Inspiration is a passing occurrence. It vanishes and another takes its place. Knowledge from God’s own presence is stable and does not depart.
Some of this knowledge belongs to the original creation and innate constitution, as in the knowledge that animals and small children have of certain things that benefit or harm them. That is immediate knowledge rather than inspiration. As for His saying, “Your Lord revealed to the bees” [al-Nahl 16:68], He means that God endowed them with this in their original constitution. Inspiration is what the servant is inspired with concerning things he did not previously know.
Knowledge from God’s own presence that does not belong to the original constitution is the knowledge yielded by deeds. God has mercy on some of His servants by enabling a servant to do a righteous deed. The servant does it, and God bequeaths to him from it knowledge from His own presence that the servant had not known before. Knowledge from God’s own presence need not subsist in matter, whereas inspiration occurs only in material substrates.
Knowledge necessarily hits the mark. Inspiration can hit the mark or miss it. What hits the mark is called knowledge through inspiration. What misses is called inspiration without knowledge, meaning it is not knowledge through inspiration. “God speaks the truth, and He guides the way” [al-Ahzab 33:4].
Chapter 58: On Knowing the Secrets of Those Who Reason from Inspiration and Knowing a Divine Knowledge That Pours into the Heart
