Introduction

every individual, every society and every nation has its own particular destiny. even before the first human being had been created, all the details of what each person would experience in the future, the events to be witnessed by every nation, the stages every society would go through, and the like, had all been established in the sight of allah. yet, people do not know any of these details that have been established, lived through, or done with in the sight of allah. they only see and come to know them as they experience them. the future is thus unknown to us.

however, allah has also revealed that he has granted some of his servants information about the unknown in the qur'an. one such factor was that about the prophet yusuf (as). in his dungeon, he told two of his companions of the proofs of the existence of allah:

he said, "no meal to feed you will arrive before i have informed you what they mean. that is part of what my lord taught me. for i have left the religion of a people who clearly have no belief in allah and are disbelievers in the hereafter." (surah yusuf: 37)

as we see from this verse, yusuf (as) is saying that he knew something that had not yet occured. that is knowledge, and a miracle, imparted to him by allah. allah also gave him the knowledge to interpret dreams. as long as allah so wished, he could see certain events in the future.

similar knowledge to that given to yusuf (as) was also given to other prophets. in some verses, allah states that he will reveal aspects of the unknown to those he chooses to be his messengers:

he is the knower of the unseen, and does not divulge his unseen to anyone-except a messenger with whom he is well pleased, and then he posts sentinels before him and behind him. (surat al-jinn: 26-27)

our lord gave the prophet (saas) much knowledge of the unknown. the prophet (saas) was told by allah of things that had happened in the past, which nobody knew about, and of things that were yet to happen in the future. allah states the truth in one verse:

this is news of the unseen which we reveal to you. you were not with them when they decided what to do and devised their scheme. (surah yusuf: 102)

this chapter will consider some information regarding the unknown that has come down to us from the qur'an, that was imparted by allah to the prophet (saas) or that is available in the hadiths. (for more detail, see harun yahya, miracles of the qur'an, attique publishers, 2001).

the great majority of these things have come to pass already, and people have witnessed these miracles. that is also one of the proofs that the prophet (saas) was the messenger of allah and that the qur'an is the word of allah.