which He originated. He is the Self-Sustaining who does not sleep, the All-Subduing whom none can assail. There is nothing like Him [Qur’an 42:11].
(On Creation and Knowledge)
He created the Throne and made it the limit of establishment, brought forth the Footstool and made it encompass the earth and highest heavens. He originated the Tablet and the Supreme Pen, and set the Pen running, writing through His knowledge concerning His creation until the Day of Decision and Judgement. He originated the entire cosmos without a preceding exemplar, created creation, and made what He created wear out.[147] He sent spirits down into bodily forms as trustees and made these forms into which the spirits descended vicegerents upon the earth. He subjected to us everything in the heavens and the earth, all from Him.[148] Not an atom moves except toward Him and from Him.
He created all without needing it and without any compulsion requiring Him to do so; rather, His knowledge already encompassed that He would create what He created. “He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden” [Qur’an 57:3]; “He has power over all things” [5:120];[149] “He encompasses all things in knowledge” [65:12]; “He has counted all things in number” [72:28]; “He knows the secret and what is still more hidden” [20:7]; “He knows the treachery of eyes and what breasts conceal” [40:19]. How could He not know something He has created? “Does He who created not know? He is the Subtle, the All-Aware” [67:14].
He knew things from themselves before their existence, then brought them into existence precisely as He knew them. He has never ceased to know things; no new knowledge arises for Him when creation is renewed. Through His knowledge He perfected and ordered things, and through it He appointed whomever He willed to govern them and granted them authority. He knew universals without restriction, just as He knew particulars—
Notes
[147]
Akhlaqa means to cause to wear out.
[148]
An allusion to the noble verse: “He has subjected to you everything in the heavens and everything in the earth, all from Him. In this are signs for people who reflect” [Qur’an 45:13].
[149]
The quotation from al-Hadid 57:3 has here been separated from “He has power over all things,” which is from al-Maidah 5:120. The closing words of the verse in al-Hadid are: “He knows all things.”
Translator’s note TN120-1: “He knew things from themselves” preserves the wording minha. The next clause distinguishes their being known before existence from their being brought into existence; the author explicitly denies that renewed creation produces new knowledge in God.
