|
KNOWLEDGE
OF THE UNSEEN
The
concept of the Unseen pertains to what is supra-sensory
and metaphysical or even meta-cosmic. In this sense, the
past, as well as the future and everything beyond ordinary
human senses are all included in the concept of the
Unseen, provided that some concrete indications have not
been manifest. However, in a narrower sense of the
concept, the Unseen pertains only to the future and what I
intend here to concentrate on is the tidings God’s
Messenger gave of certain future events.
The
knowledge of the Unseen is, first of all, with God. This
is evident from some Quranic verses, such as the
following:
With
Him are the keys of the Unseen, none knows them but
He. He knows whatever is in the earth and in the
sea. Not a leaf falls but He knows it. There is not
a grain in the darkness of the earth nor anything
wet, fresh or dry but is in a Manifest Record.
(6:59)
Say,
[O Muhammad]: ‘I do not tell you that with me are
the treasures of God, nor that I know the Unseen,
nor do I tell you that I am an angel. I but follow
what is revealed to me’. Say: ‘Are the blind and
the one who sees equal? Will you not then
reflect’? (6:50)
Say:
‘I have no power over any benefit or harm to
myself except as God wills. If I had the knowledge
of the Unseen, I should increase good for myself and
no evil should have touched me. I am but a warner
and a bringer of glad tidings unto people who
believe’. (7:188)
These
verses clearly state that the knowledge of the Unseen is
with God. Does this, however, mean that no one can, by
God’s leave, obtain any part of the knowledge of the
Unseen?
Can
no one obtain any part of the knowledge of the Unseen?
Everything
man has, like health, knowledge, and power, essentially
belongs to God and is, accordingly, from God. We have no
power except that with which He has endowed us . We have
no knowledge except what He has taught us or what He has
enabled us to learn. Likewise, we see through His enabling
us to see and hear through His enabling us to hear. Since
this is so, the verses do not absolutely exclude man from
possessing, by God’s leave, some knowledge of the
Unseen.
The
concept of the Unseen does not only relate to the future,
it also relates to the past. The Quran presents the
stories of past nations as the stories of the Unseen.
Historical researches make us informed of the past.
Many
people can, by God’s Will, get some glimpse of the
future, partly or generally, in dreams or through some
other ways which it is not proper to explain here.
The
Quran, like the universe and man, is an organic entity,
each verse being interrelated to the others. So, the first
and foremost interpreter of the Quran is the Quran itself.
In which case, the complete and true understanding of a
verse depends on the understanding of other relevant
verses. As a principle of creed, and as explicitly
declared in the verses mentioned above, the knowledge of
the Unseen, like power, seeing, and hearing, belongs to
God. However, He reveals the knowledge of some of the
Unseen to a Messenger whom He has chosen, as declared in
the following verse:
[God
alone is] the knower of the Unseen and He does not
disclose His Unseen to anyone, except a Messenger
whom He has chosen. (72:26-7)
Normally,
no one can know exactly what will take place in future,
even a few minutes later. Scientists are not certain about
even natural events which take place according to
‘deterministic’ laws; they state that they cannot say
with certainty that the world will be in the same state as
it is in now. Sociologists and historians have spoken
about historical laws that they have claimed to be based
on historical events or the flow of history but history
has contradicted almost all of them including historians
and those who favor some notion of continual progress in
history like Marx, Weber, Fichte, Hegel, Herder and
others.
The
knowledge of the future is only with God Almighty.
However, He may favor whomever He pleases with some part
of this knowledge. If a man is convinced about the news he
gives concerning the future, he can only be a Messenger of
God.
The
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, made
numerous predictions about the future, and history has not
contradicted them. Like the information he gave about the
past, his predictions are also to be found in the Quran
and in books of Tradition.
|
