قُل لَّا يَعْلَمُ مَن فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ٱلْغَيْبَ إِلَّا ٱللَّهُ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ أَيَّانَ يُبْعَثُونَ · بَلِ ٱدَّٰرَكَ عِلْمُهُمْ فِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ بَلْ هُمْ فِى شَكٍّ مِّنْهَا بَلْ هُم مِّنْهَا عَمُونَ
qul lā yaʿlamu man fi's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍi'l-ghayba illā'llāh, wa mā yashʿurūna ayyāna yubʿathūn · bali'ddāraka ʿilmuhum fi'l-ākhirati, bal hum fī shakkin minhā, bal hum minhā ʿamūn
"Say: No one in the heavens or the earth knows the unseen, save God. Nor do they know when they will be raised. No — their knowledge concerning the hereafter has run itself out. No — they are in doubt of it. No — they are blind to it."
This verse is the ruling that the sūra's whole line of knowledge has been moving towards, and it was set out in the spine table above.
The negation thus takes in all beings first, and the exception comes after. And the scope of the negation is striking: man fi's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍ — everyone in the heavens and the earth.
I record this as an observation about the word order: the sentence does not say that part of knowledge is closed to human beings — it says that it is open to no created thing. The angels fall within this scope, and the jinn as well — and indeed an ʿifrīt of the jinn had spoken in this sūra (39).
And this ruling was treated in al-Jinn at 72/26, and this verse was already cited there. I do not repeat it; I rely on that treatment.
Five items were set out in a table in Luqmān at 31/34, and a limit was drawn there. That limit holds here too, and I repeat it, because this verse is even more open to the same misreading:
| Luqmān 31/34 | al-Naml 27/65 | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | A list — five items | A single ruling — all-embracing |
| Scope | ʿindahū ʿilmu's-sāʿa + four items | al-ghayb — the whole of it |
| Who is excluded | The human being — mā tadrī nafsun | Everyone in the heavens and the earth |
| In common | The knowledge of the Hour | And ayyāna yubʿathūn |
The two verses give the same ruling at two different breadths. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text.
And the distinction recorded in Luqmān works here, and I rely on that treatment: the verse speaks not of measurement but of knowledge. The word "unseen" is thus not a list of things that are unknown today.
I record the sense of the word once more: the root غ-ي-ب — to pass out of sight, to remain covered. Ghayba — a thing's leaving the field of vision. Ghayb is therefore not "what cannot be known" but "what is closed to the senses", and what falls within that scope is settled by the verses' own qualifications.
I draw one further limit, and per the method (Method) I write it out plainly: on the basis of this verse I issue no verdict about any particular science or field of research. The verse reports to whom the unseen belongs; it does not regulate what a human being may investigate.
This pattern was mentioned in the discussion of al-Nāziʿāt (ayyāna yubʿathūn). And the particle ayyāna must be recorded: "when" — but in Arabic this particle is used of a time that is distant and indefinite.
| Verse | Who | What goes unnoticed | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | Solomon and his armies | A living thing beneath their feet | A single step |
| 50 | The nine men | That their own plot has turned back on them | A plan |
| 65 | Everyone | The time when they will be raised | The whole of time |
The scale grows each time, and at the last occurrence no one is left outside it. The ground is the subjects of the three verses.
| No. | Expression | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | bali'ddāraka ʿilmuhum fi'l-ākhira | A matter of knowledge |
| 2 | bal hum fī shakkin minhā | Doubt |
| 3 | bal hum minhā ʿamūn | Blindness |
I record this as an observation about the word order: the three steps descend one after another — knowledge, doubt, blindness. And the last step has to do not with knowing but with seeing.
There is a disagreement in the classical commentaries about what ٱدَّٰرَكَ means, and it is not concealed:
| Reading | What iddāraka ʿilmuhum means |
|---|---|
| 1 | Their knowledge has run out, it did not reach so far — from the sense of the verb tadāraka, "to follow one upon another and come to an end" |
| 2 | Their knowledge will be completed in the hereafter — there they will see and know |
| 3 | As a question — "has their knowledge reached as far as the hereafter?" (in some variant readings) |
I record an observation, not a preference: what follows in the verse brings two further negative steps (shakk and ʿamā). This seems to suit the first reading better; but the second has been defended as well.
عَمُون — root ع-م-ي: blindness. And it is not the same as the yaʿmahūn of the sūra's fourth verse (ع-م-ه); it is a separate root — this was recorded above, and no derivational link was claimed.
In its opening the sūra records the first state, and at verse 66 the second. I give this as an observation; I draw no link of derivation between the two roots.