Question
Q 31:34 reads:
Verily the knowledge of the Hour is with Allah (alone). It is He Who sends down rain, and He Who knows what is in the wombs. Nor does any one know what it is that he will earn on the morrow: Nor does any one know in what land he is to die. Verily with Allah is full knowledge and He is acquainted (with all things).
Now we know some of these things. Does this prove the Qur’an wrong?
Answer
In order to get to the meaning of the verses of the Holy Qur’ān we need to study them in the context they occur. In the referred verses the Almighty addresses the unbelievers telling them that the ignorance of the time of occurrence does not negate a reality. The unbelievers used to say to the Holy Prophet (sws) that when will the Hereafter come? Mention the exact time. Why should we believe in a thing the time of arrival of which no one can mention? Allah says that there are many things in your life, which you know with certainty will occur without telling the exact time for their happening. Only He knows the time of the resurrection and He sends rain, which you always witness. You know that rain comes and don’t deny it on the basis of your not knowing its exact time of occurrence. You see a woman get pregnant and know for certainty that she will deliver a baby and don’t deny it on the same basis. It is the case with other examples. These verses don’t state that nobody will be able to discover the time of rain and what is in the fetus.
Now if according to one’s understanding these verses imply that these include the matters of the GHAIB and therefore no one knows them then where do these imply that no one can know even using some kind of physical experience? I can certainly not tell what lies in the drawing room of my neighbor but if I place a camera there and that camera supplies me with the vision of that room on a screen placed before me then where does it imply that I have begun experiencing the knowledge of the unseen. Same is the case with ultrasonic and meteorology. We don’t say that the scientific development has enabled us to experience the unseen but we have developed the means to look into the factors involved in process of rain and examine the development of embryo in a mother’s womb. This is what could have been said by a nonbeliever of the time of the Prophet if he tore apart the abdomen of a pregnant woman and then said that he can tell what is there in it.
Answered by: Tariq Mahmood Hashmi
Date: 2015-01-10
