He [i.e., Allāh] knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them,857 but they do not encompass it [i.e., what He knows] in knowledge.
Notes
[857] Allāh’s knowledge encompasses every aspect of His creations in the past, present and future.
Verse 110 of Surah Taha (20:110), a Meccan surah, is in juz 16, on page 319 of the mushaf. Read it in Arabic with its transliteration, translations and tafsir, and listen to it recited by 73 reciters.
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Tafsir of verse 110
Al-Mukhtasar
Allah knows what people will face in the final hour and He knows what they will have left behind in their worldly life. All the servants together cannot encompass the knowledge of Allah’s being and His qualities.
He knows all that is ahead of them and all that is behind them38, but they do not encompass it39 with their knowledge.
Notes
[38] i.e., what awaits them in the Hereafter and what they did in the world.
[39] i.e., His knowledge.
He (Allâh) knows what happens to them (His creatures) in this world, and what will happen to them (in the Hereafter) but they will never compass anything of His Knowledge.
He knoweth (all) that is before them and (all) that is behind them, while they cannot compass it in knowledge.
He knows what (appears to His creatures as) before or after or behind them: but they shall not compass it with their knowledge.
He knows what is before them and what is behind them, while they do not comprehend it in knowledge.
He knows whatever is before (Literally: between their hands) them, and whatever is behind them, and they do not encompass Him in knowledge.
Allāh - there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Kursī extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great.
Verses with similar wording
They share a sequence of words with this verse: useful for telling them apart when memorising.
He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they cannot intercede except on behalf of one whom He approves. And they, from fear of Him, are apprehensive.
Then, do they not look at what is before them and what is behind them of the heaven and earth? If We should will, We could cause the earth to swallow them or [could] let fall upon them fragments from the sky. Indeed in that is a sign for every servant turning back [to Allāh].
And We appointed for them companions who made attractive to them what was before them and what was behind them [of sin], and the word [i.e., decree] has come into effect upon them among nations which had passed on before them of jinn and men. Indeed, they [all] were losers.
