দ্বিতীয় অধ্যায়: মধ্যবর্তী আলামত যা প্রকাশ পেয়েছে এবং ক্রমাগত বৃদ্ধি পাচ্ছে

In Sahih al-Bukhari, from Ibn 'Umar as a marfu' narration: "The keys of the unseen are five; none knows them except Allah." Then he recited this verse: {Indeed, Allah [alone] has knowledge of the Hour} [Luqman: 34] to the end of the verse.

And Imam Ahmad recorded it with the wording that the Prophet (ﷺ) said: "I was given the keys to everything except the five: {Indeed, Allah [alone] has knowledge of the Hour}."

He also recorded from Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: "Your Prophet (ﷺ) was given the keys to everything except five: {Indeed, Allah [alone] has knowledge of the Hour} [Luqman: 34] to the end of the verse."

From what we have mentioned, it is known that knowledge of the Hour, like the rest of the five matters, has not been disclosed to anyone except Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, and none other. What prompted us to mention this here is that we met someone who was thought to possess virtue, yet he claimed that individual saints (awliya'), let alone the prophets, were granted knowledge of the Hour by Allah, as with the rest of the five matters. So I countered him with explicit verses and authentic traditions, but he remained arrogant and would not desist. Undoubtedly, his claim is in direct contradiction to the Book and the Sunnah. We have not seen anyone upon whose words reliance can be placed mention in the commentary of this hadith what this speaker claimed. Rather, Ibn Hajar al-Haytami cited the words of al-Hafiz Ibn Rajab without mentioning anything else, then said at the end of it: "In this there is proof that it is incumbent upon the mufti, the scholar, and others, when asked about what they do not know, that..."