The Importance of Wisdom Ep 1 – Hikmah in the Quran Dhul Hijjah Series

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. Zakir Hussain in his PhD thesis wisdom in the Quran, which was summarized and presented by iostat doorman in front of a live audience. The link to the full paper is in the description.

And Episode One, we're looking at the purpose of learning about wisdom.

But when I was doing the lecture series on Soto Juma

the IR came that mentions wisdom that Allah sent a messenger among the unlettered people who had lived the battlefield Amina Rasulullah min home, yet to Allah He Marathi he he recites Allah's ayat to these unlettered people will use a key him he purifies them, are you any Muhammad Kitab he teaches them the book. Well, heck mine, he teaches wisdom. And when we got to that portion of wisdom, I had sir I've studied the subject before and I became a little more curious than I was before, looking into what Allah means by wisdom. What 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. Zakir 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 did I completed my series also to Joomla. 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, and so my goal inshallah is not to do justice to his paper or justice to the topic, I think I'm going to 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

Hodges 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 wise people? Or is that something as important as the prayer or as important as hedge? Or is it that fundamental, and I'm going to 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 were they thinking about wisdom in the Quran? Right? They're also interesting questions about before the Quran came? How are the Christians thinking about wisdom? How are the Jews thinking about wisdom? How are 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 in 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 will 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 has 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 mushroom goon of Arabia. Some of them were Christian. Some of them were Jewish. Some of them

Word 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 gonna become an important thing for us to explore. So now I'm gonna get into it. I'll give you a warning today is the boring day. Tomorrow's the exciting day. That's the, that's the plan. So my plan was to just have you survive the boring material today, so that we can get to the juicy stuff tomorrow. And that way, I convinced you to show up again. And that was

it this, this can totally backfire. This couldn't be this could go so badly, because then you'd be like, this was so boring and annoying. I can't do this again.

Right. So 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 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, do it you're never going to use it. I know you. You're just I mean, this is not gonna. It's not like oh, let me look at the pictures I took of the screen and contemplate you won't. You'll just go to tick tock and watch some cad play the piano or so that's what you're going to 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 salallahu Alaihe. Salam was to call people to Allah right to call people to Allah Zwei. Simple enough. But how did Allah tell him that Allah says to him, for example, will do Elizabeth Rebecca Bill hikma, call to the way of your master with hikma and I'm going to use wisdom loosely call to the way of your master with wisdom, the mission of the prophesy. So that Mr. call people to Allah, and Allah is saying you must do it with this one weapon. What's that weapon, wisdom. And actually the width 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 going to say, when you call people they have to be full of wisdom to what is it that you're going to say has to be wise, and the way you're communicating has to be wise. Also, you know, this is this room, because I'm a student of psychology, this, 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 you if it's your child is 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, oh,

and that's enough.

Right? Or if you're a mom, we'll just say to Rebekah, but only I'll tell your dad. That's enough. That's enough. Like, you know, in that for him, that's enough reminder of the alcohol for him. He'll sit down, right? Or, but you know, what, if you end up in 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, that 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'll 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 gonna be? And then what the counter you know, the whole thing you've noticed, this is the same match. It's been played the same exactly, several 100,000 times. But you know what, you're like, I gotta do it again.

You know what, that communication lacks

wisdom, wisdom, because you're running into the same you know, 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? Will 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. And is this the right time? All of that stuff, right? So you know what that means. Wisdom, necessitates if you're gonna 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 bring. I don't don't wait. Can you tell them to pray? I was like,

Yeah, so when did they stop listening? I don't know. Can you please tell me when they stopped listening? When they became teenagers?

How soon before? Like, and by the way? 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?

It's the last time Namaha Sparta

is such a beautiful way to call to the way of Allah with wisdom.

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.

On URL Illa civilian obika bill. It's a fundamental call. Like imagine these people these these you know if you don't know anything, I have a lot of Arab friends that doesn't justify what I'm about to say. But man, my Arab friends are they stubborn? Oh.

I thought protons are stubborn on proton. No Arabs, man who 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 your 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 going to change they were called towards Allah using some special secret sauce. And according to this I'll what is that secret sauce? Wisdom. It's almost as if I'm trying to tell you the world changed because that was done through wisdom. The world is the way it is. We're Muslim today. Because the Prophet lived by that principle with the rue de la cibilia rhombic Erbil

hikma, that hikma it's, I'm just trying to give you a taste of why hikmah is important.