عَٰلِمُ ٱلْغَيْبِ فَلَا يُظْهِرُ عَلَىٰ غَيْبِهِۦٓ أَحَدًا
[He is] Knower of the unseen, and He does not disclose His [knowledge of the] unseen to anyone
Translation · Saheeh International
Tafsir
Ibn Kathīr (abridged)
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ does not know when the Hour will be
Allah commands His Messenger to say to the people that he has no knowledge of when the Hour will be and he does not know whether its time is near or far.
قُلْ إِنْ أَدْرِى أَقَرِيبٌ مَّا تُوعَدُونَ أَمْ يَجْعَلُ لَهُ رَبِّى أَمَداً
(Say: "I know not whether which you are promised is near or whether my Lord will appoint for it a distant term.") meaning, a long period of time. In this noble Ayah is an evidence that the Hadith that many of the ignorant people often circulate, which says that the Prophet will not remain under the earth more than one thousand years (i.e., the Hour will be before that period) is a baseless lie. We have not seen it in any of the Books (of Hadith). Verily, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about the time of the Hour and he would not respond. When Jibril appeared to him in the form of a bedouin Arab, one of the questions he asked the Prophet was, "O Muhammad! Tell me about the Hour" So the Prophet replied,
«مَا الْمَسْؤُولُ عَنْهَا بِأَعْلَمَ مِنَ السَّائِل»
(The one questioned about it knows no more than the questioner.) On another occasion when a bedouin Arab called out to the Prophet in a loud voice saying, "O Muhammad! When will be the Hour" The Prophet said,
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