The First of the Created: The Pen or the Throne
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
And from this matter, one knows whether his statement is that of the Creator or the later generations. And from the word of His saying, the Exalted, and he asked his intellect to go to the water, and his saying, peace and blessings be upon him, that the first thing the earth took was a creator.
The Shaykh:
He said to it, "Write," and He said to it, "Write." So, what was the first thing Allah created? Ibn Kathir said, rather, He said the first thing Allah created. They said He said to it, "Write." So, the result is that the disagreement preceded this. Ibn al-Qayyim says in al-Nuniyyah: People differ regarding the Pen with which the decree was written by the Judge. Was it before the Throne? Or was it after it? Or is there evidence for both? The truth is that the Throne was before it, because at the time of the writing, it had pillars. He refers to the hadith: "Indeed,."
The questioner:
Abu Ali.
The Shaykh:
So, His saying, "And His Throne was over the water," does that not indicate that it was before the writing and before the existence of the Pen? Yes.
And from this matter, one knows whether his statement is that of the Creator or the later generations. And from the word of His saying, the Exalted, and he asked his intellect to go to the water, and his saying, peace and blessings be upon him, that the first thing the earth took was a creator.
The Shaykh:
He said to it, "Write," and He said to it, "Write." So, what was the first thing Allah created? Ibn Kathir said, rather, He said the first thing Allah created. They said He said to it, "Write." So, the result is that the disagreement preceded this. Ibn al-Qayyim says in al-Nuniyyah: People differ regarding the Pen with which the decree was written by the Judge. Was it before the Throne? Or was it after it? Or is there evidence for both? The truth is that the Throne was before it, because at the time of the writing, it had pillars. He refers to the hadith: "Indeed,
Allah decreed the measures of the creatures fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth, and His Throne was over the water.
الله قدر مقادير الخلائق قبل أن يخلق السماوات والأرض بخمسين ألف سنة وكان عرشه على الماءThe questioner:
Abu Ali.
The Shaykh:
So, His saying, "And His Throne was over the water," does that not indicate that it was before the writing and before the existence of the Pen? Yes.
Source
شرح العقيدة الواسطية [ صالح الفوزان ] [ الشرح القديم ]، الإيمان بأن القرآن كلام الله منزل غير مخلوق — islamhouse.com (1:11:35)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.