QURANIC WISDOM

QURANIC WISDOM Guidance for Life A CCORDING to the Quran, wisdom is of greatest value for a human being. There is a verse in Chapter al-Baqarah which states: “Whoever is granted wisdom has indeed been granted abundant wealth” (2: 269). This verse means that wisdom is summum bonum, or the greatest good. Wisdom ensures success, while the lack of it signals failure. I have tried to understand what wisdom is from the Quran and Hadith, that is, what is the concept of wisdom, as defined in the Quran and the prophetic practice. After deep study, I have come to conclude that the definition of wisdom according to the Quran is the ability to discover the relevant by sorting out the irrelevant. After studying the life of the Prophet of Islam, I have realized that the best title for him is that he was a ‘Prophet of Wisdom’. In 1978 the American author Dr. Michael Hart wrote a book with the title, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. In this book he ranked the Prophet Muhammad as the greatest achiever in entire human history. But Dr. Hart does not explain in his book the reason for Prophet’s superachievement. I have discovered through my study that the reason for Prophet’s success was his application of Quranic wisdom to the situations he faced. The Prophet experienced various kinds of situations and in every situation he adopted Quranic wisdom. I will give some examples to illustrate how the Prophet applied this wisdom. The Prophet in Makkah: Ignoring the Problem and Availing the Opportunity The Prophet began his mission in 610 CE in ancient Makkah. Prophet’s mission was based on tawheed, or monotheism. At the time, the whole of Arabia was polytheistic. The Kabah was built four thousand years ago by Prophet Abraham as a centre of worship of one God. But now polytheism was practised by the different tribes of Arabia. This was a grave situation confronting the prophetic mission. Here the Prophet applied wisdom. Since the Kabah was used as a place of worship and venerated by the various tribes of Arabia, people from Wisdom according to the Quran is the ability to discover the relevant by sorting out the irrelevant.