1097—Isa ibn Ali informed us. Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Baghawi informed us. He said: Ali ibn al-Ja'd narrated to us. He said: Abd al-Wahid ibn Sulaym al-Basri narrated to us. He said: I heard Ata ibn Abi Rabah say: I asked the son of Ubadah ibn al-Samit, “What was your father’s counsel when death approached him?”

He said: He kept saying, “My son, fear Allah, and know that you will neither fear Allah nor attain knowledge until you worship Allah alone and believe in the divine decree, its good and its evil. ⦗680⦘”

I said, “My father, how am I to believe in the divine decree, its good and its evil?”

He said, “Know that whatever befell you could not have missed you, and whatever missed you could not have befallen you. If you die upon anything other than this, you will enter the Fire. I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: ‘The first thing Allah created was the Pen. He said to it, “Write.” It said, “What shall I write?” Thereupon, at that very moment, it wrote all that had been and all that would be until eternity.’”