Continuation of the explanation of the author's statement and his saying: “And with Him are the keys of the unseen, and none knows them except Him. And He knows what is on the land and in the sea, and not a leaf falls but He knows it.”

The Shaykh : It is absolute; it belongs to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) alone. Now, the keys of the unseen—none knows them. Whether we say the keys are the principles or the treasuries, none knows them except Allah (Mighty and Majestic). No angel knows them, and no messenger knows them. Even the most noble of the angelic messengers—yes, the most noble of the human messengers, Jibril, asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), saying, “Inform me about the Hour.” He said: This is an answer, is it not? An answer in meaning: just as you have no knowledge of it, I have no knowledge of it either. So whoever claims to know the Hour is a disbeliever, a liar, a disbeliever, a liar. It is not permissible to believe him; he is a disbeliever because he is denying Allah, and whoever believes him is also a disbeliever because he is denying the Qur'an. And we have heard for a long time that the Hour will be in the year 1404.
The student: On a Sunday.

The Shaykh : On a Sunday, contrary to the authentic hadith that it is on a Friday. Yes, I mean, according to the claim of these people, and may Allah protect us. I heard it before when I was young. According to the claim of these people, how many years have passed since our Prophet was sent? Four years. I seek refuge in Allah. In any case, there is no doubt that none knows these keys except Allah (Mighty and Majestic); none knows them except He. So what are these keys? The one who knows the words of Allah best, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), explained them when he recited. Listen, because I am far from it, I will repeat it for you a second time: I will repeat it a second time: Who will recite it for me? Except the unseen. The unseen is what we do not hear. It was not hidden from us before except...
The student: He said (peace and blessings be upon him).

The Shaykh : Or Allah said. Yes, the Messenger explained it by reciting.
The student: .

The Shaykh : Now, I did not memorize it well. Who memorized it well? From before.
Now, the knowledge of the Hour is the key, the principle, for what? For the life of the Hereafter. The knowledge of the Hour is the key, the principle, for the life of the Hereafter. And the Hour is called the Hour because it is a great hour. Yes, it threatens people; you say, “Do you want your hour to come?” It threatens them. So it is an hour by which all people are threatened: the great Hour, the Inevitable, the Trembling, and the like. Yes, the knowledge of the Hour is with Allah. No one knows when it will rise except Allah (Mighty and Majestic). No one knows on what day it will rise except Allah. It will not rise on a Friday, because the Messenger informed us, but he also did not know except by the information of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). This is one key. This is for what? For the life of the Hereafter, because when the Hour rises, the Resurrection comes, after which there is no death, by Allah (Mighty and Majestic).
Its source and meaning is the removal of severity, and it refers to rain, because with rain the severity of drought and barrenness is removed. The descent of rain is the key for what? For the life of the earth, is it not? The life of the earth, which is the life of plants. And with the life of plants, there is goodness in the pasture and all that relates to the interests of the servants in this regard.
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And here is a point: He said: and did not say: “And He sends down rain,” because rain sometimes descends and there is no vegetation, so it is not a blessing, and the earth does not come to life with it. For this reason, it is established in *Sahih Muslim*: In this year, heavy rains come, but the earth does not grow. This barrenness is not the barrenness of rain not coming, because sometimes light, little rain comes and Allah puts much goodness and blessing in it. And sometimes successive, heavy rains come and the earth does not grow. For this reason, it came in the noble verse: Now.
Thirdly: Wombs of whom? Females. Every female He (Mighty and Majestic) knows what is in the wombs, meaning what is in the bellies of mothers of the children of Adam and others.
The word “knows what”—what is the knowledge related to? Is it by male and female? Or by singularity and plurality? Or by black and white, by color? By what? Generally by everything. Generally by everything. So none knows what is in the wombs except He who created them (Mighty and Majestic). No one knows it.
If you say, it is said now that they have come to know the male from the female in the womb. Is this correct? If you say no, you do not agree. And if you say yes, how do you reconcile this with the verse?
We say: This matter has occurred and it is not possible to deny it. And they now know that what is in the belly is male or female. But when do they know it? They know it when it has happened, meaning when it has already occurred. And this is from the relative unseen that humans may know. And on this basis, we say: Yes, they now know, but they do not know it except after its formation. And the One who said He knows what is in the wombs is the One about whom His Messenger informed that an angel is sent to the drop of fluid and says: “Male or female?” And Allah informs him that it is male or female, so the angel knows it. And is he not knowing? Knowing it. So how do we say that the object of the knowledge of what is in the wombs includes even the male and female, and then say that they can know it?
The answer: It is not possible for these people to know that it is male or female before its formation and creation. And Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) knows.
Second: That if they know that, they do not know many things about the fetus. They do not know when it will be born? They do not know? They do not know, but they estimate it. They do not know, when it is born, how long it will remain alive? They do not know? They do not know, correct, absolutely. Now, they do not know whether it will be wretched or happy? They do not know. They do not know whether it will be rich or poor? They do not know. If most of the objects of knowledge regarding the fetuses are unknown to creation, then the generality in His saying is true: .
Do you not know? One of you says, if Allah wills, tomorrow when I get up and pray Fajr and come to my family and they are preparing breakfast and tea, I will break my fast and have coffee. And when I go out, I will go to the market to sell and buy, or I will go to the library to read, or I will go to the school to study. Do I know what I will do? Yes. Allah says: Look, and He did not say “what you will do?” The wisdom of “what you will earn tomorrow” is that you now cannot know what you will earn. Even if you think you want to do such and such, do you know that or do you expect it? You expect it. Several things may prevent you from it: death, illness, loss of motivation. You may work and not earn. There may be obstacles to earning. It may not be written for you, and perhaps it may be written against you. So the result is that Now, and do you know what others earn? Allah says “what you earn.” If he does not know about himself, he does not know about others. Now.
Glory be to Allah, the Magnificent. This is also a strange matter; a soul does not know in which land it will die. For example, you might think you will never leave your country and say, "I will definitely be buried in such-and-such a cemetery and will not go out," but do you know for certain? No, you do not know at all whether you will die in your land or in another land, in a Muslim land or a land of disbelievers. You do not know whether you will die on land, at sea, or in the air; you do not know in which land you will die. This is a tested and observed reality. People have grown old and reached an advanced age without leaving their country except for Hajj, but when their time drew near, yes, Allah placed in their hearts the desire to travel for medical treatment, so they traveled to lands far from their own, perhaps places they never dreamed of reaching, and they died there. This is an observed occurrence. A man I trust, may Allah have mercy on him, told me: "We were traveling for Hajj on camels. We left Makkah after Hajj and were walking in the *ri'*, do you know the *ri'* of Makkah? It is mountains and valleys between the mountains. This man was nursing his mother; his mother had left Makkah ill, and he was caring for her. One night, the pilgrims slept, and when it was late in the night, they packed up and set off. This man, who was nursing his mother, was delayed a little. When the sun rose, he prepared the saddle for his mother, put her on it, and he and his mother walked. They got lost; he lost the path and walked through this *ri'*, waiting to reach his group. But he was lost, so he saw a tent of Bedouin people and headed toward it, hoping to find someone to show him the way. When he reached them, he asked, 'Where is the road that leads to Najd?' They said, 'Where are you and the road? The road is far, and you are now a long distance from it. But get down, and get the woman with you down, and we will go and show you the way, or are you going to stay in the *ri'*?' He said that when he got his mother down, as soon as he put her down, Allah took her soul. Allah is the Greatest. Who knows that this woman would die in a land that was not on her path? Yes, not her country, not a known country, not a known path, but Allah, Mighty and Majestic, had known that, and she did not know. Now, if a soul does not know in which land it will die, does it know at what hour it will die? No, a fortiori, because if you cannot know in which land you will die, and you may have some control over the place, or not, you might say, 'I am not going out of this place,' do you have control over the time? No, you do not have control. So likewise, you do not know in what time you will die, nor at what hour you will die. I will tell you about an incident that happened here in Unaizah, on the main street, the one that comes out from the municipality. There was a car coming from the Riyadh road, and a *dabbah* (a small vehicle) with two men on it came from the side road. The car stopped, wanting the driver of the *dabbah* to pass, and the driver of the *dabbah* stopped, wanting the driver of the car to pass. For about a minute or so, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, willed it, and each one saw the other stopped. The car and the *dabbah* moved at the same time, and the car hit the rear of the two men on the *dabbah*, and they died instantly. Glory be to Allah, the Magnificent. This is a real incident; it means how many minutes? It was one minute left to complete the term. Glory be to Allah, the Magnificent. This is also among the signs of Allah: a soul does not know in which land it will die, nor at what hour it will die. Now, the descent of rain, you mentioned that it is the key to the revival of plants. Knowledge of what is in the wombs is the key to the life of this world. A soul does not know what it will earn tomorrow; this is the key to work for the future. In which land it will die, this is the key to the Hereafter, because when a person dies, he enters the realm of the Hereafter. So it becomes clear that all these keys are what? They are principles for everything that follows them. Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.
Then He, Exalted is He, said: This is also a detail, not a generalization? It is a mix of generalization and detail. Who can count the kinds of things on land? No, you cannot count their kinds, let alone their species, let alone their individuals. How many realms of animals, insects, mountains, trees, and rivers are there? Matters that no one knows except Allah, Mighty and Majestic. The sea is likewise; it contains realms that no one knows except its Creator, Exalted is He. They say that in the sea, three-quarters of what is on land is present, meaning the sea has more than the land, three-quarters of the kinds, because the sea is larger than the dry land. The animals in it are known only to Allah, Mighty and Majestic. And He knows what is in the sea. Look at the detail; He said: Allah is the Greatest. Any leaf on any tree, small or large, near or far, any leaf that falls, Allah, the Exalted, knows it. That is why the negation and the extra preposition in "leaf" were used, to indicate what? To indicate generality, my brothers. An indefinite noun in the context of negation becomes general, and when the extra preposition enters it, it becomes even more general. Allah is the Greatest. A leaf withers and falls, and He, the Exalted, knows it: when it fell, where it fell, from which tree it fell, and even from which branch it fell. Yes, He, Mighty and Majestic, knows it. Now, the leaf that is created, and no leaf is created without Him knowing it, or not? Yes, a fortiori, because the One who knows what falls knows what is created, Exalted is He, as He, the Exalted, said: .
Look at the vastness of the knowledge of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, the immense vastness. Everything that happens, He is aware of it, even what has not happened and will happen; He, Blessed and Exalted is He, is aware of it.