1039 - Narrated Ibn `Umar (may Allah be pleased with them): Allah's Messenger ﷺ said, "The keys of the unseen are five which nobody knows but Allah; (i) nobody knows what will happen tomorrow; (ii) nobody knows what is in the womb; (iii) nobody knows what he will gain tomorrow; (iv) nobody knows at what place he will die; (v) and nobody knows when it will rain..

Commentary : Allah, Exalted be He, has comprehensive knowledge of all things. His knowledge comprises the unseen, the seen, and all that is outward and inward.  At times, He may disclose some of the matters of the unseen to some of His servants, but there are matters which He possesses knowledge of alone and conceals it from all created entities; thus, neither a prophet who has been sent [to his people], nor a close angel, know of them.

Some of these matters are what the Prophet ﷺ expounds on in this hadeeth, where he ﷺ relates that the keys of the unseen are five, which no one knows about except Allah.  This refers to the treasuries of the unseen, but it has been said that the keys in [this] axiom represent anything that is applied to extract what is locked, and its attainment is impossible. 

The unseen here refers to the knowledge that is concealed from creation, whether it is in the heart or not. For [verily], nothing is concealed from Allah, Exalted be He.  This is a type of simile; where the matters which are hidden from people are likened to precious belongings which are stored away and safeguarded by the cellars and treasuries which they are placed in, with locks [firmly affixed]; where no one knows what they contain inside of them, save the One who holds their keys.  The [matters of the] unseen which are not known to anyone except Allah amount to many, and the designation of [these] specific five do not imply a negation of there not being anything additional.  But rather, with it, there is an indication that these are the most important matters.  It has been said that he ﷺ mentioned these specifically because he was asked about them.

The first of these five is that: no one, other than Allah, Most High, knows what will happen in the future. This is to say, nobody knows what the following day, for example, entails in relation to good or evil, even if he was a prophet, except through the revelation which has been revealed to him.

The second one is that no one other than Allah, the Most High, knows what will be formed inside the womb, whether it is a male or female; black or white, perfect, or impaired, and the like.  It is Allah, Exalted be He, alone who possesses the knowledge of that before [its] creation.  However, after its creation, it is no longer a [matter of the] unseen, and it is possible, [then], with a medical examination to obtain this [kind of] knowledge.

The third one is that no soul knows what it will acquire from its actions, whether it will be good or evil, or beautiful or ugly.  Allah, Exalted be He, is the only One who knows what every soul shall earn. 

The fourth one is that no person knows where on the earth they will die. Thus, no one knows its date, appointed time, or where the place of their passing will be - [whether] it is at sea or on land, or in the plains or on a mountain.

The fifth one is that no one knows when rainfall will come before its signs appear. As for the forecast of meteorologists, it is a form of expectation of what may come to pass; and not an apodictic decision on what will happen.  Thus, it is based on the causes which Allah, Exalted be He, has facilitated and manifested to them so that they can make their forecasts because before knowing about these signs and inputs, no one can know anything about that.

The five keys mentioned in this hadeeth are mentioned in Allah’s Statement: {Indeed, Allah ˹alone˺ has the knowledge of the Hour. He sends down the rain and knows what is in the wombs. No soul knows what it will earn for tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it will die. Surely Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.} [Quran31:34].The knowledge of The Hour falls under the knowledge of what will occur sometime in the future [i.e., tomorrow or some future date].

From the other benefits that we can conclude from this hadeeth is that it thwarts the lies of the astrologers and fortune-tellers in their practice [of dabbling with] the knowledge of the unseen. For this reason, whoever claims to have knowledge of a thing of what Allah, Exalted be He, alone possesses, then he has accused Allah, Most High, His Messenger ﷺ, and The Noble Quran of lying.

Lastly, this narration serves as an evidence that Allah, Exalted be He, knows about all things before they occur.


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