Knowledge of Unseen (Ilm e Gaib), Spiritual powers. Reality behind this
Bismillah hir Rahman Nir Raheem
My Lord, expand for me my chest [with assurance] And ease for me my task And untie the knot from my tongue That they may understand my speech. Ameen
It is a common belief nowadays that there is this so called baba who knows everything, if not that then if a person is a bit "educated" he would say that there is a man he has special Karamaat (special miraculous spiritual powers) Hmmm. Then their comes a group of people who wear stones so that it may bring good luck or for money and all that. Some people believes in horoscopes which many of us thinks is a right thing and there is nothing wrong with it according to some people. People usually asks what's your star? I am virgo or Leo or cancer or whatever. Some people wears some amulet (taweez) in which some Quranic Verse is written that it may protect him. All of this is related to Unseen knowledge (Ilm e Gaib), will talk about it in a while.
First let's look at the acts briefly and then continue on to main topic.
Regarding Amulets (Taweez)
It was narrated from ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Aamir al-Juhani...Prophet SAW said ‘Whoever wears an amulet (taweez) has committed shirk.'
Regarding horoscope or going to baba's
Safiyya reported from some of the wives of Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) having said:
He who visits a diviner ('Arraf) and asks him about anything, his prayers extending to forty nights will not be accepted.
Once we were discussing this matter of magic and all that, one of my friend said that the time of Prophet SAW was different. He said that I believe, I have Iman that if for example the Prophet said that by reciting Ayat ul Kursi one gets the protection I have Iman on it but these days we need something more as we are not so strong. I was shocked I didn't say anything to him, I was thinking what kind of Iman is that if you don't believe what the Prophet said to be true and enough then it's not belief, you are just deceiving yourself. If he said it's enough, then it's enough.
Narrated Abdullah ibn Mas'ud:
Zaynab, the wife of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, told that Abdullah said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) saying: spells, charms and love-potions are shirk.
I asked: Why do you say this? I swear by Allah, when my eye was discharging I used to go to so-and-so, the Jew, who applied a spell to me. When he applied the spell to me, it calmed down. Abdullah said:
That was just the work of the Devil who was picking it with his hand, and when he uttered the spell on it, he desisted. All you need to do is to say as the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to say:
أَذْهِبِ الْبَاسَ رَبَّ النَّاسِ اشْفِ أَنْتَ الشَّافِي لاَ شِفَاءَ إِلاَّ شِفَاؤُكَ شِفَاءً لاَ يُغَادِرُ سَقَمًا
‘Adhhib il-ba’s Rabb al-naas ishfi anta al-Shaafi laa shifaa’a illa shifaa’uka shifaa’an laa yughaadiru saqaman (Remove the harm, O Lord of men, and heal. Thou art the Healer. There is no remedy but Thine which leaves no disease behind).
There are many more things which the Prophet SAW told us like reciting Surah Falq and Naas, like whoever recites Surah Baqarah the Shaytan won't enter his house and many more. No! but we need something special something spicy like standing on one leg and reciting something thousand times. 😒
All this is related to Ilm e Gaib (knowledge of Unseen). What is Ilm e Gaib? Who has the power of ilm e gaib? Let's look into it step by step.
What is Ilm e Gaib?
Gaib means that which is unseen. Now the question arises what type of unseen? for example
1) if you are sitting in one room and someone rings your doorbell, you don't know who is at the door, does it comes in Ilm e Gaib?
or
2) I am writing this blog and I know that you will read it, is it ilm e gaib?
In both the cases one can know the answer using scientific means or other worldly means, in the first example who is at the door is in gaib unless one simply goes or checks the door or if there are CCTV one can see it using that. In the second example it is in gaib until the website gives the statistics itself.
Ilm e gaib is that knowledge or information which cannot be attained using any of our six senses combined or that knowledge which is out of the domain of science. For example 1) one says that the black cat crossed the path this is bad luck,
or
2) one says that while going out Prophet SAW said to recite this this dua.
Now in both these cases one cannot know the result of either of them. For a common man both would be superstition but as a Muslim we know that the second one is a saying of Prophet and its true that's a part of our belief.
Who knows the Ilm e Gaib?
Let's see what Quran says
He has with Him the keys to the unseen which no one knows besides Him. He knows all that is in the land and the sea. Not a single leaf falls which He would not know. No single seed exists even in the darkest places of the land, nor anything in the world either wet or dry, that is not kept recorded in the self-evident Book (the tablet preserved in the heavens).
Now according to this verse no one has the knowledge of Unseen (Gaib) but Allah and if we don't believe in this verse, it means that our Iman is at danger.
In Ayat ul Kursi it is said
... He knows about people's present and past. No one can grasp anything from His knowledge besides what He has permitted them to grasp....
So, one thing is clear from the above discussion that the source of ilm e Gaib belongs only to Allah alone. Now here comes a question as said in Ayat ul Kursi, do Allah gives this ilm e gaib to his pious servants, Prophets or Messengers or Waalis? If he does, then who is most worthy to get this?
As it is our belief that the best Prophet and man is Prophet Muhammad SAW right?! He is most worthy to get it right?!
Now let's see what Allah tells the Prophet to declare
(Muhammad), tell them, "I do not claim to have all the treasures of God in my hands, nor to know the unseen, nor do I claim to be an angel. I follow only what is revealed to me (from God)." Say to them, "Are the blind and the seeing equal?" Why then do you not think?
and
(Muhammad), say, "I have no control over my benefits or sufferings, without the will of God. Had I known about the unseen, I would have gained much good and would have faced no suffering. I am only a warner and I preach the glad news to the believing people."
So as the knowledge of unseen only belongs to Allah, there are various things which are in gaib, which we need to know to pass the test in order to enter Jannah. That's where the Prophets and Messengers comes in. Allah send his revelation via Angels to His Prophets and Messengers, and it contains the requirements to enter Jannah. I know there are some people who would say that Prophet Muhammad SAW knows things of unseen and all that. Then there are some people who believe that a Waali is above the Prophet because he attains this power by his own hard work and not like Prophet's who are given this by Allah. Who else can give power except Allah? This is all crap that a Sufi sitting here can see and guide someone that do this or don't do this. Only Allah has this power. This is derived from the story of Hazrat Musa and Khizar AS, they say that a Prophet was sent to a Waali to train I mean who tells you this crap.
This is what Hazrat Khizar AS said which is said in Quran
...I did not do that out of my own accord...
and those who say that he was a Waali and had spiritual powers and all that and Prophet was sent to Waali to train. without any solid evidence
Neither they nor their fathers had any knowledge of such utterance (that God has begotten a son). Whatever they say about (this matter) is vicious blasphemy and plain lies.
Umm ul momineen Ayesha S.A said that if anyone beliefs in any of these three things than he has fabricated a great lie on Allah. one of which is
...She said: He who presumes that he (Prophet) would inform about what was going to happen tomorrow fabricates the greatest lie against Allah. And Allah says "Say, 'None in the heavens and earth knows the unseen except Allah , and they do not perceive when they will be resurrected.'" (Al-Qur'an, Surat an-Naml, 27:65).
So, those who say that Waali's know ilm e gaib and name it Kashf, ilham etc, I would ask them did Sahaba had those? If you say that Prophet could tap into the knowledge of unseen through his free will, then one question, when people started slandering Ayesha S.A, Prophet didn't know the truth as well until after 40 days when Allah sent his revelation. (The whole story is in Bukhari 4141)
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Amongst the people preceding you there used to be 'Muhaddithun' (i.e. persons who can guess things that come true later on, as if those persons have been inspired by a divine power), and if there are any such persons amongst my followers, it is `Umar bin Al-Khattab."
Let's see what Umar bin Khattab R.A said
Narrated `Umar bin Al-Khattab:People were (sometimes) judged by the revealing of a Divine Inspiration during the lifetime of Allah's Apostle but now there is no longer any more (new revelation). Now we judge you by the deeds you practice publicly, so we will trust and favor the one who does good deeds in front of us, and we will not call him to account about what he is really doing in secret, for Allah will judge him for that; but we will not trust or believe the one who presents to us with an evil deed even if he claims that his intentions were good.
Let's see what the belief was of other companion of Prophet SAW,
Anas reported that after the death of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) Abu Bakr said to 'Umar:Let us visit Umm Aiman as Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) used to visit her. As we came to her, she wept. They (Abu Bakr and Umar) said to her: What makes you weep? What is in store (in the next world) for Allah's-Messenger (ﷺ) is better than (this worldly life). She said: I weep not because I am ignorant of the fact that what is in store for Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) (in the next world) is better than (this world), but I weep because the revelation which came from the Heaven has ceased to come. This moved both of them to tears and they began to weep along with her.
So now the Question arises that what to believe from the Gaib and what not to. I won't go into the details as the blog has already gone too long if you want to know any further details you could message or email me (If anyone has read it this far 😅). I will tell the basic principle.
The basic principle here is The door of Prophethood & Revelation has been closed with the “seal of the Prophets”, Mohammad son of Abdullah (PBUH). After that if someone gives news about Gaib, or says that I am a Prophet he is a liar, and it's the same, either he is a Saint like Abdul Qadir Jilani or Junaid Baghdadi or Baa yazeed Bustami. If they claim that they get divine revelation from Allah, then this is against the finality of Prophethood, and they are all liars.
It means that anything related to gaib which is beneficial for us has been conveyed to Prophet via Revelation and Prophet Muhammad SAW has told us and that's that no further explanation required.
O Allah! Enable us to see the Truth as Truth and give us the ability to follow it. And show us the falsehood as false and give us the ability to refrain from it. Ameen
Masha Allah Very beneficial and informative blog (with references)
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