Question:

As-salam `aleikum Sidi Gibril,

Please allow me one question to the Tafsir by Baydawi:

Al Baydâwi on Al-Ghayb:

What is meant is something hidden, imperceptible, and unintuited. It is of two types: (i) what has no proof { With Him are the keys of the unseen, the treasures that none knoweth but He. } Sura 6-59; and (ii) what was given proof, such as the Maker, His Attributes, the Last Day and its events. …

In case (ii) the ghayb was given proof by? the Maker (by God) etc.

… such as the Maker – proof?

P. 264/5

ma`a salam 

Answer:

Waalaykumussalam warahmatullah,

Dear Sidi,

Such proofs were given:

(i) textually by Allah in His revelation (the Qur’an and the Prophetic Sunna);

(ii) inferentially and analogically through the observation and study of the observable macrocosm and microcosm (including the observer themselves) by all reasonable people as repeatedly commanded in the same sources, which observation consistently gives rise to the overwhelming conclusion that there is a Maker, that He possesses the attributes of an All-Powerful and All-Wise One, that there is good and evil and capacity for each in created beings as well as purpose in the design of creation, and hence there is accountability, reward and punishment on the part of the All-Just, and so forth. This is why al-Razi considered the human mind itself a veritable Rasul already sent to each and every rational human being per the verse {We never punish until We first send forth a Messenger} (al-Isrā’ 17:15), which is more reflective of the position of the Maturidis than that of his own Ash`ari school.

Wassalam,

Hajj Gibril