I mentioned in *Al-Silsilah al-Sahihah* the hadith that indicates the first created thing is the Pen, and I used it as evidence that events have a beginning.

The questioner : O Shaykh, you said in *Al-Silsilah al-Sahihah*: "I mentioned in *Al-Silsilah al-Sahihah* the hadith that indicates the first created thing is the Pen, and I used it as evidence that events have a beginning; does it follow that created things have a beginning?" May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : How...?

The questioner : He says: "And I used it as evidence that events..."

The Shaykh : Does it follow what?

The questioner : Does it follow that created things have a beginning, and then he did not present a counter-argument, whereas events have a beginning.

The Shaykh : What is the difference between created things and events? Every created thing is an event, and every event is a created thing. I do not know what he wants.

The questioner : Shaykh, I am the one who asked the question.

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner : I mean the attributes of Allah occur, such as speech, for example. Allah’s speech comes whenever He wills. So I mean that speech, in terms of its type, is eternal, but in terms of its individual instances, it is an event. This is what I intended; do events fall under this?

The Shaykh : Fine; but speech is one of His attributes; are created things like that?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : So: they differ completely.
Yes.

The questioner : Regarding this issue: do we say that those events do not have a beginning?

The Shaykh : And his saying (peace be upon him): ?

The questioner : No, I mean the genus, not...; that is, if we conceptualize it this way: Creator, creation, and created thing. This issue may be confusing for many people; so we say: creation is eternal in the sense that it is an attribute of the Creator.

The Shaykh : Creation is an attribute of the Creator and is eternal.

The questioner : Yes, and the Creator is Allah by His essence (Glorified and Exalted is He), and the created thing is the event.

The Shaykh: All right.

The questioner : It appears that the first of the created things is the Pen. Fine; and what about the report that the Throne is the first created thing?

The Shaykh : This statement is not equivalent; this is a saying and did not come from the Messenger (peace be upon him).

The questioner : In a hadith: .

The Shaykh : I know what I am saying, but you said: "And what about the report that the Throne is the first created thing?" I said: There is no basis for this statement. And there is a great difference between deriving a ruling, which may be correct or incorrect, and a ruling that the Messenger (peace be upon him) explicitly stated. So I told you: This has no basis; I mean: It is not found in any hadith, just as the Messenger (peace be upon him) said to the Pen that it is the first created thing; it is not found that he said to the Throne that it is a created thing. But the fact that he (peace be upon him) said: does not clarify that nothing was created before the water upon which his Throne was. So if this is not clarified in this hadith, and the hadith of the Pen is explicit that it is the first created thing; then there is nothing to make us leave the explicit text for the text that allows for the meaning of this authentic hadith, is there? The Pen; so in any case, whether the research takes a second turn, whether the Pen is the first created thing or the water upon which the Throne was; so there is a point of agreement among all those who differ in specifying the first created thing: that there is a first created thing. Is this correct or not? The disagreement is in defining and specifying it, but there is no disagreement among those who differed. And this is one of the wonders: Ibn Taymiyyah himself narrated this disagreement; that the scholars differed on the first created thing; is it the Throne? Is it the Pen? Is it the water? And so on; so there is something agreed upon that there is a first created thing, and something disagreed upon: what is this first of the created things? It was said and said, and the explicit statement, as we mentioned earlier: .
Yes.

The questioner : Shaykh,The questioner : This hadith: some say that it does not have an explicit indication, and they interpret it, saying that it may be by implication: meaning: as one says: "The first thing so-and-so did upon entering the door, he said to him: Do such and such." He says: It does not have an indication...

The Shaykh : Look, look, now you have changed the phrase. "The first thing he entered, he said." The hadith is not like this; is a complete sentence, so he started a new speech. But if he said: "He said" here, the doubt you mentioned would apply.

The questioner : Would it then be a conjunction?

The Shaykh : What is the most apparent meaning? Do we return to the rules? What is the most apparent meaning of his saying (peace be upon him): , all of which are sentences connected to one another. And suppose the issue has a possibility that he said: "The water is the first created thing," or "The Throne is the first created thing"; is there a possibility?

The questioner : Possibility.

The Shaykh : There is a possibility, so which of the two possibilities is stronger such that it makes the evidence weaker? Without doubt, the one without the word "first" is weaker, and this is stronger, and Allah knows best.
Yes.

The questioner : In the opinion... Shaykh, in *Al-Sunnah*, meaning specifying what you held, but I wanted to know the response to something like this, and it is mentioned in the book *Al-Sunnah*: So adding something might perhaps strengthen this meaning?

The Shaykh : Yes, that is so, but who has a doubt distinguishes between the word: "Said," and this is a sound perspective, and: "Then said." And I rambled around this word regarding establishing the correctness of the narration in it; because if he said: it would mean that "he said" is the predicate of this sentence, whereas the predicate here is the Pen. is a complete subject or noun and its predicate, this is in the position of the accusative, and the name of "in" (that), so the Pen is the predicate of "in." But if he said: "Said," then the following sentence becomes the predicate, and the meaning changes.
... ...

The questioner : What is the benefit of knowing these things in this issue?

The Shaykh : Following the Messenger of Allah, and submitting to his ruling and his report regarding the unseen; is this not a benefit? And that is enough, is it not?
Yes.