The architect and founder of transcendental Philosophy, sadr ad-Din Muhammad Shirazi, is among the philosophers who has made more attempts to analyze and illustrate the religious concepts. The knowledge of the unseen is a key concept in Muslim’s belief system. Mulla Sadra is the only philosopher who has had a special attention to this concept. Based on the previous philosophers’ principles and reasoning and also reliance on logical principles of his own philosophical school such as essentiality of existence, substantial departure, mental existence, and unity of knowing and the known by which he has explained the upward arc and downward arc for human soul, Mulla Sadra has introduced a philosophico-mystical analysis distinct from the other approaches. Retrieving to the knowledge of the unseen and getting to know its facts which is called the unseen knowledge, this paper intends to analyze this school and to reveal its merits in comparison to other philosophical schools.

Some questions about Imam's knowledge of the unseen have been posed nowadays such as: Imam's knowledge of the unseen is a new-born discussion posed through a long process and a historical course some centuries after the life of Imams; otherwise this knowledge has not been posed from the beginning ages of Islam.This article will investigate the rational and narrational bases of Imam's knowledge of the unseen and will reach to the conclusion that the theory of Imam's knowledge of the unseen is rooted in Quran's verses and narrations. The knowledge of the unseen has been posed in the time of the Prophet (PBUH) and the Imams and they have affirmed this knowledge. Therefore there is no doubt about Imam's knowledge of the unseen among Shi'ite scholars, although they occasionally disagree about the range of this knowledge. Some believe the range of this knowledge is jurisprudence and beliefs and some believe the range is greater than this. This point will be completely clarified in this article.

The claim of conflict in the verses of the knowledge of the unseen in Quran is one of those made by Brasher – the Jewish orientalist. He believes that the verses which consider the knowledge of the unseen to be only specific to God are in conflict with those verses referring apparently to the Prophet (p.b.u.h) and some of the divine selected people's awareness of the unseen. Classifying the verses in the field indicates that God's knowledge of the unseen is 'essential and independent' and appropriate to His Wisdom and Providence, He grants the knowledge of the unseen to some of His apostles through revelation so that they could be able to prove God's prophesy and make the description of religion easier. According to God's decree, prophet is the agent to teach his successor and this knowledge is transferred heart by heart to the divine successors along with other methods of Imam's acquiring knowledge such as inspiration and narration with angels, without any claim of independence on having knowledge of the unseen by any of them.

Messengers and Imams are regarded as Divinely chosen people and, therefore, of particularities like sinlessness and knowledge of the unseen. Quranic verses of the knowledge of the unseen are of two types: some denote the knowledge limitation to God and some denote its inclusion to all beings other than God. Studying the verses of two types show lack of disagreement in the field. the former refers to God`s independent knowledge of the unseen and the latter to prophet and Imam`s God-given partial knowledge of the unseen. It should be stated that those verses negating this knowledge of the beings other than God are not absolute; they negate independent knowledge of the unseen from creatures. Surely essential knowledge of the unseen belongs only to God. This negation does not disagree with prophet or Imams knowledge of the unseen permitted by God.

All Islamic theologians agree that the unseen knowledge is inherent to God, but there are many differences of opinion regarding the unseen knowledge of human beings; both prophets and non-prophets. Most theologians have accepted the unseen knowledge of prophets, but there are many differences of opinion about the unseen knowledge of non-prophets. Some, like Mutazilites and Maturidis, believe that apart from God, only the prophets have the knowledge of the unseen. Asharis, Ismailis, and Ibn Taymiyyah from the Salafism believe that in addition to prophets, non-prophets can also have unseen knowledge. Imamiyya also considers the unseen knowledge of the prophets to be certain and regarding non-prophets, they believe that the saints, especially the infallible Imams (AS) also have the knowledge of the unseen. However, some of them consider the scope of this knowledge to be limited and some consider it to be absolute. In this research, we first examine the knowledge of the unseen referring to the Holy Quran, and then, as an example, mention the viewpoint of the thinkers of each Islamic denomination and analyze and evaluate their arguments. The findings show that the view of Islamic denominations other than Imamiyya is facing many problems, and on the other hand, the view of Imamiyya is provable by referring to strong narrative and intellectual reasons.

One of the main questions about infallible Imams' knowledge of the unseen is "whether this knowledge is absolute and limited or not? " The important point is that Quranic verses and hadiths apparently offer different interpretations. The present paper discusses the issue according to denotation of Quranic verses and hadiths and from the theological viewpoint of Allamah Tabatabaii and his disciples. The unseen has stages and degrees such as hidden from senses like past and future, knowledge of the Book, God-given knowledge, knowledge of the Tablet of obliteration and effacement, guarded Tablet, sciences particular to God such as the time of resurrection, and knowledge of essence about essence. There are two types of reason for the knowledge of the unseen: Rational and philosophical reasons which are based on the perfection and power of the soul to attach to the supreme origin and transmitted reasons some of which generally prove the knowledge of the unseen only for God and others prove it for prophets and friends of God under certain conditions. Some solutions have been proposed to sum up these two views, including division of knowledge into independent and dependent knowledge, guarded Tablet and Tablet of obliteration and effacement, differentiating the meanings of the unseen and so forth.

Some Quranic verses indicate knowledge of the unseen to belong only to God; while according to some others, such ability has been also given to some special people. Commentators for solving the problem have noticed the matter that what is meant by knowledge during the age of messengership and after that includes essential knowledge not accidental and the claim for such knowledge means Divinity. In this way undoubtedly many differences between God and servants remain in its place. It is not, therefore, reasonable to view messengers as being of knowledge of the unseen; because such a belief would be equal to polytheism. In this way, it becomes clear that God’s knowledge differs with that of servants. The former is essentially and the latter accidentally bestowed upon servants.

Islamic thinkers have briefly accepted the prophets' knowledge of the unseen. Meanwhile, Muslim thinkers have long differed on the scope and quality of their knowledge of the unseen. The existence of verses denying and proving the prophets' knowledge of the unseen has increased this ancient conflict. In the present article, with a descriptive-analytical method, the approach of Tabatabayi and Abu al-A‘la Maududi, as the most prominent contemporary commentators of the two sects, towards the prophets' knowledge of the unseen has been studied. Examining the interpretations of these two scholars shows that they have a common opinion about the prophets' knowledge of the unseen in general. According to them, God-given revelation and knowledge is the source of the knowledge of the prophets. On the contrary, they do not have the same view in explaining the scope of the knowledge of the unseen. Tabatabayi puts together the verses that attribute the knowledge of the unseen to God and the verses that assign it to the prophets, and concludes that the prophets have extensive knowledge of the unseen by the permission of God. On the other hand, based on the verses of the first category, Maududi rejects the knowledge of the unseen from anyone other than God, and according to verses 26 and 27 of Surah Al-Jinn and the Efk Incident, as well as some narrations, he considers the prophets' knowledge of the unseen to be limited to their mission.

One of the key topics in Shiite studies is the study of Shiite sects. Like other Islamic denominations and sects, Shiism has experienced internal divisions, one of which is the Zaydi sect. The Zaydiyya remains a significant Shiite sect in the contemporary period, and the differences between the Imāmiyya and the Zaydiyya can be analyzed from various perspectives. However, the primary divergence between these two sects lies in the doctrine of imamate, particularly regarding explicit designation. naṣṣ), armed uprising. qiyām), and attributes such as the Imam’s knowledge. This study addresses the concept of the Imam’s knowledge from the perspectives of the Imāmiyya and the Zaydiyya, as it is a fundamental and essential characteristic of the imam. The significance of discussing the Imam’s knowledge is evident in that, if established according to the Imāmī perspective, it affirms one of the distinctive features of Twelver Shiism. This study first explores the Zaydi perspective on the source of the imam’s knowledge, followed by an examination of its nature according to this sect. In the final section, the concept of the Imam’s knowledge of the unseen. ʿilm al-ghayb) is scrutinized. A key finding of this research is that the Imāmī view on the Imam’s knowledge aligns with both reason and religious principles. The study employs a library-based, analytical, and descriptive methodology.