Allah was, and there was nothing besides Him.

hadith · Bukhari

The first thing God created was the Pen. He said to it: Write.

hadith · Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud

Scroll on.

His command, when He intends a thing, is only that He says to it: Be, and it is.

Quran 36:82

Do the disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them?

Quran 21:30

Then He turned to the heaven while it was smoke...

Quran 41:11

And the heaven We built with strength, and indeed We are expanding it.

Quran 51:47

He made the sun a radiant lamp, and the moon a light.

Quran 71:16 · adapted

...and We made from water every living thing. Will they not believe?

Quran 21:30

Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day are signs for those of understanding.

Quran 3:190

The angels were created from light.

hadith · Muslim

Indeed, I am creating a human being from clay.

Quran 38:71

...and I breathed into him of My spirit.

Quran 38:72 · adapted

And He taught Adam the names, all of them.

Quran 2:31

So the angels prostrated, all of them together.

Quran 38:73

Except Iblis. He was arrogant.

Quran 38:74

"I am better than him. You created me from fire, and him from clay." (7:12)

"I will surely mislead them."

paraphrase of Quran 38:82

"But over My servants you have no authority." (15:42, adapted)

O Adam, dwell, you and your wife, in the Garden... but do not approach this tree.

Quran 2:35

Then Satan whispered to them...

Quran 7:20

Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves; if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the lost.

Quran 7:23

Then Adam received words from his Lord, and He accepted his repentance.

Quran 2:37

No inherited sin. Every child of theirs is born clean. The story on earth begins forgiven. "Whoever follows My guidance: no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve." (2:38)

We sent no messenger before you except that We revealed to him: there is no god but Me, so worship Me.

Quran 21:25

Time widens. Along one unbroken thread, lanterns kindle, each lit from the same flame. Watch what never changes.

Adam

It began with him: the first light on the thread, carried out of the Garden, forgiven.

Nuh · Noah

Build the ark under Our eyes.

Quran 11:37 · adapted

Ibrahim · Abraham

O fire, be coolness and peace upon Ibrahim.

Quran 21:69

Yusuf · Joseph

I saw eleven stars, and the sun and the moon: I saw them prostrating to me.

Quran 12:4

Musa · Moses

Strike the sea with your staff. And it parted...

Quran 26:63 · adapted

Dawud & Sulayman · David & Solomon

Indeed, We subjected the mountains to glorify with him in the evening and at sunrise.

Quran 38:18 · adapted

Yunus · Jonah

There is no god but You; glory be to You; I was indeed in the wrong.

Quran 21:87

Isa · Jesus

He said: I am the servant of God. He gave me the Scripture and made me a prophet.

Quran 19:30

And to every people, a guide.

Quran 13:7

The named lanterns are not the whole story: between them, dozens more, most now nameless to us, all carrying the same sentence.

Six centuries after Isa. A trade town of stone and idols. A man known only as "the trustworthy one" climbs a mountain outside it, to think.

اقْرَأْ

Read.

Quran 96:1

Read, in the name of your Lord who created.

Quran 96:1

And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds.

Quran 21:107

...the Messenger of God and the seal of the prophets.

Quran 33:40 · adapted

"This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favour upon you." (5:3)

You are here.

Fourteen centuries into the quiet stretch between the seal and the Hour. This is not a story you are reading. It is a story you are in. · "Has the time not come for those who believe, that their hearts should grow humble at the remembrance of God?" (57:16)

No one is told when. Not even the prophets were told when.

"They ask you about the Hour: when is its arrival? Say: its knowledge is only with my Lord." (7:187, adapted)

When the sun is folded up, and when the stars fall away...

Quran 81:1-2

The Day We fold the heaven like the folding of a written scroll. As We began the first creation, We will repeat it: a promise binding upon Us.

Quran 21:104

When the earth is shaken with its final quake, and yields up its burdens...

Quran 99:1-2

We place the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection, and no soul will be wronged in anything.

Quran 21:47

Every lantern-carrier said this day would come. It was never a threat to the sincere; it was a promise that nothing good is ever lost.

My mercy encompasses all things.

Quran 7:156

"No fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve." (2:62)

O reassured soul, return to your Lord, well pleased and pleasing. Enter among My servants. Enter My Garden.

Quran 89:27-30