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Discoveries as the birth of hidden secrets

الاكتشافات بوصفها ميلاد أسرار الغيب

Sha'rawi divides the unseen into what God has given means for, which inquiry can reach, and what has no means, which God bestows on whom He chooses. He reads scientific discoveries as the appearance of secrets God has allowed to appear, and holds that no one encompasses God's knowledge except as He wills 1 2 3.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Development of law, theology and institutions

Summary

Sha'rawi holds that what people call a discovery is the appearance of a secret that already existed, and that God allowed to appear. Faith says God allowed the secret to be born 2 4.

Two kinds of the unseen

What has means in God's cosmos is reached by inquiry and experiment. What has no means God bestows on some of His chosen, and nothing of it is learned by research 3.

Chance and inquiry

He says many discoveries came by chance during other research, and holds that this is an overflow of bounty rather than of effort 4.

Not yet checked

The examples of gravity and relativity are Sha'rawi's illustrations, not sources of fact. The history of science, the academic view and any non-Sunni view have not been checked.

People and things also explored

Biting and the liability for injury it causes (add)· Justice and uprightness (adl)· Contagion (adwa)· Pardon (afw) in purity, worship, contracts and penalties· Covenant (ahd) and the duty to keep it; oath by the covenant of God· Term, deadline (ajal)· Hired worker (ajir)· Stranger, outsider (ajnabi)

Sources

  1. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1098
  2. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1100
  3. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1102
  4. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1101
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Discoveries as the birth of hidden secrets”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/discoveries-as-hidden-secrets/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Biting and the liability for injury it causes (add)

In the lexicon, add is gripping a thing with the teeth and holding it. If a person bites another without right and a wound results, the biter must pay the damages for the wound, assessed as a just award by experts. If one man bites another's hand and the bitten man pulls it free so that the biter's front teeth fall out, most jurists hold that there is no liability, relying on a prophetic judgement in such a case; the Shafi'is limit this to a bitten man who chose the easiest means of release, and the preferred Maliki view requires compensation.