Three Questions by a Christian and their Answers — Page 41
41 believed the Necessary Being to be the Knower of the unseen, and have believed all other existents to be excluded from this knowledge. That is to say, they believed that God has to be the Knower of the unseen, and that this attribute is the exclu- sive prerogative of His Being. It is not the prerogative of all existents—whose being is liable to pass into non-existence and non-reality—to share with God this or other such attrib- utes. Just as no one can be the partner of God in His Person, the same prohibition stands in respect of His attributes. Therefore, all other existents are barred from the knowledge of the unseen, regardless of whether they are Prophets or Mu h addath i n or Saints. Yes, receiving knowledge of the un- seen through Divine revelation has always been the privilege of His chosen ones, and today we find it only in the followers of the Holy Prophet sa and in no one else. It is the way of God that, from time to time, He favours His chosen ones with some of His special secrets, and the bounty of the knowledge of the unseen rains down upon them at the appointed and predetermined time. In fact, those who are truly close to God are tested and recognized by the fact that they are given knowledge of some future events, and some hidden secrets are revealed to them. But all this is not by their own authority and their own choos- ing, rather these bounties are given to them by the will and choice and authority of God. It is the practice of the Benevolent One to hear most of the supplications of those who do as He wills, and become solely and wholly His, and are lost in Him, and He also oc-