Appearance
Some Characteristics of Divinely-Bestowed Knowledge
Divinely-bestowed knowledge (ʿilm ladunī) has certain characteristics, some of which are mentioned here:
It is direct; divinely-bestowed knowledge is not in opposition to sciences like jurisprudence (fiqh), principles of jurisprudence (uṣūl), and exegesis (tafsīr), just as divinely-bestowed knowledge is not a science that has its own specific subject, predicate, issues and principles distinct from other sciences. Rather, if any of the various religious and non-religious sciences and knowledge comes from God the Exalted, it is divinely-bestowed knowledge.
Divinely-bestowed knowledge, like the knowledge of the Noble Prophet: “And indeed, you receive the Qur’an from One Wise and Knowing”(87), is knowledge where the learner ascends and becomes a direct student of God the Exalted, learning knowledge from its source. Although God teaches all knowledge to humans: “Taught man what he knew not”(88), sometimes a person learns knowledge from books, teachers and other sources, and sometimes directly from God the Exalted.
Note:
Direct teaching is a general necessity; meaning every divinely-bestowed knowledge (ʿilm ladunī) is direct, but not every direct teaching is divinely-bestowed knowledge.
It is pure truth and cannot contain error. Knowledge acquired through intermediaries is mixed with the thoughts and opinions of others and thus is susceptible to error and can contain falsehood. However, divinely-bestowed knowledge is like pure, untouched water—it is timeless, spaceless, purely true, and contains no falsehood, being free from the danger of ignorance.
It is also free from the danger of mistakes and forgetfulness.
It is presentational and witnessed (ḥuḍūrī and shuhūdī), not acquired and conceptual (ḥuṣūlī and mafhūmī).
It is accompanied by criteria and secrets. In formal knowledge—like jurisprudence (fiqh), which is among the conventional sciences—only obligations and prohibitions are taught, with no information about their origin and ultimate end. However, divinely-bestowed knowledge explains both these aspects:
a) Why something is permissible or forbidden?
b) How do the permissible and forbidden manifest in the Day of Resurrection?
In the Day of Resurrection, the true existential matter appears and takes the form of paradise or hell, not as conventional titles. Therefore, divine saints who deal with divinely-bestowed knowledge see both the criteria of rulings like obligation and prohibition, and their manifestation, as the Commander of the Faithful said in describing the pious: “They are with paradise as if they have seen it and are blessed in it, and they are with hellfire as if they have seen it and are being punished in it”.(89) Of course, this level is at the stage of “as if” (kaʾanna), and above that, which is the stage of “is” (ān), are those who actually see paradise and hell.
It should be noted that while jurisprudence (fiqh) is a conventional science, it is both preceded and followed by existential and real matters. On one hand, it originates from existential and real criteria; on the other, it leads to real rewards and punishments, not merely conventional ones. Thus, its beginning and end are grounded in reality, while its middle—the science of jurisprudence itself—remains conventional. In the conventional world, humans navigate laws comprising obligations and prohibitions. These obligations and prohibitions either emerge from cultural sediments, customs, traditions, and habits that lack real foundations or stem from existential realities, such as the laws conveyed by the prophets, whose origin and ultimate consequences are real, even though the laws themselves are conventional.