Allahu a'alam (God Knows Best)

Allahu A'alam is grammatically similar to Allahu Akbar. In the word A'alam the root is not كبر k-b-r (big), but علم 'a-l-m (knowing). In both phrases, "A" (alif) is added to the beginning of the word and also a short "a" (fatha) after the second root letter. So from 'a-l-m become A'alam, just like from k-b-r became Akbar.

'a stands for the Arabic letter ع (ain), which cannot be properly transliterated using the English alphabet.

The Qur'an uses Allahu A'alam a lot. It is often used as "wa-Allahu A'alam" meaning "and Allah knows best" (conjunctions are prefixed to words in Arabic).

Allah knows things

He knows difference between the two genders:

He knows that hypocritical Muslims refuse to kill non-Muslims, because they secretly don't believe in Islam:

He knows that some Muslims secretly disbelieve and commit sins ^[1]:

He knows who are the bad people:

Allah in the Qur'an doesn't describe any scientific facts, which were not known to the Arabs in the 7th century. It seems that his knowledge is limited by the knowledge of Muhammad.

Allah knows better than people

He knows that Abraham, Ishmael and Jacob were neither Jews nor Christians (though scholars and followers of Judaism actually consider them Jews):

You might think that some people (Jews) are your friends, but they are your enemies:

A lot of times the Qur'an says just "Allah knows" (Allahu ya'alamu):

So the message seems to be: Stop thinking and blindly believe in Islam.

People say "Allah knows best"

Jesus says he doesn't know what Allah knows:

Joseph thinks, that Allah knows that what some people said is false:

"Allah knows best" excuses

In some verses, "Allah knows best" seems to be an excuse used by Muhammad against the critics of his religion.

People wanted to get some message directly from Allah, not via Muhammad, to be sure that Muhammad is not making it all up. But Muhammad reveals, that "Allah knows best" and then threatens the people with punishment.

People wondered why the Qur'an is full of contradictions and why it needs an abrogation principle. Muhammad responds by revealing that "Allah knows best and you don't".

Jews knew some religious stories. They asked Muhammad to ask Allah to reveal to him those stories, so that they can compare them and if his stories are the same as theirs, then Muhammad is the messenger of god. One part of those stories was information about how long did dwellers of Ephesus in a cave dwell. Muhammad revealed 309, which was wrong. So then he revealed that "Allah knows best":

Muhammad revealed a command for Muslims to use the same excuse (instead of arguments) to defend their religion:

However that verse was abrogated, according to the scholars. Now Muslims shouldn't respond by "Allah knows best" excuse, but they should respond by killing:

Polytheist dead children go to hell:

Muslims should say "Allah knows best" whenever they don't know something:

In the early tafsirs on the verse 68:1, we can read about a whale, called ن (Nun), which carries the Earth on its back ^[2]. However in the tafsir Al-Jalalayn, from the 15th century, the interpretation changed (for some reason) to "Allah knows best":

Saying "Allah knows best" instead of "I don't know" or "I am not sure" makes people more comfortable in their ignorance.

One of the most notable atheists in the 21th century said:

"Allah knows best" is sometimes used as a response to questions from the critics of Islam. This Allah-knows-best-ing technique strengthens the close-mindedness of Muslims, who blindly believe that Allah has all the answers and don't bother to find the answers themselves. This way they are not able to realize that sometimes there is no answer, or that the answer proves Islam to be false.

The phrase is also used as an "explanation" of some things in Islam which don't make sense or if they are in conflict with science. One example was already discussed, regarding the tafsir Al-Jalalayn on the verse 68:1.

• Allahu Akbar