 أعوذ له السبيل العليب نشيطان الله الرجيم بسبب الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين نحمده ونستعين به ونتوكل عليه والصلاة والسلام على خير خلقه أجمعين نبينا وحبيب قلوبنا وشفيع ذنوبنا أبي القاسم المصطفى محمد صلى الله عليه وعلى أهل بيته الطيبين والطاهرين المعصومين المطاهرين المكرمين قل الله العظيم في كتابه الكريم بسبب الله الرحمن الرحيم يؤتي الحكمة من يشاء ومن يؤتي الحكمة فقد أتي خيرا كثيرة أمنا بالله صدق الله العلي العظيم رحمن الرحمن الرحمن السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته often in our lives we come across a concept that is universally agreed or is shared amongst people of different faith denominations one of those is wisdom the notion that there are people or groups of individuals that are wise in their statements are wise in their actions and their decisions the Islamic teachings of wisdom are quite plentiful as far as the Quran and the Ahl al-Bait is concerned and indeed the first point when we come to discuss this in our examination of the morality of the Ahl al-Bait عليكم السلام and how they were exemplars as far as wisdom is concerned is the idea that Allah himself is the origin and is the wise being الله تبارك وتعالى in the Holy Quran uses the epiphyt al-Hakeem the wise one and al-Azeez al-Hakeem is used 33 times the Quran is referred to as the wise book al-Quran al-Hakeem because Allah is the source of it the Quran is the actual words of the Almighty Subhanahu وتعالى what the first realization therefore emerges and that is this if we want to be wise if we want to be considered to be from the حكماء then we must seek it from Allah تبارك وتعالى because he is the source of wisdom isn't he so that is the realization true wisdom of course comes from God but is knowledge and the same as wisdom are they kind of understood interchangeably or are they different terms indeed what is understood out there amongst our olama our scholars having looked at the Quranic presentation of wisdom الحكماء as well as the words of the Ahl al-Bait it seems that knowledge is not the same as wisdom no doubt that's a prerequisite for حكماء العلم is considered to be a condition in order to obtain wisdom but it's not the same there isn't really one definition of what wisdom in reality is some have said it is the real true understanding of things others have said is when we are stopped or wisdom stops us from acting wrongly whilst another group of scholars have understood الحكمة to mean placing something in its rightful position where it should be doing the right thing saying the right words a group of scholars have understood حكمة to being the argument that leads to the truth without doubt in other words برحان something which is evidence based powerful reasoning and it is sometimes linked to the word حكم which means to stop any wrong or corruption we can perhaps perhaps come to an understanding that حكمة is knowledge which is understood which is useful which is beneficial which forms the basis of the understanding which leads towards righteousness and حق truth according to the حديث of the أهل البيت عليهم السلام the pinnacle of the حكمة of the wisdom is God consciousness تقوى is مخافة الله أمير المؤمنين عليبنا بطالب صلوات الله وسلام عليه in a narration says سلحكمة مخافة الله the main thing to start off with the main essence of حكمة and wisdom is the fear of God is God consciousness and that's why you find that those who are truly scholars with wisdom have practiced God consciousness and that is how you distinguish an individual with knowledge and an individual with wisdom people with knowledge but not necessarily with wisdom wisdom is the ability to have applied the knowledge but also have infused it with تقوى and God consciousness there was a man who many many years ago according to the narration was a farmer or somebody who worked in the fields one day there was a stream of water that was running next to him next to his farm he saw an apple and he picked it up it was kind of flowing on the stream he started to have the apple he was hungry perhaps but then this power within which is God consciousness started to alert him hold on a minute maybe this apple belongs to somebody I didn't seek the permission how could I just eat it without necessarily seeking permission now he made it his objective to investigate the owner of the apple in order to seek permission in order to somehow be content that he has the permission of the owner he follows the stream where it has come from and he locates that it's an apple tree that one of the apples had fallen into the stream he knocks on the door of where the apple tree originates from and the person opens the door asks him are you the owner of the house he said yes he said well you know there's a tree that you have which is an apple and one of it fell on the particular stream and I had it and therefore I'd like to seek your pardon your permission or I would pay you for it the individual said I would but I don't own the entire tree I own only half of it very well what is the situation he said the other half is owned by an individual who lives in Isfahan in Iran which is quite a bit of a distance from the area that he was living perhaps in Awaz maybe one or two days worth of travel and if you want to seek permission you have to travel there at that time there was no means you know no emails no messages no telephones so you can't really call this is where most people would have perhaps ended their interest in seeking the owner because he said it's an apple I've sought half of it maybe the other half the person will forgive me maybe I'll seek forgiveness from God or maybe I don't worry about it but there are degrees and this individual had reached that level of Taqwa that he would do everything possible to ensure that he's not committing a sin so he made the journey towards the city of Isfahan seeking the owner of the co-owner of the apple tree in which the apple fell from when he reached that area and he knocked on the door of that person he was met by the individual who confirmed that he owned half of the tree but he refused to give him permission despite the journey despite the willingness to come and seek that permission the co-owner said I'm sorry I can't give you permission except if you were to do something for me he said what is it he said I would like you to marry my daughter strange what is this got to do with it well he said you know my daughter is blind my daughter is deaf and she's dumb and she's quite disabled so if you would marry her then I would accept and would agree with regards to this idea now even to this level if people had reached this level this is the point where they turned back they had come for permission of half a tree now he's been asked to marry someone but again an individual who wants God will not allow any obstacles before him so he agrees but to his shock at that night or a night of his wedding he finds when he first sees his wife he has not seen her before he sees that she's perfectly healthy she can see she can speak and she can hear and she's not disabled he asks his father-in-law what is going on he said well you know this daughter of mine I said to you is blind she's blind from haram she's never seen anything haram she's deaf from hearing anything haram she's never gone to anything haram she doesn't speak anything haram and I wanted someone who has real تقوى to marry her and because I saw in you that journey you've made in order to seek permission you're the right person to marry her and from this relationship we are told a son was born he became a great marja التقليد آيات الله المقدس الأردبي لي رضوان الله تعالى عليهو نفاق رجع مراجع who's buried in the courtyard of امير المؤمنين عليه السلام a great scholar within the school of أهل البيت but you can see that that effort brings about wisdom that effort brings about that حكمة that people seeking this direct correlation with God and sincerity is also established the hadith of the أهل البيت says من أخلص لله اربعين صباحا جرت ينابيع الحكمة من قلبه الهالسانة هم so ever observes sincerity of God for 40 mornings or in other words 40 days we'll see the حكمة wisdom oozing from their heart towards their tongue therefore sincerity is deemed to be another prerequisite to attaining wisdom and حكمة we are told a great deal of perseverance humility patience hunger silence and forgiveness this is all needed with regards to the seeking of the wisdom in the Holy Quran الله تعالى gives the kind of instruction as to what is the purposefulness of wisdom in our day to day lives especially in the west when we live with others who may not necessarily share our faith or may disagree with us or may object to us and so on and so forth الله تعالى says ادعو الى سبيل ربك بالحكمة والمور إذا تلحسنة call to the way of Allah with wisdom now الله سبحانه وتعالى says Whomsoever is given wisdom فقد أوتي خيرا كثيرا is given abundant greatness why because there is an opportunity to utilize it there is a possibility to benefit from the wisdom in our day to day experiences invite to the path of your Lord without any coercing without necessarily force through the idea of حكمة which is a combination of powerful intellectual reasoning and more which is applying to the heart to be soft spoken الله تعالى when it came to prophet موسى عليه السلام when he was coming to speak to Pharaoh he sat him فقول له قولا لينا speak with Pharaoh in a soft manner so that it appeals so that it penetrates his heart that is important وجادلهم بالتيه أحسن حكمة is told here as a very effective tool of persuasion of getting people to understand what is it that we are saying you know saying the right things with knowledge with understanding is of great importance and we have examples of how those close to the Ahl al-Bayt how they utilize wisdom in their day to day speech and their communication even with their enemies you have سعيد بن جبير الله تعالى عليه he was you know somebody who was close to the Imam such as Imam Zayn al-Abideen عليه السلام and Imam Al-Baqar عليه السلام the Richard Bloodthirsty governor of Iraq الحجاج بن يوسف الثقفي he captured سعيد بن جبير and when he captured him he asked him where is your name سعيد said أنا سعيد بن جبير حجاج said no بل أنت شقي بن كسير opposite you are the Richard the son of the broken one سعيد said my mother is more knowledgeable in terms of naming me in other words she didn't name me this she's more knowledgeable than this حجاج said may you be Richard and your mother remain Richard look at the terminology of the enemies of the Ahl al-Bayt and look at the ones who were schooled under the Ahl al-Bayt their akhlaq their mannerism how superb it is even to their enemies and they would really infuriate the enemies with their wisdom with their kindness with their speech سعيد would say the wretched ones سعيد بن جبير reply and say the wretched ones are the ones with the people of hell they are the worst you know the wretched ones حجاج would say I will change your dunya to hell سعيد says if I knew that this is in your hands I would have worshiped you if you can if you say you can change my dunya to hell then I would have worshiped you حجاج said to him then choose a way in which you are killed how would you like to be killed سعيد says you will have to choose a way to be killed you will have to choose that because you are the one who is perpetrating this particular crime in other words the following what happened was that سعيد would then smile and say and حجاج would say why are you smiling and سعيد would say I smile from your audacity against God and how God has what has given you time on this earth you know to live and to commit these things and at that moment سعيد would recite I turn towards God who has created the heavens and the earth and look and even in the final moments حجاج says to him remove your face from the qiblah and سعيد said he said wherever you turn you will find God and then he said اللهم لا تصلتوا على أحد بعد يا الله don't make him overpowering anyone after me and he was executed he attained martyrdom 15 days later حجاج بن يوسف الثقفي would say ما لي وسعيد ما لي وسعيد why did I do this with سعيد he would twist here and there in his sleep he would be somehow tortured until he died الله سبحانه وتعالى I punished him eventually in this world and hereafter حكمة is a whole mark of the companions of the Ahl al-Bayt عليم السلام because they learned it from the معصومين peace and blessings be upon them themselves it was an individual by the name of شام بن الحكم a very well known companion of Imam Al-Sadaq and Imam Musa Al-Qadim صلوات الله وسلام عليم أجمعين and he had great wisdom in his debates when it comes to those whom he disagreed with one of them is عبد الله بن يزيد العبال who was the head of the Kharegites at that time عبد الله بن يزيد used to say well the Kharegites are right we are the Kharegites their methodology their arguments they would be advocating them they would be supporting that particular ideology of the Kharegites and حجام بن الحكم use wisdom and intellectual reasoning in order to defeat this particular individual how to defeat him the moment they came to debate each other who said عبد الله بن يزيد he said to him well how are we going to know who is the victorious in the debate who has won the debate عبد الله بن يزيد said well let's have somebody who will be the judge عبد الله بن الحكم said the problem with that is that individual will either be biased towards me or towards you they may not necessarily be unbiased so عبد الله بن يزيد said fine let's have one person who is from your side and one person from my side yes to be the judges the arbiters عبد الله بن الحكم immediately said I have become victorious I have defeated you already in your own understanding he said how he said this is exactly what happened in صفين yes عبد الله بن يزيد was against this تحكيم arbitration but the خوارج themselves called for this one person from عبد الله بن يزيد one person from my side exactly how this عبد الله بن يزيد is saying you know to to do but the problem is the خوارج they turned against Imam Ali and said that was wrong they said you should not have allowed that to happen despite the fact that they the ones who wanted it but they turned to Imam Ali and said you must seek repentance so here عبد الله بن الحكم is saying to عبد الله بن يزيد your ideology is the one who advocated this and despite then later on saying no it's wrong you are also applying it again so he became victorious in the very clever method in this particular way similarly we have our scholars who developed this type of thinking and wisdom learning from the أهل البيت عليهم السلام in their debates one of them is of course شيخ المفيد على الله تعالى مقامة شيخ المفيد one day was attending a class in Basra by the individual by the name of علي بن أيسا this علي بن أيسا was giving lessons or was giving a sermon or a particular teachings and he then said this he said that we take the battle sorry we take the incident of the cave to be more established than the incident of غدير we take it like that why when he was asked he said well you know the incident of غدير is narrated but the incident of غار غار cave is when the prophet and the first Khalifa they went together apparently according to the narrations from Makkah to Medina so he said the incident of the cave is established in the Quran but the incident of غدير is not, is narration شيخ المفيد lifted his hands and said can I ask you what is the ruling of the individual who goes against the Imam of the time the Khalifa or God's chosen Imam he said they are kafir they are kafir if they die in this state they are kafir they are non-believers or they are infidels they are fasaq and infidels he said can you tell me about Talha and Zubair to companions of the prophet who were killed in the battle of Jamal fighting Imam Ali they went against the Imam of the time isn't it what is the ruling with regards to them he said oh but they sought repentance he replies شيخ المفيد said the fact that somebody goes against the Imam of the time and is a fasaq and is an infidel is what recognized and established the idea that they sought repentance is narrated so we take that which is established of that which is narrated he used the same mentality but that is wisdom through that he was able to so then Ali Ibn Isa called them and said who are you you are surely مفيد and that's where the title مفيد meaning a very beneficial person was given to the great شيخ and therefore those around the أهل البيت عليم السلام utilized that method of debate of understanding how to get across the message in the wisest possible manner today in this day and age when we are facing increasing Islamophobia when we are facing our criticism and people have some kind of misunderstanding a lot of misconceptions about the religion of Islam more than ever we need to apply wisdom in the way we speak in the way we communicate in the way we present the religion of Islam to the western world wisdom here requires a great deal of understanding of what to say when to say it how to present it how to present it in which way to communicate it is not about just saying everything in the way that we used to it is not about just verbatim and just getting it out no it needs to be measured it needs to be with the understanding of the mentality of the people that we are talking to so for example when we talk about Imam Hussein علي السلام and the epic eternal message of Karbala when we speak about the personality of Yazid how do we present Yazid to non-muslims or those who will be trying to explain why Imam Hussein علي السلام stood against him if we say Yazid was drunkard and womanizer they say well you know that in itself is not necessarily in their view a bad thing but for us we have to present this idea more of a universal battle of justice against falsehood more of the idea of seeking righteousness seeking freedom the noble element of standing against oppression the killing of innocent civilians and the rights of people giving people rights those are more acceptable universal values that we can speak it's about how we communicate it how we present it and so it is needed today those who are in the public arena the scholars, the leaders even the people lay men and women the Muslim community general and then the Muslim community the Shia they need to be having wisdom in their day-to-day interactions and how they represent themselves to the outside world in order that they implement the teachings of the Quran as applied by the أهل البيت عليهم السلام which Allah سبحانه وتعالى says ادعو إلا سبيل ربك بالحكمة والموعضة الحسنة invite people to Allah by using wisdom and good counsel and intellectual arguments and we pray to Allah سبحانه وتعالى to bestow that upon us that we follow in the footsteps of أهل البيت we seek inspiration from the companions of the أهل البيت to understand exactly how to approach this area واخر دعوانا and الحمد لله رب العالمين وصل لهم على محمد وآله الطيبين الضاهرين