Up to now we have clarified the verses which speak about the knowledge of the unseen. There are some verses that deny this knowledge of the unseen for the apostles and there are some that prove it for them. We learn about their reality only when we gather and compare them (this is also easily done through this topical explanation).

Anyway what we conclude is that knowledge in all its form is attached to God only for he encompasses all that is manifest and hidden and this is never separated from Him.

For others like the apostles of God, the angels and the infallible ones there is only one way to attain knowledge and that is through the revelations made by God. The best saying about the collective explanation of these verses is “The knowledge of the unseen being attached only to God” means is personal or that He has them permanently and that is why none but Him has the knowledge of the unseen. If some one else has a portion of it then it means that it is bestowed and granted to him by God for it is not permanent for any one else.

The collection and explanation of the verses have many proofs which we can discern and this can be done through the hadiths also. There are some from Hazrat Ali inscribed in the Nahjul Balagha that give the predictions about the unseen future. He said:

“I am seeing such people whose faces are like their shields covered with skins” One of his companions asked him, “O commander of the faithful you have the knowledge of the unseen!” He smiled and said, “This is not the knowledge of the unseen but the knowledge that I have received from the learned holy Messenger.”(1)

The Second Way:

 The saying about the collection of both these things is: “The knowledge about the existing things attached to God is inscribed in the Lauhi Mahfuz or the divine board for it is all evident and researched and there is no scope for increasing or decreasing it. (This is the knowledge of things that never separate from their causes)The knowledge of the apostles is inscribed on the divine board Lauhol Mahw removed and further inscribed) are subjected to the changes they deserve are discerned through the knowledge of the incomplete and not through the knowledge of complete causes.

In other words we can indeed say that it is subjected to contradictions and changes or the knowledge about it is unseen as said by Imam ALI bin Husein:

“If there had been no verses in the Qura’n about it then I would have spoken to about the things that have already taken place in the past and will keep taking place till the Judgment Day.(2)

The Third Way

There is a saying about the collection and explanation of these verses that divides this kind of knowledge in two ways.

The First:

The knowledge of the unseen is fixed with God and no one else has this knowledge.

The second is that which God has bestowed upon his apostles, and saints as we have seen in the sermon quoted above from Nahjul Balagha. He said, “Indeed the knowledge of the unseen is the knowledge of the Hour as God has said in the last verse of Surah Loqman:

“ Indeed God is He who has the knowledge of the Hour; He sends the rains down and knows what is in the wombs; no soul knows what it shall earn tomorrow and no soul knows in what land it shall die; verily God is all-knowing all-aware.”

(No one has the complete knowledge about it or its part though the reality of its revelation is debatable) God knows that which is in the wombs (no one knows its sex whether male or female excepting God and He knows all its composition and its soul and body) “; no soul knows what it shall earn tomorrow and no soul knows in what land it shall die.” (Here it means the detailed knowledge about everything.)

In conclusion it is said, “And knows what is in the wombs.” Male or female, ugly or beautiful, benign or miserly, dammed or with a safe future and those who will be the fuel for the fires of hell and who will be the companions of the apostles. This is the knowledge of the unseen that is with God and none else. The knowledge of the other things has been bestowed by God on His apostles and the Messenger has given it to me and has prayed for me so that my breast is able to keep them secure and that my ribs encompass them. (3)

So the knowledge that is attributed to God is full of all specification about the soul and the body.

We can explain it through the coming of the rains, the deeds of men, and death and no one knows about them except God.

The 4th way about the collection and explanation of these verses is the differentiation between the knowledge of the deeds and the knowledge of capacity and nothing is secret to His all encompassing knowledge. Many secrets about deeds can be hidden from the apostles of God but God tells them when they desire to know (This desire also is bestowed by God’s permission as a part of nature.) (Reflect deeply)

It is like there being a country and its military secrets are written in a voluminous book which is open to review by only a few selected people who belong to the country and they know because of the permission of the keeper of the secret who bestows a part of it to them but he knows all and they can have the knowledge that they require (This is after supposing that they can refer to that book on the command of the Keeper or Leader)

The proofs of this are those hadiths that Shaykh Kuleni has compiled in Al Kafi under the heading “The Imams are able to know when they so desire.”(4)

We conclude from whatever has been said earlier that indeed the apostles and the saints have the total knowledge of the unseen. There are four ways to compile and explain the hadiths about the unseen knowledge.

1. The personal knowledge which is permanent and is joi8ned to the knowledge of the apostles and the saints

2. The detailed knowledge and this too is attached only to God and the manifest knowledge is for the apostles and the saints.

3. The knowledge of the Lauhi Mahfuz is limited to God only and the knowledge of Lauhi Mahud and Ithbath is for the apostles and the saints.

4. The knowledge of the deeds is for God only and the knowledge of Quwah is for the apostles and the saints.

1. Foot note on page 198 of Nahjul Balagha on Sermon 128.

2. Tafsir Nurus Saqlain vol.2 page 512 hadith 170

3. Nahjul Balagha Sermon 28

4. Usul Kafi Vol.1 page 258