There are various kinds of kitab (“what is written”, or “book”) in Islamic thought. In the Qur'an are to be found the Heavenly Tablet, the Record Book and some Scriptures such as Zabur (the Psalms), Tawrah (the Torah), Injil (the Gospel) and the Qur'an. The two former parts are what we can call ‘invisible kitab’ because it is thought that the Heavenly Tablet is located near Allah in Heaven, and that the Record Book is usually kept by angels. On the other hand, we can call the Qur'an as a ‘visible kitab’ because it is a scripture sent down from Heaven to Earth. In this paper, it is pointed out that these kitabs are closely linked to the concept of predestination in Islamic thought.
Firstly, the relationship between the Heavenly Tablet and the Record Book will be focused on. It is thought that every decree of every creature, which will occur until the Last Day, i. e. predestination (qadar), was written on the Heavenly Tablet with a pen according to God's order. In the Record Book, all human deeds are written by angels, and will be used to judge the person to decide whether they should go to heaven or hell on the Last Day. The content of the Record Book is included in the Heavenly Tablet with the same words. Therefore, we could say that not only the Heavenly Tablet but also the Record Book exist within range of predestination by God.
As for the Qur'an, we can discover the linkage to the concept of predestination in the theory of sending down of the Qur'an (inzal), which is the revelation theory in Islamic thought. It is thought that the Qur'an was sent down in full from the Heavenly Tablet to the lowest heaven on the Night of Qadr, and then from the lowest heaven to the earth piece by piece, depending on situations which occurred in Muhammad's community. However, there is another opinion which says that the Qur'an was sent down to the lowest heaven on the Night of the Middle of the Month of Sha'ban. Both nights are considered to have a relationship to the concept of predestination because for each of the nights there are traditions which indicate that decrees for the following year are decided. Besides, the term ‘qadr’, which means power, is very close to the term ‘qadar’, predestination, and there is a verse in the Qur'an which suggests that the Qur'an was sent down on the Night of Qadr (Q. 97: 1), so it came to be believed as true that on this night the Qur'an was sent down. On the other hand, the Night of the Middle of the Month of Sha'ban also has reason to be regarded as the night when the Qur'an was sent down; there are traditions that on this night Allah comes down to the lowest heaven and forgives human beings, giving merciful gifts such as the Qur'an and so on. This image is very close to the theory of the sending down of the Qur'an to the lowest heaven, however this is not accepted as a correct theory. Through both of these illustrations, we can say that in both theories, there is deep linkage to the concept of predestination.
So far, it is clear that the concepts of ‘predestination’ and ‘kitab’ exist side by side in Islamic thought and closely match one another.

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One of the characteristic features of the medieval ‘ulama’ was their high geographical mobility. Pilgrimage, travelling for academic purposes and commercial activities, sometimes a combination of some or all of these, were its important factors while many ‘ulama’ were attracted for better job opportunities in other places.
A need for Sunni ‘ulama’ in Egypt was first created by Saladin when he destroyed the Fatimids and began to rebuild Sunnism in Egypt. During the Ayyubid and early Mamluk period more ‘ulama’ flowed into Egypt from different parts of the Islamic world. Among them were many from the Islamic West. Even during the Fatimid period there was a connection between Western and Egyptian ulama i n the fields of hadith and Maliki law studies.
Those Western ‘ulama’ can be classified into two types; one was the transit type and the other the settler type. Those belonging to the first contributed to the exchange of scholarship, bringing to Egypt some of Western achievements and back home more knowledges and skills from the East. But more important was their contribution to the promotion of the general feeling of Islamic unity and solidarity by teaching the population both of Egypt and the West through their contacts with local ‘ulama’ and their other travelling experiences in other lands.
The contributions of the second type was more concrete; many Maliki fuqaha' who came to Egypt and lived there permanently played a significant role in establishing the Maliki law school there by working as teachers and sometimes as qadis. In other fields of scholarship, many individual scholars from the West made great contributions; to name a few, al-Shatibi in the qira'a, al-Qurtubi in the tafsir and Abu Hayyan in the philology. Another point we cannot neglect is that the western ‘ulama’ in Egypt were mostly Sufi is or zahids and helped the diffusion of sufism in Egypt.
All in all, they were the beneficiaries of the general feeling of Islamic unity and they themselves in turn strived to promote and materialize this feeling.

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