First Question: How are these five kinds of knowledge restricted to God when today we can ascertain the sex of the child through machines? Rains too can be predicted to some extent.

The Answer:

The issue is not just about the sex of the baby but God knows the number, the condition, its talent, its capacity, strength and weaknesses. In the same way He knows everything about the rain; the quantum, the number of raindrops, the weight and the place where it would fall. Only God is aware of all these details. No one other than Him can know these things through any source.

Amirul Mumineen has discussed the proof of this in one of his sermons recorded in the Nahjul Balagha. He says, “God only knows what is in the womb, male or female, beautiful or ugly, benevolent or miserly (having a good fate or bad). This is the knowledge of the unseen that is known to none but God. (1) It is now very clear that knowledge means the awareness of all attributes; the knowledge about the infant’s physical as well spiritual conditions and not just the sex.

THE SECOND QUESTION

How is it that this verse and all the traditions connected to it tell us that the Holy Messenger and the infallible Imams have spoken about the date of their deaths, place or internment and the events that would occur in the future? How can this verse and those traditions be merged together and isn’t their a contradiction between them because the verse says that no one knows what will occur tomorrow and where he will die?

THE ANSWER:

This doubt and can be answered in details:

The explanation is that the news the representatives of God and the angels give is nothing but a generalization e.g. One among them may know that a certain person will die tomorrow but he is not aware of the time and other conditions because the knowledge of the entire detail is only with God. He has the complete knowledge while they have a superfluous one.

One group of commentators has divided this knowledge into the inherent one and the acquired. The knowledge of God is inherent in Him but they do not have the knowledge for they know what they are told by God.

But this answer does not seem compatible with many Shia and Sunni traditions and in at least three points does not seem compatible with the verse itself. The knowledge of the Day of Judgment is with God only, what man will do tomorrow and in what place he will die.