Questioner: In Quran, God says, only God knows what is in Arham (Wombs). I asked Ibrahim, Mr. Ibrahim, he told me he wants to say what kind of person is in Arham (Wombs). And I asked Mr. Qureshi, he told me another thing, what sex of person. But now they know what sex of person in Alham. You know, all these things which are acquired scientifically by man are, despite all their progress, not trustworthy as yet. No certainty can be shown about their knowledge, but Allah’s knowledge is certain.
Huzoor: Many things which have been mentioned in the Holy Quran as expressly, solely belonging to Allah’s knowledge, we also share a sort of knowledge in that. For instance, Allah tells us, nobody else knows where you are in Tamut. But when a patient is dying, the symptoms have appeared, then you also know. So our knowledge is based on symptoms which appear. When they become apparent, we can read them. There is no special power with us to know the unknown. But Allah knows even when the symptoms have not appeared, when there is nothing to read about. So that is one difference between our knowledge and Allah’s knowledge. When Allah says, I know, number one, Allah is not dependent on any apparent symptoms to appear. When the symptoms appear, then you begin to see. It is no longer a matter of future, it becomes present.
For instance, when somebody is dying, he is on the death bed, and you can predict he is going to die. Maybe once in a million he would not. But most often the doctors can say, and the person dies. So will he be a sort of prophet who has made a prophecy? No. What is the difference? He has seen the symptoms of death, and it is no longer a future for him. It has become a present. Instead of istighbal, it has become hal for him. So that is not sharing Allah’s powers. That is following Allah’s laws, which he himself has made it manifestly clear to his servants.
So there is no in fact comparison between man’s knowledge and Allah’s knowledge if you look at it in detail. But still, that knowledge of man is uncertain. Now, going back to what is in the womb, in the uterus, man’s knowledge is only dependent on the symptoms which appear. And when the symptoms appear, it is Allah’s law which has been made manifestly clear. So what people saw after the birth, the people can begin to read the symptoms before the birth, but the symptoms have become clear.
And those symptoms can be made clear after a certain period of, you know, the union of the sperm and the ovum of a female. When they meet, after a certain time, according to indications of the Holy Quran, the distinction between the sexes is made clear. From then on, as Holy Quran itself admits, the symptoms have been made clear. If anybody can read those symptoms, he will not be sharing Allah’s knowledge. He will be following Allah’s knowledge. There are two different things. But before those symptoms have appeared, no doctor can say anything. Allah can yet say.
Before man and wife has met, Allah knows. Man cannot say, it’s impossible for him to predict. And despite everything, when the doctors predict ultimately, they’re not certain. There is always an element of uncertainty in their knowledge, which remains, and nobody can remove that element of uncertainty. This is like the prediction of weather forecasts. Most often, nowadays, they come true. But there always is a certain element of uncertainty, which you can never remove. But in Allah’s knowledge, there is no uncertainty. So, I tell you now the example. Here in London, there was a case of a pregnancy.
During the pregnancy, the person wrote to Hazrat Khalifatul Masih III, my predecessor, for prayer, and for naming the child, which was yet to come months after the time when he wrote. And many months were yet to pass between the writing and the delivery of the child. So, he wrote back and gave him a son’s name only, and said, a son will be born to you. Now, when he went for the medical check-up here, the physicians in the hospital, the gynaecologists, they told him categorically that this is a girl. We warn you, we know this is a girl. So, he wrote back to Hazrat Sahib with panic, in panic. And he said, look here, this is a girl, and you have named a boy, and you told me it’s going to be a boy.
So, also please now send me a name for the girl. He insisted, he said, no, I’m not going to give you a name for the girl. The name I have given, and that’s enough. So, actually, despite repeated check-ups, the doctor had declared positively that it would be a girl, it turned out to be a boy. So, this is the extent and scope of their knowledge. Knowledge, it can’t be called knowledge, it is still a guesswork, it’s still reading of symptoms, which with the passage of time, with the progress of human knowledge, increases that capability of reading symptoms. And those symptoms are laws of nature which Allah has created himself.
So, if you read the symptoms and predict a sort of prediction, that is not sharing Allah’s path, that is following Allah’s path, making benefit out of that. And that is not excluded. In that verse, what is excluded is that nobody can predict these things before the symptoms have appeared. We can translate it like that.
Before the thing has been made apparent, before the thing has become obvious to everybody’s eye, human beings cannot say what is going to happen, but Allah can still say what is going to happen. See, there are two different things, I mean, I have pointed out two aspects from which you can study the differences between Allah’s knowledge and man’s knowledge.
