How does God know everything?
How is God able to know everything?
Allah is Alim, all Knowing. He knows everything, no matter it is clear or hidden, seen or unseen, in the heavens or on the earth. He knows the past and the future; our words, our thoughts, feelings, the neither manifested by our actions nor hidden in our hearts. This fact is stated in the Quran in the following ayahs;
“Say: Whether you hide what is in your hearts or manifest it, Allah knows it, and He knows whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, and Allah has power over all things.” (Surah l Imran, 29)
“The knower of the unseen and the seen, the Great, the Most High. Alike (to Him) among you is he who conceals (his) words and he who speaks them openly, and he who hides himself by night and (who) goes forth by day.” (Surah Ra’d; 9, 10)
Universe manifests “eternal knowledge”
The perfection in the system, harmony and design of the universe manifests a great and perfect knowledge. He who has created the entire universe in perfection absolutely is the owner of “eternal” knowledge which surrounds any particle and creature in micro and macro cosmos. Otherwise, without “eternal and perfect knowledge” it would be impossible to make everything right and perfect in a great harmony and order.
Allah knows everything with His “eternal knowledge”
With His pre-eternal knowledge, Allah knows everything and every action with all their aspects before their existence and before they happen. Allah has the pre-eternal knowledge of which results connected to which reasons, and who will try them and what sort of an outcome they will get, in short He knows things and actions with His pre-eternal knowledge.
Divine knowledge surrounds everything as the sun light encompasses a huge area at once
God knows everything, but how? Surely, it is not possible for the human mind which has very limited knowledge to comprehend the divine knowledge that surrounds everywhere, everything and every time at once. However, “sun” may be an example to understand it better. We see that as sun shines on oceans, seas and small ponds, simultaneously it reflects on a drop of water in our glass, even on our pupil, on tiny pieces of glass, touches many creatures, enters much hidden corners and so on… Sun light can surround a great deal of area and deal with countless pieces at once.
As we can easily understand in the example above, it is not difficult for the Divine knowledge to encompass and surround everything.
Divine knowledge is like a mirror placed at a high position
To understand how the knowledge of God surrounds and encompasses everything, we should comprehend the “concept of pre-eternity”.
“Pre-eternity” is an essential attribute of divine knowledge. Pre-eternity holds the past, the present, and the future all at once, looking at them from above like a mirror.
Here is an example in order to explain this mystery: “Suppose there is a mirror in your hand and the area to your right is the past and the area to your left, the future; the mirror only holds what is opposite it. Then with a movement it holds both sides, but it cannot hold all of it. However low the mirror is held less will appear in it and the higher it rises; the area it encompasses expands, until it can hold both sides in their entirety simultaneously. Whatever occurs in the areas reflected in the mirror in this position cannot be said to precede or follow one another, or to conform to or oppose one another.
Similar to the example above, in the words of the Hadith, pre-eternal knowledge is “at an elevated station which from its lofty view-point encompasses everything that has been and will be from pre-eternity to post-eternity.” We and our reasoning cannot be outside of it so we can be like a mirror to the area of the past.”