Dear Professor,
In Sermon 128 of Nahj al-Balagha, the Commander of the Faithful speaks about the Mongols. One of his companions asks, “O Commander of the Faithful, do you know the unseen?” The Imam replies:
“These are reports I am conveying to you; they are not knowledge of the unseen. I have learned them from the possessor of knowledge of the unseen, the Prophet (PBUH). Indeed, knowledge of the unseen concerns the Hour and what God has mentioned in His words: ‘Knowledge of the unseen rests with God.’ For example, no one knows what will happen tomorrow or in which land they will die.
“Or God, Glorified is He, knows what is in the wombs of mothers: whether the child is a girl or a boy, ugly or beautiful, generous or miserly, and so on. He has knowledge of all these things. This is intrinsic knowledge of the unseen, which none but God possesses.
“Beyond this, there is knowledge that God taught the Prophet (PBUH), and he taught it to me. The Prophet (PBUH) prayed for me, and God placed this kind of knowledge and reports in my heart and filled my limbs and body with them.”
Dear Professor, I remember that this subject was discussed in the group of monotheists. My teachers denied that the Prophet had knowledge of the unseen, and you also offered a response in support of the Prophet and the Imams having such knowledge. Yet in the Qur’an we also read that the Prophet (PBUH) does not know the unseen.
So, according to the words of the Commander of the Faithful, if we divide knowledge of the unseen into two kinds—intrinsic and acquired—we may conclude that the Prophet (PBUH) possessed acquired knowledge of the unseen, not the kind of knowledge of the unseen that God Himself possesses. The Infallible Imams, too, possessed such knowledge.
Is my understanding of this sermon correct?