Luqman · Makki · ayah 2 of 34

Luqman 31:2

تِلْكَ ءَايَـٰتُ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ ٱلْحَكِيمِ

“These are verses of the wise[1159] Book,”

Saheeh International

Essence

These are signs of a Book made firm from the start, judging its reader and carrying the name of the Wise who spoke it.

A reflection

The title handed back

In many families there is one person everyone rings. A cousin's engagement wobbles, two brothers fall out over a car, an aunt and her neighbour stop speaking. Someone says: ask her. She listens to both sides and settles it, and both sides go home content. After twenty years, people half-jokingly call her the family's judge. She has started to like it.

Abu Dawud and al-Nasa'i record a man in that position, and the report is graded ṣaḥīḥ. Hāniʾ came to the Prophet ﷺ with a delegation of his people. The Prophet ﷺ heard them calling him Abu al-Ḥakam, 'father of the arbiter'. He called him over. 'Allah is al-Ḥakam, and judgement belongs to Him. Why are you called Abu al-Ḥakam?'

Hāniʾ explained. When my people disagree, they come to me, I judge between them, and both sides are satisfied. 'How good this is,' the Prophet ﷺ said. Then he asked about his children, and named him after his eldest son: Abu Shurayḥ.

Notice what was praised and what was moved. The skill was called good. The title was handed back to its Owner.

This ayah describes the Book with a word from the same root: al-kitāb al-ḥakīm. One classical commentator notes that the word may describe the Book by a quality of the One it came from. A thing can carry its source's name. Al-Ḥakīm, the Wise, is one of Allah's names. The Book is wise because He is.

Here the ego is quietly checked. We like to own our good judgement. We enjoy being the sensible one, the voice of reason, the person whose view settles the room. None of that is wrong in itself. But the ayah places all wisdom where it starts. Whatever good sense you carry was given, and the Book that carries His name was given too.

Does Allah need to call His own speech wise, as a writer needs good reviews? No. He is free of all need (35:15). The description is a signpost for us, not praise He lacks. It tells you where to bring the disputes you cannot settle. And it tells you where to return your own reputation for wisdom, when it starts to feel like yours.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.