Most famous view that has been supported among various sects of Islam, and by numerous Ahadith was that - Lawh (Tablet) - was a thing, which contained the documentation of all events of the Universe that would take place from the beginning until the Day of Judgement. Qalam (Pen) was an instrument of writing, whose nature could be anything.

Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq (‘a) was quoted in Tafsir al-Qummi, where he had said that God initially created the Pen, which was then ordained to write. The Pen wrote, whatever had happened up to that time and then it scribed about the future events until the Day of Judgement.

Shaykh As-Saduq’s opinion was also that Pen and the Tablet were two Angels. It was based on a narration that was presented in his book Kitab al-Mani. However, this was a solitary statement, which could not be relied upon.

Shaykh Al-Mufid’s Criticism

Allama Shaykh Al-Mufid wrote that, “Those who believed that the Pen and the Tablet were two Angels were far from the reality, because nomenclature for Angels was different. Also, no Arabic language dictionary had ever described any Angel with those names.”

Reconciliation Between These Two Ideas

The difference between these two ideas was due to the nature of their meanings. The common concept was based upon the apparent meanings of the phrase, whereas Shaykh Babway’s denotation was based upon the veiled meanings of the term Pen and the Tablet. It has been said that any Qur’anic text had at least seven levels of understanding, and all these levels were not known to anyone other than the Prophet (S) and his progeny.

Allama Al-Majlisi had speculated that Pen and the Tablet might be the two Angels created specially to do the specific task. Or, it might be that these terms referred to the apparent function that two Angels were responsible to carry out.

The Final Decision

Allama Al-Majlisi said that for such symbolic terms, the apparent meaning should be taken for use rather than using personal imaginations, unless there was a clear indication provided by the Qur’an, the Prophet (S) or his Ahl al-Bayt (‘a).