ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Strengthening of the Faith Chapter Four : the Negation of Shirk in Knowledge Allah says in one of the Qur'anic verses as follows: {And with Him are the keys of the Ghaib (all that is hidden), none knows them but He. And He knows whatever there is in (or on) 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 fresh or dry, but is written in a Clear Record.} (V.6:59) It means that Allah has bestowed on the humans some faculties so that they may have an access to the knowledge concerning the apparent on the physical plane; for instance eyes to sight, ears to listen, nose to smell, tongue to taste, hands to grope about, and intellect to understand.

Then, the above faculties have been put at the disposal of a human being so that he may utilize them on his own accord; for instance, whenever he intends to see an object, he may open his eyes and whenever he does not intend to see it, he may close them. Other limbs may also be utilized in a similar manner. Human beings have been given the keys to have an access to the knowledge of the evident things.

As the matter of doing and undoing a lock mainly depends on the will of its owner, similarly the act of gaining knowledge about the apparent things depends upon the will of a human being. Only Allah possesses the knowledge of Ghaib (unseen and hidden): Contrary to the above, it is beyond the authority of a human being to gain the knowledge of the unknown, as Allah Himself preserves the keys to it.

No entity whatsoever (whether one of the most prominent humans or one of the most eminent angels) has been given an authority to know about the unseen in a manner that they may exercise their own will to gain knowledge about the hidden matters. However, whenever Allah so wishes, He reveals a certain amount of information concerning the Unknown to someone. Giving information about the unknown solely depends on the Will of Allah and not on the desire of someone.

On many occasions Allah's Prophet {Peace be upon Him} had a desire to gain knowledge about a certain thing or occurrence, which he could not know, but the same was revealed to him whenever Allah intended to do so. During the era of Prophethood, the hypocrites slandered `Aisha {May Allah have mercy on Her} which shocked the Prophet {Peace be upon Him} tremendously. He tried- to probe into the matter for -many days, but failed to ferret out the truth.