Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 39 of 111

Al-Isra 17:39

ذَٰلِكَ مِمَّآ أَوْحَىٰٓ إِلَيْكَ رَبُّكَ مِنَ ٱلْحِكْمَةِ ۗ وَلَا تَجْعَلْ مَعَ ٱللَّهِ إِلَـٰهًا ءَاخَرَ فَتُلْقَىٰ فِى جَهَنَّمَ مَلُومًا مَّدْحُورًا

“That is from what your Lord has revealed to you, [O Muḥammad], of wisdom. And, [O mankind], do not make [as equal] with Allāh another deity, lest you be thrown into Hell, blamed and banished.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every good command in this passage is wisdom revealed by your Lord, held together by oneness at its start and oneness at its end.

A reflection

Wisdom with its head still on

At a book launch, a philosopher signs copies of his eighth book on how to live well. He is witty, generous and careful. His chapters on honesty, family and restraint are genuinely wise. In forty years of writing, he has never once asked who gave him the mind he writes with.

This ayah calls everything from 17:22 to here ḥikmah, wisdom. And it says where the wisdom came from: mimmā awḥā ilayka rabbuka, from what your Lord revealed to you. Wisdom is not presented as a human achievement. It is presented as something given.

One commentator noticed how the passage is built. Allah made both its opening and its closing the prohibition of setting up another god. That is because oneness is the head of all wisdom and its foundation. Whoever lacks it, his wisdom and learning do not profit him. That holds even if he outshines the sages and scrapes the sky with the crown of his head. The books of wisdom, he adds, did not save the philosophers.

That is a hard sentence for the intellectually proud, and it is meant to be. Our cleverness inclines us to think we discovered the good. The ayah says we received it. Kindness to parents, fair measure, honest speech, a humble walk: these were revealed, wrapped round a centre. Remove the centre, and they become a list of tasteful habits.

Is a God who insists on being that centre hungry for praise? Look at the passage itself. Not one of its commands benefits Him. Parents, orphans, buyers, the poor, the falsely accused: every gain lands on His creation. He gives the wisdom and needs none of it back.

The ego wants to be the author. The ayah gently corrects the credit line. Every wise thought you have had came through His creating and His revealing. Gratitude, not authorship, is the fitting response.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.