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Question No. 3578 10 September 2026 Official answer by Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) verified Content level: Intermediate

آیا نوشته شدن همه چیز در لوح محفوظ یعنی خدا همه را خواسته است؟

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Verified answer Documented and evidence-based
Dear questioner, Master Ali Saei
Tracking code: #Q-3578

Hello,

When people say that everything is written in the Preserved Tablet, does that mean God willed everything in advance?
َّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ

Subject category: Theology and Creed

The essence and first answer at a glance (60-word summary)

Everything being written in the Preserved Tablet does not mean that God willed it all; knowing is not the same as willing. Divine knowledge encompasses will, decree, destiny, and their fulfillment, and has no temporal or spatial framework. The stages that follow, by contrast, unfold within time and space. Divine knowledge transcends the limits of our minds.

Answer by Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat)

Teacher and researcher in the intellectual tradition of wisdom and the Ahl al-Bayt | Soroush Bamdadān Cultural Center

Knowing is not the same as willing. Willing is the first veil of knowledge, its initial manifestation; knowledge in its true sense is what is revealed at the stage of divine ratification.

“Will, intention, decree, judgment and ratification” all have a temporal and spatial framework. Knowledge, however, has no such framework. Divine knowledge encompasses will, intention, decree, judgment and ratification. Knowledge admits of neither quantity nor quality; it has no whatness, whyness or existence in the ordinary sense. It transcends them all, and so the limitations of the mind cannot grasp divine knowledge.

Al-Ḥadīd 57:22 ما أَصابَ مِنْ مُصيبَةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَ لا في‏ أَنْفُسِكُمْ إِلاَّ في‏ كِتابٍ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ نَبْرَأَها إِنَّ ذلِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ يَسيرٌ

No calamity befalls the earth or yourselves without its having been recorded in a Book before We bring it into being. That is easy for God.

The root ب ر ء originally means to create from nothing, to bring something into existence without precedent, and to cut or separate one thing from another. The words “Bāriʾ” (Creator) and “barāʾ” (disavowal) derive from this same root.

The form «نَبْرَأ» is a present-tense verb in the first-person plural, from Form IV. The use of the plural form “We,” when referring to God’s Most Sacred Essence, signifies the majesty of the divine act.

Creation may be understood as having different levels and degrees. The stage of barʾ—at which the Lord Most High’s creative power becomes manifest—may be seen as creation’s manifestation after the Preserved Tablet.

Al-Ḥadīd 57:22 ما أَصابَ مِنْ مُصيبَةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَ لا في‏ أَنْفُسِكُمْ إِلاَّ في‏ كِتابٍ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ نَبْرَأَها إِنَّ ذلِكَ عَلَى اللَّهِ يَسيرٌ

No unwelcome calamity befalls the earth or yourselves without its having been recorded in the Preserved Tablet before We created the earth. That is easy for God.

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