What is meant by the knowledge of the unseen that Allah has kept exclusively for Himself?

The questioner : What is meant by the knowledge of the unseen that Allah has kept exclusively for Himself?

The Shaykh : Shall we record the question? I fear there may be a deficiency in the question, but everyone observes that every question has an answer, so I say: The knowledge of the unseen that Allah has kept for Himself, excluding all people, is intrinsic knowledge... The point is: The One described with this attribute knows the unseen matters without any intermediary coming from another. For example, humans, such as the prophets, the messengers, and others among the awliya (close friends of Allah) and the righteous, and others, even among the disbelievers, if they gain access to something that is considered knowledge of the unseen, it is only through the means that Allah created and made easy for them. Were it not for these intermediaries that Allah created, no one would have been able to know what is behind this wall. Therefore, there is no difference between one who knows what is behind this wall, or that mountain, or many, many mountains, or knows what is in the depths of the earth, or in the heights of the sky, through one means or another, since all of this is only through those means that Allah created and made easy for all people. It is necessary here to draw attention to the realization of the matter: Among these means—and they are the least of them—are those that are specific to the righteous servants of Allah, and especially among them the messengers, because that is what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has granted to these His servants. He (Mighty and Majestic) alluded to that by saying: . The messengers do not know the unseen, because this unseen is that which Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has exclusively kept for Himself, as He has explicitly stated in more than one verse in the Noble Qur'an. When He addressed this specific attribute that Allah granted to the messengers, He said regarding them: . It may appear to someone who is not a messenger, and who may not even be a prophet, but is a righteous believer, that he has access to some of the unseen. However, his access to this unseen is of the nature of inspiration (ilhām), not of revelation (wahy). The difference between revelation and inspiration is that revelation is protected from error, and the one to whom it is revealed informs of what it informs of with certainty that it will be so. As for the one who is inspired with something, it is likely in his opinion that the matter is as the inspiration indicated, but if he were asked: "Are you certain of that?" he would say: "This is what I was inspired with, and Allah knows best."