سورة النمل

Imam Mahdi (may Allah hasten his noble reappearance): Among what has come from His Eminence the Master of the Age (may Allah hasten his noble reappearance) in refutation of the extremists is a signed writ (tawqi') issued in reply to a letter written by Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Hilal al-Karkhi, with this content: O Muhammad ibn Ali! Allah is greater. He is exalted above what they describe. I praise Him. We are in no way partners in His knowledge or His power; rather, none knows the unseen except Him, as He has said in the Noble Quran: قُلْ لا یَعْلَمُ مَنْ فِی السَّماواتِ وَ الْأَرْضِ الْغَیْبَ إِلَّا اللهُ [Say: No one in the heavens and the earth knows the unseen but Allah]. And I and all my forefathers — Adam, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa and the other prophets (peace be upon them), and the later leaders: His Eminence Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), and Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him), and Hasan and Husayn (peace be upon them), and the other Imams (peace be upon them) down to my own time and age — all of us are servants of Allah the Mighty and Majestic.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): One of the companions said: "O Commander of the Faithful! Have you been given knowledge of the unseen?" The Imam (peace be upon him) laughed and said to that man, who was from the tribe of Banu Kalb: "O brother of Kalb! These tidings which I convey are not knowledge of the unseen; rather, they are a knowledge I have learned from the possessor of the knowledge of the unseen (the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family)). Indeed, knowledge of the unseen is the knowledge of the Hour, and what Allah has enumerated in His saying: 'Awareness of the time of the establishment of the Hour belongs to Allah alone.' (Luqman/34) Allah sends down the rain and knows what is in the wombs of mothers, and no one knows what he will do tomorrow, nor in what land he will die. So Allah the Glorified knows what is in the wombs of mothers — whether male or female, ugly or beautiful, generous or miserly, blessed or wretched — and knows the one who will be fuel for the fire of Hell or in Paradise a neighbor and friend of the Prophets (peace be upon them). He is aware of all these things. This is the (essential) knowledge of the unseen which none knows but Allah. Apart from these are sciences which Allah taught His Prophet (acquired knowledge of the unseen), and he taught them to me. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) prayed for me that Allah would place this class of sciences and tidings in my breast, and that the limbs of my body would be filled with them."