The Qur'an tells how Moses (peace be upon him) went on a journey to meet a servant of God who had been given a special kind of knowledge (18:60-82). Tradition names him al-Khiḍr, ‘the Green One’. The journey happened, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (peace be upon him) explained, because Moses had once been asked who was the most knowledgeable person on earth. He had answered: “I am.” God told him that there was someone who knew what he did not.
The two of them boarded a boat together. As they sat at the edge, a small bird landed on the side of the boat and dipped its beak once or twice into the sea.
Al-Khiḍr turned to Moses and said: “Moses, my knowledge and your knowledge, compared with God's knowledge, are no more than what this bird has taken from the sea with its beak” (Bukhari 4725).
The rest of the journey taught Moses the same lesson three times over: things that looked wrong at first turned out to have reasons he could not see. That is why Muslim scholars, even the greatest, often end an answer with two words: Allāhu aʿlam, “God knows best”.
Judaism
“O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off.”
Psalm 139:1-2 · JPS 1917
In the song of Hannah, a mother who had prayed for a child, God is called “a God of knowledge”. Psalm 139 describes being known completely, every word on the tongue before it is spoken, as something both humbling and comforting.
Jewish thinkers, especially Maimonides, wrestled with how God's complete knowledge fits with human free choice, and concluded that God's knowledge is unlike ours: it does not force what it knows.
On seeing a great crowd, the Talmud teaches a blessing to God as Ḥakham ha-Razim, ‘Knower of secrets’, because no two minds in it are alike (Berakhot 58a). In twentieth-century Jerusalem, Nechama Leibowitz taught the Bible to thousands, many through worksheets she posted around the world, and asked to be remembered simply as a teacher.
Christianity
“There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.”
Hebrews 4:13 · WEB
Christians call God omniscient: knowing all things. Paul spends a long argument on God's ways in history. Then he breaks off in wonder: “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33).
The letter to the Hebrews says nothing is hidden from Him. For many Christians this is a call to honesty, and a comfort: they are fully known and still loved.
Many Anglican services of Holy Communion begin with the Collect for Purity: “Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid” (Book of Common Prayer).
Islam
“They said: Be glorified! We have no knowledge saving that which Thou hast taught us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Knower, the Wise.”
Qur'an 2:32 · Pickthall (1930)
Al-ʿAlīm occurs over 150 times in the Qur'an. Muslim theologians described knowledge as an eternal attribute of God. He does not learn, discover or forget, and His knowledge covers what was, what is, what will be and what would have been. The angels themselves say: “They said: Be glorified! We have no knowledge saving that which Thou hast taught us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Knower, the Wise.” (2:32, Pickthall).
For people, the Name is a double invitation: to seek knowledge, and to be humble about it. The Qur'an teaches the prayer: “Then exalted be Allah, the True King! And hasten not (O Muhammad) with the Qur'an ere its revelation hath been perfected unto thee, and say: My Lord! Increase me in knowledge.” (20:114, Pickthall).
Same and different
Jews, Christians and Muslims all believe God knows everything, including our thoughts, and all three have thinkers who worked hard on how that fits with human freedom. Psalm 139, Hebrews 4:13 and Qur'an 6:59 say almost the same thing in three voices. The differences are mostly about how God makes His knowledge known: through the Torah and prophets, through Christ, or through the Qur'an. All three encourage the habit of the scholar who says, “God knows best.”
families / schoolsThe leaf countIn autumn, mark out a one-metre square under a tree and try to count the leaves that fall on it in ten minutes. Multiply up for the whole tree, then the wood. Read Qur'an 6:59 and Psalm 139:1-4 together.
faith groups / neighboursGod knows bestAsk each person to share one question they have never been able to answer. Do not try to solve them. End by talking about what it means to say Allāhu aʿlam, or ‘only God knows’, honestly rather than as a way of ending a conversation.
neighbours / schoolsKnower of secretsStand somewhere busy, a station or a market, for five quiet minutes. The Talmud's blessing for a crowd praises the ‘Knower of secrets’, because every face hides a whole world (Berakhot 58a). Afterwards, talk about one stranger you noticed and what you could not know about them.
faith groupsAll hearts openRead the Book of Common Prayer's Collect for Purity aloud: ‘unto whom all hearts be open… and from whom no secrets are hid’. Talk honestly: does being fully known feel like a threat or a relief?
Episode 1
