Arba'un 4 — the creation gathered in the womb

الأربعون 4 — يجمع خلقه في بطن أمه

Abdullah ibn Masud's hadith, the fourth of al-Nawawi's Forty and of Ibn Rajab's commentary: a person's creation is gathered in his mother's womb — forty days as a drop, then a clinging clot for the like, then a morsel of flesh for the like — then God sends the angel who breathes the spirit into him and is ordered to write four things: his provision, his work, his term and whether he is wretched or happy; and that a man may do the deeds of the people of Paradise until only a cubit remains between him and it, then what is written overtakes him. Agreed upon as sound; transmitted by al-Bukhari (3208, 3332, 6594, 7454) and Muslim (2643) through al-A'mash from Zayd ibn Wahb from Ibn Masud, and also by Ahmad (1/382, 414, 430), Abu Dawud (4708), Ibn Majah (76), al-Tirmidhi (2137) and others; Ibn Rajab comments on the stages of the embryo, the writing of destinies and deeds-by-endings (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 131–154).