Do the Ahl al-Bayt (a) have knowledge of the Unseen?
In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful
And blessings and peace be upon the noblest of the messengers, our master Muhammad, and his pure progeny.
If the Unseen (al-ghayb) is what is hidden from human beings, whether in the past or the future, or is confined to the future, there is no doubt that Allah the Exalted has deposited the knowledge of what has been and what will be with His chosen Prophet (s) and his pure Household (a). They are the repository of Allah’s knowledge, the secret of His wisdom and the interpreters of His Noble Book, in which is the clarification of all things and in which He has enumerated everything.
So that no confusion arises in understanding the knowledge of the Unseen possessed by the Ahl al-Bayt (a), on the pretext of what has come in the verses of the Noble Qurʾan, we must briefly point to the decisive principles in the Noble Qurʾan for the map of the knowledge of the Unseen, and then point to the narrations that indicate that knowledge of the Unseen is established for the Ahl al-Bayt (a).
The Qurʾanic principles establish two matters concerning knowledge of the Unseen, namely:
The first: Allah the Exalted has the keys of the Unseen, and the Unseen belongs exclusively to Him, as in His words, the Exalted:
“With Him are the treasures of the Unseen; no one knows them except Him.” (Qurʾan 6:59)
“Say, ‘[The knowledge of] the Unseen belongs only to Allah.” (Qurʾan 10:20)
The second: Allah the Exalted, by His will, has bestowed some of the knowledge of the Unseen upon His friends (awliyaʾ), and this is His saying, Almighty is He:
“Knower of the Unseen, He does not disclose His [knowledge of the] Unseen to anyone, except to an apostle He approves of” (Qurʾan 72:26–27).
“Allah will not acquaint you with the Unseen, but Allah chooses whomever He wishes from His apostles” (Qurʾan 3:179).
From this we know that the essential divine knowledge of the Unseen is exclusive to Allah, and what the messengers have is knowledge of the Unseen through the teaching of Allah the Exalted; it is He who acquainted them with it and honored them with it. So they have knowledge of what has been and what will be; that is why the Prophet (s) gave many reports about the Unseen, some of which the Qurʾan has confirmed and some of which hadith has confirmed.
With this important foundation for understanding the knowledge of the Unseen, it is not strange that Allah the Exalted should honor the Ahl al-Bayt (a) with knowledge of the Unseen, or that they should inherit it from the Prophet (s), because they are the heirs of the Prophet according to our established beliefs, and they have what he (s) has, except in what has been established as exclusive to him (s); numerous narrations have come to this effect.
In confirmation of this, we present some of the narrations that explicitly indicate the knowledge of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) of the Unseen, as befits this brief treatment:
1 - It has come in al-Kharaʾij that when the people of [various] languages and religions gathered in a session with Imam al-Rida (a), and after he had spoken to each one in his own language more eloquently than he, and they showed great amazement, he said, after that: “Al-Rida (a) looked at Ibn Hadhab and said: If I were to tell you that in these days you will be afflicted with the blood of a kinsman of yours, would you believe me? He said: No, for no one knows the Unseen except Allah the Exalted.
He (a) said: Does not Allah say (“Knower of the Unseen, He does not disclose His [knowledge of the] Unseen to anyone, except to an apostle He approves of” (Qurʾan 72:26–27))? The Messenger of Allah is approved by Allah, and we are the heirs of that Messenger whom Allah acquainted with whatever He willed of His Unseen; so we know what has been and what will be until the Day of Resurrection. What I have told you, O Ibn Hadhab, will surely happen within five days. If what I have told you does not prove true within this period, then I am a liar and a fabricator; and if it proves true, then know that you are the one who rejects Allah and His Messenger. And you have another sign: you will be stricken in your sight and become blind, so that you will see neither plain nor mountain, and this will happen after some days. And I have yet another sign for you: you will swear a false oath and be struck with leprosy. Muhammad ibn al-Fadl said: By Allah, all of that befell Ibn Hadhab [Hadab]. It was said to him: Did al-Rida tell the truth or lie? He said: I knew at the time he told me that it would happen, but I was putting on a show of endurance.” (al-Kharaʾij, vol. 1, p. 343).
Thus Imam al-Rida (a) proved to Ibn Hadhab, by the noble verse, that he knows the Unseen, after confirming to him that he is the heir of the knowledge of the Prophet (s); then he verified that with practical predictions, which came true.
2 – In the argument of the Commander of the Faithful (a) against the heretic (zindiq), in which he established that Allah the Exalted honored them by empowering them with knowledge of the Unseen, it says:
“That He has friends whose acts and rulings follow the course of His act; they are the honored servants who do not venture to speak ahead of Him, and they act by His command. It is He who strengthened them with a spirit from Him and made creation know of their power over knowledge of the Unseen by His saying: (“Knower of the Unseen, He does not disclose His [knowledge of the] Unseen to anyone, except to an apostle He approves of” (Qurʾan 72:26–27)).”
From this it also becomes clear that the verse includes the Imams (a), because they are the heirs of the Prophet (s). ʿAli ibn Ibrahim al-Qummi said this in his Tafsir in interpreting this verse; he said: (It means: ʿAli is the one approved (al-murtada) from the Messenger (s), and he is of him). Tafsir al-Qummi, vol. 2, p. 390).
3 – This is confirmed by what ʿAllama al-Majlisi transmitted in al-Bihar and elsewhere from the Commander of the Faithful (a), his saying: (I am that one approved from the Messenger, to whom Allah Almighty has disclosed His Unseen). (Vol. 42, p. 53).
4 – It has come in the book al-Manaqib by Ibn Shahrashub, from Imam al-Sadiq (a), who said: By Allah, we have been given the knowledge of the first and the last. A man from among his companions said to him: May I be made your ransom, do you have knowledge of the Unseen? He said to him: Woe to you! I know what is in the loins of men and the wombs of women. (Vol. 4, p. 250).
And other similar narrations.
Indeed, the knowledge of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) of the Unseen is argued for with multiple proofs, to which we only allude, such as (establishing that they encompass knowledge of the entire Book), (what has been established about everything being figured in a manifest Imam, meaning Imam ʿAli), (the many narrations indicating their knowledge of what will be), (what indicates their reports of hidden matters in their practical conduct), (what has been established about their having the Greatest Name), and what has been established regarding their knowledge and its nature, through many reports that could become a huge book.
As for what has come in some narrations from which the negation of knowledge of the Unseen from them appears, these were either issued in taqiyya, or they reflect special circumstances, as in the confrontation of Imam al-Sadiq (a) with the Khattabiyya, or they intend the negation of essential knowledge of the Unseen, which is among the exclusive attributes of Allah Almighty, not the knowledge of the Unseen with which He acquainted them.
And may Allah bless Muhammad and his pure progeny.
Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi