied, ‘My Lord, what shall I write?’ He said, ‘Write everything that will exist until the Day of Resurrection.’” Whoever rejects this writing and claims, “Allah knows everything, but He did not write anything in the Preserved Tablet,” is a disbeliever who has turned away from the religion of Islam.