Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 11798

Hibban bin Ubaydullah bin Zuhayr Abu Zuhayr al-Basri relates: I asked al-Dahhak bin Muzahim about this saying of Allah Almighty: "No misfortune befalls on the earth or in yourselves except that it is (already settled) in a Book (that is, the Preserved Tablet) before We bring it into being; indeed that is easy for Allah." And I asked about this saying of Allah Almighty: "We were recording whatever you used to do." And I asked about this saying: "Indeed We have created everything according to a measure (qadar)." Al-Dahhak replied: Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: Allah Almighty created the Throne, then rose over it (istawa); then He created the pen and commanded it to run under His knowledge. The pen is as large as the distance between the heaven and the earth. It asked: "O Lord, for what shall I run?" The Lord said: "For that which I am creating and which is to be in My creation, whether it relates to rain, or plants, or souls, or deeds, or provision, or the appointed term of death." So the pen ran with whatever is to be until the Day of Resurrection, and Allah Almighty kept it fixed in a hidden Book with Him beneath the Throne. As for this saying of Allah Almighty: "We were recording whatever you used to do," Allah Almighty has appointed some angels who copy from that Book every year in the month of Ramadan, on Laylat al-Qadr, whatever is to happen on the earth from that time until the same time of the following year; they note it down, and then with it they meet Allah's guardian angels appointed over the servants every Thursday evening. They find that what the guardian angels take up conforms to what is in the writing they have, with neither decrease nor increase in it. As for the saying of Allah Almighty: "Indeed We have created everything according to a measure (qadar)," indeed Allah Almighty has created everything; nothing in creation resembles it, and then He decreed for that (thing) the provision that suited it. He created the camel in such a way that nothing of it is found in the other animals of His creation; and the same is the case with everything He has created. He appointed for the animals and birds of the land a particular provision suited to them on land, and for the animals and birds of the sea He created what is best for them in the sea. This is what is meant by the saying of Allah Almighty: "Indeed We have created everything according to a measure (qadar)."
Al-Tabarani recorded it; its chain contains al-Dahhak, whom a group declared da'if (weak) and Ibn Hibban declared thiqah (trustworthy); he (Ibn Hibban) says: "He did not hear from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both)." The remaining narrators of this narration have been declared trustworthy.