The Pen's Work Is Done, and It Hit the Mark

Fa-law ijtamaʿa al-khalqu kulluhum… From here, he is speaking about how Allah is in control of everything, whatever anybody else wants to do. If Allah has not written that something will happen, it is not going to happen, even if the whole world, humans and jinn and so on, got together to do it. Allah makes that very clear, and this is also based on the famous hadith that is related about it.

Wa law ijtamaʿa al-khalqu kulluhum ʿalā shayʾin katabahu Allāhu taʿālā fīhi annahu kāʾin, li-yajʿalūhu ghayra kāʾinin lam yaqdirū ʿalayh, wa law ijtamaʿū kulluhum ʿalā shayʾin lam yaktubhu Allāhu taʿālā fīh, li-yajʿalūhu kāʾinan lam yaqdirū ʿalayh, jaffa al-qalamu bi-mā huwa kāʾinun ilā yawmi al-qiyāmah.

Hence, if everyone united to remove from existence what Allah, the Sublime and Exalted, decreed would exist…

So anything that Allah had decreed to exist, if everyone united to remove it, they could not.

Likewise, if they all united to introduce something into existence that Allah, the Sublime and Exalted, didn't decree, they would be unable to do so. The pen's work is done concerning what was, is, and will be until the Day of Resurrection.

So everything that is to happen is written in the book, by the pen, in the divine tablet. This is the imagery used: that the divine tablet is all written, the ink has dried, the pens have been lifted. This is what is mentioned in the hadith as well. This is not to say that Allah is now bound by it. It is just to say what Allah did, and it is absolute.

There is, for example, the question: does Allah think? If by thinking is meant pondering (should I do this, should I do that; what about this, what about that), then of course that is beyond Allah (swt), because Allah is absolute in everything. He wills something, or He does not, and that is all done in eternity. So there is no pondering over whether He should or not. It is done. He knows what the consequence is; He knows what the fifth-level consequence is going to be, and exactly what the corollary effects are. He knows all of those things. So Allah does not ponder those kinds of things.

Now, this is obviously through a system that Allah (swt) created, and that is what has been described to us. It is not that Allah is bound; it is all based on His knowledge anyway. So it is not that He is bound by it.

Furthermore: wa mā akhṭaʾa al-ʿabda lam yakun li-yuṣībah, wa mā aṣābahu lam yakun li-yukhṭiʾah.

Whatever misses a person could not have afflicted him.

If a person did not receive something, it could not have gone to them. Someone was trying to buy a house, and somebody else bought it first: it was not for them.

And whatever afflicts him couldn't have missed him.

The word muṣībah is a very interesting term, because in Arabic it comes from aṣāba, yuṣību, muṣībah. Aṣāba, yuṣību means to hit the mark. Aṣabtu fī al-ramy: I hit the mark in my shooting. Muṣībah means to hit the mark. So a calamity is called muṣībah in Arabic, which basically means that it was intended for that person. It did not miss the mark; it did not go somewhere else; it hit the mark. It was Allah who wanted it that way.

Now, though we have our little bits of free will in this, the entire cosmos is under the control of Allah. The way things work: the rain happens, the car slips; that is Allah's doing. Everything is Allah's doing, but that is directly His doing, without any human intervention in it. Well, even that is from Allah (swt). It is simply a fearful thing to speak like this, because Allah (swt) is the one who does everything; this is said only for the sake of education. So whatever misses a person could not have afflicted him; whatever afflicts him could not have missed him.