Al-Lawh wal-Qalam:
The Tablet and the Pen
We believe in al-Lawh (the Tablet) and al-Qalam (the Pen) and in everything written on it. Even if all created beings were to gather together to make something fail to exist, whose existence Allah had written on the Tablet, they would not be able to do so. And if all created beings were to gather together to make something exist which Allah had not written on it, they would not be able to do so. The Pen has dried having written down all that will be in existence until the Day of Judgment. Whatever has missed a person it would have never inflicted him, and whatever has inflicted a person it would have never missed him. It is necessary for the slave to know that Allah already knows everything that is going to happen in His creation and destined it masterfully and firmly. There is nothing that He has created in either the heavens or the earth that can contradict it, or add to it, or erase it, or change it, or decrease it, or increase it in any way. This is a fundamental aspect of belief and a necessary element of all knowledge and recognition of Allah’s clearance of resembling the creation, and of Allah’s Lordship. As Allah says in His Book:
وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَىءٍ فَقَدَّرَهُ تَقْدِيرًا
Which means: “He created everything and destined it in a detailed way.” [al-Furqan] And He also says:
وَكَانَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ قَدَرًا مَقْدُورًا
Which means: “What Allah creates is always a decreed destiny”. [al-Ahzab] So woe to anyone who displays enmity with Allah concerning the Destining and who, with a sick heart, starts delving into this matter [Such as al-Qadariyyah who deny the Destining of Allah]. In his delusory attempt to investigate the Unforeseen, he is seeking a secret that can never be uncovered, and he ends up an evil-doer, telling nothing but lies.