مَّا كَانَ اللّهُ لِيَذَرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَى مَآ أَنتُمْ عَلَيْهِ حَتَّىَ يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ{Allah would not leave the believers in that [state] you are in [presently] until He separates the evil from the good.}: Here is a purification for the believers, and here is a test for the hypocrites to uncover them. In Medina, a dangerous and incurable disease, which is the disease of hypocrisy, began to spread. Allah (swt) blessed the believers, for He would not have left the hypocrites hidden, so in the Battle of Uhud, they became clear.

حَتَّىَ يَمِيزَ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ {until He separates the evil from the good.}: The good is the believer, and the evil is the unbeliever.

وَمَا كَانَ اللّهُ لِيُطْلِعَكُمْ عَلَى الْغَيْبِ {Nor would Allah reveal to you the unseen.}: Not knowing the unseen, is one of the established way of Allah (swt). Some people go to astrologers to tell them about the future, sometimes the astrologer and fortune teller may say something and it happens as he tells, in this case you think he is honest but indeed he is a liar. The Prophet (saws) said:

“Whoever goes to a fortune-teller or a soothsayer and believes what he says has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad”[1]

The unseen has several types:

1- The absolute unseen: it is the one which is known by Allah (swt) alone; no one is informed of it. If Allah (swt) made people aware of this unseen, no one would have lived because of grief; for example: If Allah (swt) showed you that you will live for twenty years, but after ten years yu will be affected by a serious illness but after that you would be blessed with many things beloved to you. When you hear about one sad event, all the joy will go away, and you will keep thinking about the sad one which may cause your death.

So, it is the kindness and mercy of Allah (swt) to his creation that He hide the knowledge of the unseen. Allah (swt) says:

وَعِندَهُ مَفَاتِحُ الْغَيْبِ لاَ يَعْلَمُهَا إِلاَّ هُوَ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَمَا تَسْقُطُ مِن وَرَقَةٍ إِلاَّ يَعْلَمُهَا وَلاَ حَبَّةٍ فِي ظُلُمَاتِ الأَرْضِ وَلاَ رَطْبٍ وَلاَ يَابِسٍ إِلاَّ فِي كِتَابٍ مُّبِينٍ

{And with Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them except Him. And He knows what is on the land and in the sea. Not a leaf falls but that He knows it. And no grain is there within the darknesses of the earth and no moist or dry [thing] but that it is [written] in a clear record.} (Al-An’am: 59)

2- Allah (swt) may give you a key by which you know the unseen, for example: there was no electricity, but no one knows about it, because it was not discovered, so Allah (swt) gives you a key which is the science, by which you know, so it was unseen, then it is no longer so.

3- There is an unseen that is absent from you but it is seen by others, for example: we do not know what is happening in Aleppo, whether it is raining or not, but it is known by the people there, so this is not called unseen.

وَلَكِنَّ اللّهَ يَجْتَبِي مِن رُّسُلِهِ مَن يَشَاء {But [instead], Allah chooses of His messengers whom He wills}: Allah (swt) may inform some of the Messengers of the unseen as the Prophet (saws) informed of many things that will happen and it did happened as the Prophet (saws) told about, and the clearest example about this is the Battle of the Trench (al-Khandaq), when all the parties and the Jews had all joined forces against the Prophet (saws), the Muslims were in a situation of indescribable hardship and there was a rock that they could not break, so the Prophet (saws) took the pick and struck it then said:

“Allah Akbar (Allah is the Greatest) Persia was conquered.” Then he struck another and said: “Allah Akbar (Allah is the Greatest), the Romans were conquered”[2]

Every word he (saws) said happened, and this is from Allah’s informing His Messenger of his unseen, and it is the description of this verse.

 

فَآمِنُواْ بِاللّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ {so believe in Allah and His messengers.}: Believe in Allah means believe in the details of faith. We believe in Allah (swt) but when something happens to us, this faith is somehow weakened if we think that the cause is the doer or the cause, while in the universe there is only one doer Who is Allah (swt):

إِنَّ رَبَّكَ فَعَّالٌ لِّمَا يُرِيدُ

{Indeed, your Lord is an effecter of what He intends.} (Hud: 107).

No one is effecter of what he wants except Allah, you may think for a while that you are effecter of any matter, but the truth is that the only effecter of what he wants is Allah (swt),

فَآمِنُواْ بِاللّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ {so believe in Allah and His messengers.}: That is, believe in the requirements of faith, for it is not true to say: I believe in Allah (swt), but I do not believe in the Day of Judgement, neither I do believe that no one harms or benefits except Allah, we have to believe in {His messengers.} as well because belief in Allah (swt) came through Allah’s messengers, so in order for you to be a true believer you must believe in all of the messengers.

وَإِن تُؤْمِنُواْ وَتَتَّقُواْ فَلَكُمْ أَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌ {And if you believe and fear Him, then for you is a great reward.}: This is a general law, which is if you believe, you must fear Allah (swt).

[1] Al-Mustadrak ‘ala-Al-Sahihayn: Vol:1, Page: 49, Hadith No.15.

[2] Musnad al-Harith-Zawaed al-Haithami: Book of battles, battle of Trench, Hadith No.692.