''Hikmah'' (also ''Hikmat'', ar, حكمة, ', literally

wisdom Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, ...

, philosophy; rationale, underlying reason, from

Semitic root The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or " radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowel ...

) is a concept in

Islamic philosophy Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—falsafa (literally: "philosophy"), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, ...

and law.

Mulla Sadra Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī, more commonly known as Mullā Ṣadrā ( fa, ملا صدرا; ar, صدر المتألهین) (c. 1571/2 – c. 1635/40 CE / 980 – 1050 AH), was a Persian Twelver Shi'i Islamic mystic, philosopher, the ...

defined ''hikmah'' as "coming to know the essence of beings as they really are" or as "a man's becoming an intellectual world corresponding to the objective world". Various Islamic commentaries describe hikmah as "to know the best of things by way of the best of sciences ...", having experience, using "justice in judging", "knowledge of the reality of things", "that which prevents ignorance," putting "things in their proper places, assigning them to their proper status", etc. According to

Ibn al-Qayyim Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb al-Zurʿī l-Dimashqī l-Ḥanbalī (29 January 1292–15 September 1350 CE / 691 AH–751 AH), commonly known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya ("The son of the principal of he school ...

, the highest and most exclusive of the three levels of hikmah are "reserved for the Companions over the rest of the

Ummah ' (; ar, أمة ) is an Arabic word meaning "community". It is distinguished from ' ( ), which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history. It is a synonym for ' ...

, and it is the highest level that the slamicscholars can reach." As a term of ''

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh. The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and ...

'' (Islamic jurisprudence),

Taqi Usmani Muhammad Taqi Usmani (born 5 October 1943) is a Pakistani Islamic scholar and former judge who is the current president of the Wifaq ul Madaris Al-Arabia and the vice president and Hadith professor of the Darul Uloom Karachi. An intellectual ...

describes it as "the wisdom and the philosophy taken into account by the legislator while framing the slamiclaw or the benefit intended to be drawn by he law'senforcement". One Dr Dipertua calls it "the objectives and wisdom" as "prescribed by Shariah". Usmani gives as an example the secular law for traffic lights, where ''illat'' (another term of ''fiqh'' meaning "the basic feature of a transaction that causes relevant law to be applied") is obedience to stopping at red lights, and ''hikmah'' is traffic safety—avoiding vehicle and pedestrian collisions., paras 119-120

References

Arabic words and phrases Wisdom {{Islam-stub

See also

References