it's actually something Allah expects every human being to be working towards we want to be able

to access wisdom we want to be able to live with wisdom so what in the world is wisdom this new
short series is based on the findings of Dr sakib Hussain and his PhD thesis wisdom in the Quran
which was summarized and presented by ustad Norman in front of a live audience the link to the full
paper is in the description and episode 1 we're looking at the purpose of learning about wisdom
[Music] is um I'm going to start by describing what I'm gonna try to do with you guys and hopefully
you'll survive the evening inshallah first of all I'm very happy to be back in Manchester and shall I get
an opportunity to come back and visit you again after this too um but let me just start by introducing
the agenda for this program a week ago or more a couple of weeks ago I was in Germany and I was
doing a lecture series and that's part of a project that I'm working on full time for almost a year now
called Quran week so myself and my team we study Asura of the Quran a short Surah for about three
weeks we study it full time and then I go and do a lecture series on that Surah at some community in
the world uh and then as soon as that's done we start on the next Surah and the next Surah and the
next Surah so this year we were working on we started actually from sutheria and we've made it all
the way almost but when I was doing the lecture series on social uh the Ayah came that mentions
wisdom that Allah sent a messenger among the unlettered people um he recites Allah's ayat to these
unlettered people he purifies them he teaches them the book well hikman he teaches wisdom and
when we got to that portion of wisdom I had so I've studied the subject before and I became a little
more Curious than I was before looking into what Allah means by wisdom why is he saying okay he
teaches them the book that sounds like the Quran he teaches them the Quran and then he mentions
he also teaches wisdom and so I wanted to take a deeper look at the word wisdom I was very
fortunate that one of the people on our team Dr sakip Hussain whose paper I will I'll put a QR code
on the screen tomorrow inshallah so you guys can take a scan of it and you can get access to his
paper too he did a PhD paper out of the University of Oxford on hikma in the Quran and it's it's a 350
page exhaustive PhD paper and I started reading it when I was in Germany and I said there's no way
I'm going to be able to do this while I'm in Germany so I stopped I I did I completed my series but one
subject was outstanding a good look at hikma in the Quran and so I've been trying to do gather my
own thoughts and kind of go through his PhD paper also and discussing the subject with him and I'll
tell you a little bit about my formula because you guys I haven't been to the UK for some time and
some of you are familiar with YouTube videos of mine I help you go to sleep every night so you're
familiar um but this recent project is about helping Muslims take a deep dive into the Quran My
Philosophy my my view has become that for the most part Muslims are not studying or engaging
with the Quran deeply and they feel like that's something for Scholars to do that's not for us to do
right and but the thing is every Surah that Allah revealed was a gift for every human being on this
Earth and especially the Muslims the Quran was not revealed for Scholars the Quran was revealed
for Humanity and when Allah asked us to contemplate the Quran deeply he didn't ask some people
to do that he asked anybody who has a heart to do that like everybody should be doing that the
problem with that is it's difficult and you feel like you don't know enough or when you're reading the
translation you might get confused or if you try to read it to see it it feels disconnected or you don't
know how to make sense of it or you don't know what you're supposed to get from that how do you
make sense of that for yourself right because it becomes kind of you know Scholars have their own
geek language they're all nerd language like to speak in that language and that's not the new normal
people we don't talk like that like I try to think of myself as normal at times but the point is we don't
talk in that scholarly kind of language right so okay I could give you a link to the PHD paper but he's
gonna use words in there that I have to go to the dictionary every few sentences myself you know
every time I think I know the English language I read a paper by sakum Hussain and I'm reminded
that I do not you people from Oxford man I tell you anyway so my job becomes I'm gonna do this
research study and this exhaustive you know discussion with Scholars with people that are just way
up here and then I'll try to figure out well if I was trying to explain this to an a board 16 year old how
would I do it right so how do I take this geeky stuff and then put it in language that the rest of us can
actually make sense of and I'm only partially I'll be honest with you I'm only partially successful in
that project there are some things that are going to be they're gonna they sound high level and they
are how high level let's just there's no way around it and so my goal inshallah is not to do justice to
his paper or Justice to the topic I think I'm gonna take some of the most important pieces of that
discussion of what I think every Muslim should know about wisdom in the Quran why is the subject
important why is that such a big deal why is it so is it something really fundamental to our religion
like growing up you heard or you learned that the most fundamental things in your religion are five
pillars for example right so everybody knows how important those are everybody knows how
important Ramadan is or Hajj is and there's you don't have to be explained that that's stuff is
important prayer is important is hikma is wisdom some extra thing for really old why these people or
is that something as important as the prayer or as important as Hajj or is it that fundamental and I'm
gonna try to argue that it's actually one of the most important fundamental basis of our religion it's
not something you get to when you get to a PhD level it's actually something Allah expects every
human being to be working towards we want to be able to access wisdom we want to be able to live
with wisdom so what in the world is wisdom how does the Quran define wisdom how did the
Muslims who first became Muslim in the first couple of centuries of Islam how are they thinking
about wisdom in the Quran right there are also interesting questions about before the Quran came
how are the Christians thinking about wisdom how are the Jews thinking about wisdom how were
the philosophers before outside of religion how are they thinking about wisdom how are the Arabs
before Islam before the coming of the Quran how are the Arabs thinking about wisdom and the
Quran come and the Quran has different audiences and different audiences have different
backgrounds right and how did the Quran come and talk about wisdom to people many of them have
different definitions don't they so imagine if you're sitting in the audience and there's a there's a
Christian in the audience and there's a Jew in the audience and there's a Hindu in the audience and I
say prayer is important if I say that prayer is important do you think each one of them will think of
the same thing they'll all have a different concept of what prayer is isn't it so when I say the word
wisdom somebody who's been studying philosophy and they hear the word wisdom they have
something else in their head somebody else who's been studying literature has something else in
their head they all have different definitions of the same word and the Quran is using a common
word even though people that were listening to the Quran some of them were coming from Pagan
religions like the mushrikun of Arabia some of them were Christian some of them were Jewish some
of them were agnostic you know some of them were just philosophers they were just poets and
Allah is talking to all of them and by extension Allah is talking to all of us right and he's using this
common word wisdom so it's going to become an important thing for us to explore so now I'm going
to get into it I'll give you a warning today is the boring day tomorrow is the exciting day that's the
that's the plan so my plan was to to just have you survive the boring material today so that we can
get to the juicy stuff tomorrow and that way I convince you to show up again that was and this this
could totally backfire this couldn't be this could go so badly because then you'll be like this was so
boring I'm like I can't do this again right so this is this could go either way but I'm willing to make that
experiment happen Okay so let's begin with some introductory comments I usually don't use
Powerpoints and slides I've started doing that more and more I didn't do this for you I did this for
myself so I just make sure I cover everything that I wanted to cover so if you're going to try to take
pictures of the slides that I show you and stuff um do it you're never going to use it I know you you're
this is I mean it's not gonna it's not like oh let me look at the pictures I took of the screen and
contemplate you you won't you'll just go to tick tock and watch some cat play the piano or
something that's what you're gonna do so be real okay so anyway so let's begin if you guys can show
the screen the first thing I want to show you is the mission given to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam was to call people to Allah right to call people to Allah's way simple enough but how did
Allah tell him that Allah says to him for example call to the way of your master with hikmah and I'm
gonna use wisdom Loosely call to the way of your master with wisdom the mission of the Prophet
saws to call people to Allah and Allah is saying You must do it with this one weapon what's that
weapon wisdom and actually the the with can be you have to do it wisely so the way that you call
people has to be full of wisdom and the things that you're gonna say when you call people they have
to be full of wisdom too what is it that you're gonna say has to be wise and the way you're
communicating has to be wise also you know this is this is because I'm a student of psychology this is
there's an element of psychology here so let me explain that to you if I want a child to listen to me
there's different ways I can tell a child to come here or to sit down right and some of you parents
know what I'm talking about right so if your child's misbehaving or they're not listening and you want
them to sit down there are different ways you can do it you can do if you're from certain parts of the
world you can you can look at them and say why and that's enough right or if you're a mom you'll
just say I'll tell your dad that's enough he disease that's enough like you know in that for him that's
enough reminder of the akhara for him he'll sit down right or but you know what if you and the child
listen to you but what the child also now internalized is the only time I should listen is when there's a
threat right so when there's no threat then I have no need to what I have no need to listen now if I
have some wisdom I might say how do I get this kid to sit down in a way that even when I'm not here
and I don't want them to do this they still won't do it in my absence that is not just me instructing
that's me trying to communicate with some level of what wisdom that's wisdom you can complete
your husband and wife get into arguments not in Manchester everywhere else this you guys are
immune but you get into an argument and every time it's the same conversation over and over and
over again and after the 100th time you in your head you're like they just said this and you you're
thinking in your head oh yeah well what about and then you know how to that sentence goes and
you've used it 57 866 times before and you know when you say that you know what the reaction is
going to be and then what the counter you know the whole thing you know this this is the same
match it's been played the same exact way several hundred thousand times but you know what
you're like I gotta do it again you know what that communication Lacks wisdom it's wisdom because
you're running into the same you're not recognizing the pattern you're not recognizing the problem
so Allah is telling his messenger you have to communicate telling people to come towards Allah is not
enough you have to tell people to come towards Allah using wisdom you have to use wise words and
by the way practically speaking if I'm speaking to a senior will I use the same words as if I'm speaking
to a child well I speak to a scholar the same way I'll speak to a student will I speak to a stranger the
same way I'll speak to a family member no I have to look at the situation I have to look at the person
I have to look at my place I have to look at the context is this the right time all of that stuff right so
you know what that means wisdom necessitates if you're going to call to Allah you have to be really
aware of the situation before you decide to communicate something so many moms come to me
from around the world and this is I wish this wisdom every mother learns I my son he used to listen
to me my daughter she used to listen to me I don't know what happened I don't they don't listen
anymore I keep telling them to pray and they don't pray I don't know what can you tell them to pray I
was like yeah so when did they stop listening I don't know like can you please tell me when they stop
listening once they became teenagers how soon before uh like and by the way uh when did you get
them a phone can we can we look at some of the other factors that were part of this call and how do
you tell them to pray [Music] is such a beautiful way to call to the way of Allah with wisdom right like
prayer is supposed to be the most beautiful experience where a human being makes an attempt to
connect with God and now the moment somebody says prayer you hear your mother's nag first and
you hear the call to Allah second in fact you almost don't even hear the call to Allah in your head you
hear your mother's nag first and now you don't want to pray because you're so annoyed not with
God but with your mom and your mom says maybe if I yell some more it will work bill it's a
fundamental call like imagine the these people these these you know if you don't know anything I
have a lot of uh Arab friends that doesn't justify what I'm about to say but man my Arab friends are
they stubborn oof Oh I thought batons are stubborn I'm Britain no Arabs man oof and changing
Arabs from the way they were to what they became right to leave all of their culture all of their
practices to go against their family to go against their elders and to change the way that they did you
can't just tell them to change and they're gonna change they were called towards Allah using some
special secret sauce and according to this aisle what is that secret sauce wisdom it's it's almost as if
I'm trying to tell you the world changed because dawa was done through wisdom the world is the
way it is we're Muslim today because the prophet lived by that principles so it's I'm just trying to give
you a taste of why hikama is important right so now let's go a little further okay now this is
something called meccan chronology let me put that in normal language in the there's two kinds of
surahs in the Quran right can you guys tell me what they are two kinds of surahs okay Maki and
madani not the ones I know and the ones I don't no no that's not what I'm saying I'm safe [Laughter]
so this is about the makisulas the earliest mention of wisdom in the makisuras was actually
mentioned about we'll go into details later right now I'm just giving you an idea just want some ideas
in your head so Allah says to him that Allah made him Allah strengthened his kingdom and he gave
him and Allah says we gave him wisdom so specifically Allah mentions wisdom was given to who you
gotta remember that for me okay and then Allah says and I also gave him a really decisive way of
speaking he was very good at speech in other words his wisdom came out in the way that he speaks
so he is one thing that you're wise in your head but when you open your mouth you sound stupid
but it sounded a lot smarter in your head that ever happened to you happens to me all the time it
sounded way better in my head and then when the by the time it reached the journey from here to
here there were lots of bumps on the road right so by the time it came out I was just that's not what
I meant at all you know so there's so sometimes that happens when people can't connect their ideas
and communicate them effectively Allah says not only did he give dawood wisdom he gave him the
ability to communicate very effectively very decisively and that's okay so that's the first the second
you can see that is Jesus and Allah says in this multiple times in the Quran one of them the most
important I think this is really interesting he's the only Prophet who spoke like this in the Quran he
said Allah says when Allah gave when when Isa was given or when he brought forward all the proofs
the Miracles that Jesus brought forward he said to his people he said to them I have come to you
with wisdom I've come to you with wisdom so now this is special because we're gonna look at Jesus
in the Quran a little bit later on and we're going to look at him from that lens Allah is saying that
especially ASA was given some special kind of what wisdom and he went in and told his people look
I'm bringing wisdom to you okay and then finally in this progression we finally get to our Messengers
that is what Allah has your master has given to you from hikmah so Allah is now telling the prophet
saws you have also been given hikmah so you've got three prophets so far we've got Islam then
that's the chronology okay now we're gonna go to madanisuras instead of talking about prophets
what I want you to know about the madini Quran is the that hikmah keeps coming up after
mentioning the book salallah keeps saying the book and wisdom the book and wisdom the book and
multiple times in different places he keeps mentioning the book and wisdom he never did this in the
Maki Quran the Quran that was given in Medina in Makkah he didn't say that but the Quran that was
given in Makkah or in Medina rather he now multiple times says the book and the wisdom the book
and the wisdom so there's a connection being made between these two concepts and one time in
Surat Allah he also says the ayat of Allah the revelations of Allah and wisdom by the way the
revelations of Allah are his book also are they right so there's a connection being made that was not
made in Medina or rather not made in Makkah but now it's being made in Madina and my job
tomorrow inshallah will be to try to help you understand the connection between the book and
wisdom because the book easy to understand that's the Quran right and another by the way you
should know another meaning of the word book in Arabic is law is also called book okay by the way
this is used in English too I'm gonna do this by the book right or the judge threw the book at him
doesn't mean the judge picked up a copy of the Constitution and hurled it towards the plaintiff it
means the judge used the full extent of the law that's what that means that's the same way Allah
uses that in the Quran uh when he says the book of Allah mandatory on you that you must live by
the book of Allah meaning the law of Allah so the word book is actually a term in Arabic for the law
okay so you can think of this phrase in Medina as law and wisdom law and wisdom law and wisdom
that's how it's being used in Medina okay let's move on now I haven't started this series yet this is
pre-introduction introduction I learned how to do multiple introductions when I was in Pakistan it
was the most amazing experience I got invited I I spoke it I I went uh over 10 days I spoke at 23
universities and I drove halfway across Pakistan I went to I went to Fleur de Karachi and then came
back to Lahore and from Lahore I drove all the way to Peshawar and stopped in universities along the
way and just and then so I was in this one University that shall not be named because they'll get
embarrassed but anyway so I'm sitting there and they say uh and then I'll translate in Urdu even
though I think most of you speak Urdu but now to introduce our speaker I invite the chancellor of
our universe and the guy comes and he gives the lecture and then he says and now to introduce uh
my next introducer they had they introduced each other there was about 10 people introducing each
other and now the moment you've all been waiting for introducer number five like I was melting in
my chair so I learned the idea of multiple introductions from them anyway and then the other thing I
learned from them is they give you flowers everybody they walk in they give you a giant thing of
flowers what am I gonna do with I'm not gonna stand with them like like you want me to lead the
prayer with them like what do you want me to do right so and but they know that they know you
can't do anything with these flowers you know what they do they hand them to you take a picture
then they take them away I like okay sounds like jahez right some people that's that's a painful joke
for some people anyway now let's talk about one quick thing this is a quick comment we don't need
to dwell on this one but I do I do want to give you some idea of uh of this concept so the word
hikmah in Arabic is wisdom as I'm translating it right there's another word in Arabic that's similar and
that's the word Hokum so there's hikma and there's also Hokum now fokum has three different
meanings how come one of its meanings is Judgment like the Hokum Allah is the Judgment of Allah
the Judgment of Allah right when they used to make judgments then Allah says we used to be
witness to their judgments so the word hukum one meaning is Judgment another meaning the
bottom meaning here is governance or authority so Allah says only belongs to Allah meaning
governance and sovereignty and Kingdom and Authority only belongs to Allah I know I know that's
that's a baby take beer okay okay their Guardian their Master Allah they're true their true God and
then Allah says meaning governance and Authority only belongs to Allah uh but the middle meaning
is the one I'm interested in Hokum also means the ability to make good judgments which is kind of
like wisdom isn't it like what's the difference between a stupid teenager and a wise teenager good
judgment right should I go to this party or should I stay home should I respond to that text message
or should I block the number right that's the difference between stupidity and wisdom isn't it it's
actually it's interesting at Young ages uh youth are very smart they're very smart but most of them
are what I like to call stupid genius right they have the knowledge wise they're really smart their
understanding of Technology their understanding of even in their studies and their ability to
memorize stuff is very sharp but their ability to make good decisions is very primitive so that would
be what you call uh what I like to call a stupid genius there's a lot of but not enough hikmah or
actually more more correctly that's actually a lot uh uh a void of hookum not Hickman but means the
ability to make sound judgments good decisions and hookum also actually means the ability to stick
by your decision hey come on let's go let's go no I'm not going come on just one time just one time
no I'm not going come on okay now well then you said it that way you use the secret weapon I'm
coming fine how come means no it doesn't matter what kind of face your friend makes what emojis
they send well how many broken hearts they send you your decision isn't changing that means you
possess what how come made this argument and I like his argument I'm not saying it's absolutely
correct but I like it I'm more convinced of it he argues that hookum is used in the Quran with youth
how come is used with youth so he says for example Allah says Allah gave him hukum when he was a
child so a young child still had the ability to make good decisions Allah says when he reached uh
puberty or young man's age Allah gave him Hokum and knowledge he's a young man is in his Youth
and Allah gave him Hokum about Musa Allah says again he gave him similarly Ibrahim when he was
kicked out of the house by his dad he was young right and when he was young he made a Dua Rabbi
Hubbly hukman my master give me how come so Hokum seems to be used with younger age argued
this is the first step towards hikmah is the first step towards hikman when Heckman becomes mature
that's that's the old man giving his son advice was given was a judge he was a ruler he was given
hikman that's an older age and at the younger ages it's Hokum that's so it's a little bit of a subtle
difference between the two words in the Quran and how they're employed okay now uh this is going
to be relevant later on just a side note uh so because I'm excited to get started with you guys and
that is that which three prophets did I mention with wisdom the prophet saws now one thing you
should know about dawood and Asa they have something in common they have something in
common what they have in common is they're both Israelite prophets they were sent to bani Islam
right and they're all they're both after Musa and they both believe in the Torah they both Believers in
the Torah was given to who is a follower of the Torah of Musa and Islam is also a follower of the
Torah of Musa but what's really unique in the Quran is even though dawood is associated with
hikmah and Elisa is associated with hikmah the Torah is never mentioned alongside hikmah Musa Ali
salaam's Revelation is not associated with higma so it's kind of a peculiar thing the followers of that
Prophet are connected with hikmah but the Torah itself in the Quran was not directly connected with
hikmah and we're going to try to figure out why that is as we move forward that's an interesting
question as we explore hikmah we're going to try to find the answer to that question now we're right
we're about to begin okay the first thing I want you to know is Allah says he gave hikmah to all
prophets he actually mentions Allah took a promise for all the prophets that whenever I give you any
book or any wisdom so he mentioned wisdom for all prophets first okay so that's one then he
mentioned it especially for the family of Ibrahim so Allah says so he says we gave the family of
Ibrahim the book and the wisdom so the the book and the wisdom are part of the family of Ibrahim
by the way Islam are all the family of who Ibrahim right so that's there's already a connection okay of
course I already mentioned to you he's given Islam is given hikmah then our messenger is given
hikmah in multiple ways given to him is described but then there are two cases in the Quran where
hikmah is given to people that are not prophets this is where things get really interesting given to
people that are not prophets the first one is actually it could be anybody Allah says he gives hikmah
to whoever he wants has been given an amazing amount a great amount of good now in this Ayah
Allah mentions that he can give hikmah to who anyone so I can get it you can get it anybody can get
it anybody can have it right so we're gonna have to then this this creates a problem the problem is
now there's a kind of hikmah that he gives to Prophets and then there's another kind of hikma that
he gives to everyone what's the difference between them what's the relationship between them are
they it's the same word so how do we understand the connection between these two okay and then
of course there's a there's one last one and that's very famous individual is mentioned his name is
lukman he before Islam he was a famous figure some argue he was not even an Arab so he's a non-
arabian figure but he was famous for his wisdom and for solving disputes between people and for his
kind and wise words and the Quran actually acknowledges that this person that's famously known
for his wisdom actually did have wisdom and he used a lot of that wisdom when he was advising his
own son and so Allah gave us a passage about and giving advice to his son but when Allah says we
gave luqman wisdom it's actually giving wisdom to someone who is not a prophet he's not a prophet
and so that's going to become an interesting study too what does wisdom mean when it's given to
not a prophet and what does wisdom mean when it's given to a prophet what's the what's the
difference between them okay now I've done this part to you now we're going to get to the
definition of hikma and you'll get your first break there's actually lots of parts to this so this is going
to be fun I promise you this is the boring part okay promise you let's let me first go through what this
means the meaning of the word hikma in the Arabic language this is called the lexical meaning lexical
is a big word I use that to make you feel stupid um I hope it worked I hope you feel like you don't
have a good education and you feel bad about yourself and you're Googling the word right now on
your phones uh let me just tell you what lexical means it just means dictionary meaning lexical this
means dictionary and now you sound smart now you can go home and say by the way the lexical
meaning of hikvah and your family will like oh I know it comes okay the thing about the Arabic
language is you'll have a word but that word comes from a bunch of other words that don't seem
related but they have the same letters so some of you may be familiar with the idea of root letters in
Arabic hikma is made up of ha kaf and meme ha kaf and meme that those three letters have a whole
bunch of history behind them there's a lot of words that come from them and those different words
they help us understand the concept of hikma in the mind of the Arabs why did they connect these
two ideas together let me make this simpler for you first before we get into the lexical meaning okay
the word akan which is also Urdu speakers here will know what akan is Rael huh the intellect alcohol
means intellect in Arabic means to tie something up it means to tie something up and it used to be
used for a rope that you use to tie a camel and the Arabs used to have they didn't have anti-lock
breaks on their camels so they used to put a rope around their head and when they went
somewhere they took the Rope off their head and they tied the camel with it and that that rope was
called icon so it used to be on their what on their head and they used it for control the control or
Restraint of an animal a leash on an animal from it came the idea of the word Falcons the intellect
one because it's here two because it's something that puts you in under control you're able to
control your anger because of your intellect you're able to control your stupidity because of your
intellect you're able to control your tongue because of your intellect you're able to control your
hands because of your intellect so to them intellect means the ability to control your emotions or the
ability to control yourself so you see what they did they took this image and they associated with the
word intellect now we don't do that in English right so the word intellect maybe it may have some
interesting etymology but we don't necessarily see that connection but words in the Quran they have
this connection behind them so we're going to try to find that connection for the word hikma
actually comes from hakamatology uh the the picture is pretty dark you know the horses they put
this muzzle on their face and they can pull with the Rope on the muzzle on the face and they control
its face with it that's called a hakama and a hakama is also the the chin of a person this this bottom
jaw and this chin that's actually called the hakama it's also the chin of a sheep or a horse or a person
these are all called hakama now what is why is that important this part is set to hold your face
together okay this is this is supposed to hold your face together so you know if somebody gets a chin
injury or something drastic happens in a car accident they're not able to hold the muscles and
they're the jawline and everything it starts falling apart this is actually holding things together and
securing them okay and the the the the bridle on a horse that you're pulling on that's holding the
horse restraining the horse just like the jaw is restraining your face it's keeping things intact you
know okay and not letting the delicate muscles inside fall apart now from it came the idea that um I
wrote Arabic hair to make you feel bad um and to show off I could read Arabic but no I wrote this for
myself and it was I was too lazy to translate so I'll translate it in person I'll tell you what this means it
means the word hakkam means when you keep something from falling apart when you keep
something from falling apart okay and whether it's something physically falling apart or something
intellectually falling apart meaning when you speak in a way where your argument doesn't fall apart
you use hikmah in your argument when you wrote an essay and your ideas were well connected to
each other and your thesis didn't fall apart then you had hekam or hikmah in your speech when a
lawyer is trying to win a case right and they make their case really solid and it didn't fall apart and
that's because they were hakum in their presentation sometimes you have a class presentation many
University students here who have nothing no purpose in life other than you know the so when you
have your school presentation sometimes you're in the middle of your presentation you forget
everything and then you're laptop dies and then yeah some some people got bad memories oh I
remember that day yeah and uh osmosis um it's got a Moses in it and that means it fell apart anyway
that's the lexical meaning now let's go to some other interesting early early Islamic dictionaries this is
these are like you know um first century second century of Islam Scholars that were writing the
dictionaries of the words in the Quran how are they defining hikmah how are they defining wisdom
by the way the idea of holding something together keep that in mind right okay so the idea of
hikmah has to do with securing something we'll tie those Concepts later trustworthiness his
definition is one definition is hekma means trustworthiness it means Clarity in speech it means
understanding it means intellect and it means you basically another word for understanding so
understanding intellect trustworthiness and Clarity in speech if you have those things you have what
Heckman that's his definition another definition as I just mistyped uh good advice good advice is
hikmah and then he says understanding and knowledge is hikmah and then he says prophethood is
also hikmah which makes sense because Allah actually mentioned in the Quran that he gave
ibrahima which means he gave Ibrahim prophethood isn't it so that's actually an example of hikmo
uh he also mentions meaning understanding the Quran or explaining the Quran itself is also hikmah
so one of his definitions of hikmah was the Quran itself interesting definition he says means knowing
something and acting on it this sounds really easy knowing something and what acting on hey you
got to tell your dad what happened I know I know I know I'm working on it well you know when
people say I'm working on it you know what that means right I don't want to do it but I want to
sound like I'm doing something so I'm gonna say I'm working on it how are you working on it exactly
it's a process what's the process it's a struggle so can you define the struggle for me yeah it's it's like
you know just leave me alone I'm working on it that's my favorite one I know I have to do it but it's a
process and it's a struggle and I'm working on it you know what that is that's knowing something but
not what you're not acting on it that's a lack of hikmah that's a lack of hikmah okay so then Quran he
says actually it's Khalil Khalil this this uh early one of the earliest maybe even the earliest dictionary
of the Arabic language he translated wisdom as Justice his definition of wisdom was actually Justice
it's really cool because you know what Justice is you put things where they belong right you put
things where they belong you you don't you don't misplace something and that's why later
definitions of hikmah became in Islamic history hikmal also got defined as putting something where
it belongs putting your anger where it belongs putting your criticism where it belongs putting your
praise where it belongs putting your hard work where it belongs putting your money where it
belongs right you're putting your effort where it belongs putting everything where it belongs that
would become hikma and so that became a definition uh justice now we're going to look so we
looked at the lexical meaning we looked at the early uh writers of the dictionaries and what they said
about wisdom now we're going to look at the philosophical definition this is coming not just from
Islamic literature but it's also coming from from Christian literature the Christians in the era of Islam
or the few centuries before Islam they were obsessed with the subject of wisdom you might not
know that but now you do Christianity one of its main focuses was the subject of what wisdom and
I'll give it away they were so obsessed with wisdom and of course you all know they were also
obsessed with Jesus that they actually made them into one subject and they developed literature
especially in Proverbs and other places where they said Jesus is wisdom itself walking around so in
many of their works when they would talk about wisdom they were actually talking about Jesus they
called him wisdom itself wisdom it's a wisdom manifest so wisdom is a major subject for them but
they talked about it in many different ways and of course philosophers have talked about it in
different ways I'm going to give you a definition of wisdom that they have that actually agrees with
the Quran the Quran offers the same definition in this case not the one that they say Jesus is wisdom
the Quran changes that and says no Jesus Is Not Jesus is not wisdom Jesus is given wisdom so the
Quran says Ah correction let's fix that a little bit okay and that's what the Quran does all the time it
takes a statement from Christian literature and a statement from Jewish literature and the statement
is almost correct with a few adjustments and the Quran will make those few adjustments okay now
we're now we got it right okay so that's what the Quran does in this case too but anyway their
definition now listen to this part carefully because this will be one of the most important discussions
for the entire two days their definition is every human being has something inside them that tells
them right from wrong every human being it doesn't matter what religion they are it doesn't matter
where they were raised what century they were raised in they have something inside them that says
hurting someone else is wrong cheating someone else is wrong lying is wrong deceiving is wrong
taking somebody else's rights is wrong you know and and you know uh oppressing someone is wrong
there are things that you don't have to be Muslim to know that they're wrong anybody could be
walking around and they see some kids yelling at a kid or bullying a child and you will know that
that's wrong you'll say let me check with the fokaha first let me ask my Mufti if uh if a bunch of kids
are beating up a kid in school uh is that harambiani's nobody has to check that you could there's a
there's a meter inside you that says hey that is what you could just see that it's wrong when you're
standing in line and you're awaiting your turn and you know some somebody cuts somebody in line
everybody in line says it's wrong unless you're in the Arab world but but otherwise you're but it's
wrong and you can tell everybody has there's an understanding of you know people's place right so
the Christian argument is actually we have a sense a basic sense of right and wrong inside of us now
let's talk about the Quran point of view on this this is the the fifth Allah with which Allah created us
and that fitla is so powerful that nature inside us is so powerful that Allah made us with that Allah
says he swears by it I swear by the person that blames themselves meaning if nobody was around
nobody was around and nobody could check what you're doing and you're about to do the wrong
thing right something in you says don't do this something in you feels bad and you have to silence
that put it on airplane mode you know you have to you have to mute it to be able to go ahead but it
was there the voice is there the way Allah describes that voice inside you and inside me and inside
every human being he describes a person who's uh drowning in the ocean and they keep drowning
deeper and deeper and there's waves and there's waves on top and it's a cloudy night and it's you
know it's raining so there's no Moonlight there's no Starlight there's and the deeper you go in the
ocean the darker it gets and he gets to the almost the bottom of the ocean and Allah says when he
takes his hand out right in front of him he almost can't see it he doesn't say he can't see it he says
what he almost can't see it you know what that means something is still there no matter how dark
you got somebody got into somebody got into a club somebody started drinking somebody started
doing drugs somebody's been drinking for a year now they're picking up the bottle for the
thousandth time and before they bring it to their mouth something in them says I shouldn't be doing
this something goes off and it's it's weak the alarm is weak the batteries are weak but they're not
dead you could still see that it's there so that Consciousness that we have you can call it a conscience
you can call it a moral compass right you can call it right your your inner self right this and enough in
the Quran actually the air the the the the Christian literature called it hikmah itself there's a sense of
justice inside you and inside me now this is going to be a really interesting thing now we're learning
Allah teaches hikmah doesn't he taught he taught nikma to reside Islam he taught Allah but now
Allah is also saying every human being already has some level of what inside them some hikmo is
already inside them there's an inside hikvah and there's an outside there's two of them and we're
gonna have to figure out what the relationship between those two guys is or those two hikmas is
okay now this is real this this was of the Jewish side this was the previous one was on the Christian
side now I'm going to show you something on the Jewish side of things a couple of hundred years
before Jesus and carrying forward the Jews also became very interested in the subject of wisdom but
their definition of wisdom was really different really different they developed this idea that wisdom
actually means that some special people some Elite people they have secret knowledge about
Judgment Day they know Judgment Day is coming they know details about Judgment Day and the
end of the world but that knowledge is not for everyone it is for very exclusive special groups of
people and those people have what so actually hidden knowledge of what's going to happen when
the world comes to an end hidden exclusive special knowledge okay now what did the Quran do to
respond to this idea because remember when the Quran said hikmah were the Jews also listening
were they in the audience yeah and when they heard hikvah what came in their head if they're part
of this culture they're like this refers to secret knowledge of the end of the world and Allah says in
suratul Kamar when he says you know the the hour has come near the moon shall split listen to this
part I'll translate this part and they have received news that have a lot of warnings in them wisdom
that reaches everybody but none of the warnings have benefited what is Allah doing now Allah is
saying there are warnings but there and there are warnings of judgment day but they're not for some
special exclusive group of people who have access to this secret hikmah classified documents that
nobody else gets Allah called it this is a hikmah that has been made accessible and shall reach
everyone and even though it's reaching everybody people are not taking advantage of the warnings
so what did Allah do Allah took the concept of hikmah that the Jewish Community had and redefined
it not as Elite and exclusive but as what Public Access it's it's actually meant for everybody right so
the quick lesson now the the Christian concept of hikmah was about inner hikmah the Jewish
concept of hikmah wasabel secret knowledge of the afterlife the Quran is actually going to deal with
both of them in in the in in its discussion because you have to remember we think of Muslims we
think of the Quran as something that's talking to us but actually the Quran is talking to the Christians
and it's also talking to the Jews and it's also talking to the mushrikun it's actually talking to everybody
and Allah knows everybody's background Allah knows everybody's culture everybody's religious
upbringing and knowing that he speaks and when he speaks it hits them differently because he's
saying things we didn't catch on to it because we don't come from that background so it doesn't hit
us so some sometimes Allah will say in Ayah and there's a sahabi who's listening to it he understands
it but there's another sahabi who used to be Jewish and he hears that he goes whoa Allah just
commented on something I learned in Saturday school you know my Rabbi taught me this and Allah
just corrected it right now he we wouldn't know that they would know that you understand so that's
become a really interesting study in in learning the Quran also uh in regards to hikma almost done
guys I'll give you a first break okay so wisdom contrasts with law now let's talk about that in the Bible
now we're talking about the common denominator between the Jews and the Christians the Old
Testament okay so the Bible is common to both religions and in the Bible especially in Proverbs
there's actually this they talk about wisdom as if it's a lady that's you you have to respect her okay
they talk they don't talk about wisdom as a concept they talk about it as lady wisdom okay and what
is Lady wisdom basically it means the things you need to do to live a good life pay attention to your
life experiences pay attention to what happened learn learn the lessons from the tragedies in your
life learn the lessons from how you were deceived or how you experienced the death of a loved one
or how you experience sickness or whatever trial you went through in life will teach you wisdom
listen to your elders listen to your parents all of that will be called wisdom so the wisdom in this
definition wisdom doesn't have to do with the book it just has to do with your life doesn't it just
contemplates your life pay attention to the world around you and you will get wisdom and if you pick
if you get this wisdom which anybody can do you'll lead a good life this is in the Bible and job comes
along and says that doesn't make any sense so job actually argues against this and says you're saying
if I live by wisdom I'll have a good life I know a lot of wise people that have a really tough life how are
you saying it's going to be a good life and then the Bible has a debate with job and eventually gets to
the point where job is being told no no no this means eventually it'll be a good life maybe it'll be a
good life in the next life now the Quran solves this problem you know let me tell you where Muslims
come into play here and this will be your break now um people come and say ustad I pray I fast I I
stay away from Haram stuff I eat halal food I eat I make Halal money why do I have all these
problems I make so much I even pray to hajjud I fast Mondays and Thursdays I do so much Dua and
my problems just don't go away what's the point of doing all this and I'm doing all the right things
when everything keeps going wrong in my life in fact the more I do it seems like the the better I do in
Islam the worse my life gets and this is very common actually and someone even told me you know
the Lesser I follow Islam the easier my life gets I mean I don't want to see him I know Allah is
listening and they did this I was like is this is this gonna help like should we go in this corner like the
angels are like oh wait oh they're going to the corner darn it I can't write this down ah but you know
when I start praying things get really hard when I stop praying things get easy I'm just saying that's
what it is I was like okay who told you that if you obey Allah life will get easy because the Quran
never did Proverbs is saying live your life according to wisdom life will be good the Quran never said
that the Quran ever made you a promise if you live a good life if you live a moral life if you live a life
by the Commandments of Allah that you will actually live prosperously and great things will happen
to you does he do that not really no he says but human beings were created in exhaustive labor and
then he gives us exam okay fine let's take the examples of the people who followed Allah the most
okay really followed Allah his life was super easy right oh wait Yusuf alaihissalam he lived by wisdom
he never followed broke any rules he he did good so his life was really wait no wait wait there's a
there's a theme emerging in the Quran really great people that live by wisdom have really tough lives
don't they then does somebody and what I explained this to this person who was trying to find a no
cell phone connection Zone this is then what's the point life's gonna be hard anymore what's the
point I was like now you're asking the real question what is the point Allah did not put me on this
Earth to have an easy life Allah put me on this Earth to pass a test that's why he put me on this Earth
and there are people who have the wisdom to understand that and there are people who just don't
want to understand that and want to have what and easy life and the people who want an easy life
are denying the path of wisdom will Allah give ease sure how will he give it when will he give it that's
not a schedule he will email to you ahead of time you will not get a notification on your phone user is
coming in three days he's not gonna do that [Laughter] you know the best of the Believers were like
when is the help of Allah coming when is it coming Allah says it's near oh but if you say somebody is
near how near though can you give me a little bit like do you have projections month are we talking
months years hours can we get a little bit of no no you can't well Allah doesn't owe to you that he
should tell you something about the Unseen he doesn't owe you that right that's actually maturity
isn't it it's a mature view of life trials will come Allah has given you the strength and the wisdom to
navigate those trials the purpose of guidance is not to make life easy the purpose of guidance is not
to the storms will stop the purpose is you can navigate the storms now you know how to cross
through the storm with strength not that the storm will disappear right so with that inshallah I'm
going to give you guys your first break and then we'll talk about how we talked about how the
Christians talked about wisdom the Jews talked about wisdom how the dictionary talked about
wisdom now we're finally going to talk about how Muslim Scholars talked about wisdom in early
Islamic scholarship inshallah after the breakup I hope you guys enjoyed that video clip my team and I
have been working tirelessly to try to create as many resources for Muslims to give them first steps in
understanding the Quran all the way to the point where they can have a deep profound
understanding of the Quran we are students of the Quran ourselves and we want you to be students
of the Quran alongside us join us for this journey on bayinnatv.com where thousands of hours of
work have already been put in and don't be intimidated it's step by step by step so you can make
learning the Quran a part of your lifestyle there's lots of stuff available on YouTube but it's all over
the place if you want an organized approach to studying the Quran beginning to end for yourself your
kids your family and even among peers that would be the way to go sign up for bayonatv.com