Tafseer of The Ant · An-Naml · 27:65
Say, "None in the heavens and earth knows the unseen except Allah, and they do not perceive when they will be resurrected."
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Allah, exalted be His remembrance, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: قُلْ (Say) — O Muḥammad — to those who ask you about the Hour, when it will come: لا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ الْغَيْبَ (None in the heavens and the earth knows the unseen) — that is to say: the unseen which Allah has reserved for Himself and from which He has barred His creation, except Himself — and the Hour is among it; وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ (and they do not perceive): he says: and whoever belongs to His creation among the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth does not know when they will be resurrected from their graves at the coming of the Hour.
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind informed us, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, on the authority of Masrūq, who said: ʿĀʾisha said: Whoever claims that he can inform people of what will be tomorrow has fabricated an enormous lie against Allah, for Allah says: لا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ الْغَيْبَ (None in the heavens and the earth knows the unseen).
The Arabic grammarians differed concerning the reason for the nominative case of "Allāh" (in the exception "illā Allāhu"). Some of the Baṣra school said: It is as one says: illā qalīlun minhum (except a few of them). And in the recitation of Ibn Masʿūd it reads qalīlan as a substitute (badal) for the first, because it is negated of it and attributed to the other.
Some of the Kūfa school said: If one takes "man" as indefinite, then it is a conjoined element (ʿaṭf) upon: "Say: None knows the unseen, except Allah." They said: It is also permissible that "man" be a definite word, and that what comes after "illā" is conjoined to it, so that it is a conjunction and not a substitute — for the first is negated and the second affirmed, so that in the sequence it is as when one says: Zayd stood up, except ʿAmr — then the second is conjoined to the first, and the meaning is a negation; and it is not permissible that the predicate be a negation or the negation a predicate. They said: Likewise مَا فَعَلُوهُ إِلا قَلِيلٌ — and whoever reads qalīlan with naṣb (accusative) does so as an exception in ordinary usage, and whoever reads it with rafʿ (nominative) does so as a conjunction, and it is not a substitute.
