The Shaykh’s remarks on some matters of divine decree.
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The Shaykh : ... and we explained the hadith of the two handfuls, meaning that when Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, commands the angel to write the happiness of the fetus while it is still in its mother’s womb and has not yet entered the bounds of life, Allah writes for it what preceded in His knowledge of what it will do when it exists within the bounds of life and reaches the age of accountability, fifteen or fourteen... So if it is happy, that is what Allah knew by His prior knowledge and wrote in the Preserved Tablet, and consequently He commanded the angel to write that anew while it is still a fetus in its mother’s womb. Yes, I gave a very brief indication: every text in the Qur'an or the Sunnah that suggests compulsion has been interpreted in light of what we explained to you regarding the hadith of the two handfuls, that is, the writing, whether the writing in the Preserved Tablet, or the writing in a blessed night in Ramadan, or the writing for the fetus by the angel as you asked, all of this is in accordance with what preceded in the knowledge of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. The knowledge of Allah is intrinsic knowledge that discovers events before they occur, and then He confirms His discovery by ancient, eternal writings, as one who is certain of what he knows. This is clear by way of approximation, not likening, of course, and not specification.
A person confident in his knowledge never hesitates to broadcast it among the people, nor to preach it, nor to record it in a book... for the people, because he is well-versed in it. So our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, and to Him belongs the highest analogy, His knowledge is intrinsic, and falsehood does not reach Him from before or behind Him. So everything that preceded in the knowledge of Allah, He inscribed in the Preserved Tablet, and then the partial details come in accordance with the general details. So the writing of happiness by the angel for the fetus, or misery, while it is in its mother’s womb, does not mean compelling it to either happiness or misery, but rather it is a discovery of what this fetus will become by its own choice, not by compulsion, because compulsion and accountability never coexist.
A person confident in his knowledge never hesitates to broadcast it among the people, nor to preach it, nor to record it in a book... for the people, because he is well-versed in it. So our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, and to Him belongs the highest analogy, His knowledge is intrinsic, and falsehood does not reach Him from before or behind Him. So everything that preceded in the knowledge of Allah, He inscribed in the Preserved Tablet, and then the partial details come in accordance with the general details. So the writing of happiness by the angel for the fetus, or misery, while it is in its mother’s womb, does not mean compelling it to either happiness or misery, but rather it is a discovery of what this fetus will become by its own choice, not by compulsion, because compulsion and accountability never coexist.