The Qur’ānic Concept of Ḥikmah: A Comparative Study of al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, and al-Ghazālī

Abstract

The article explores the Qur’ānic notion of ḥikmah in the classical Islamic intellectual tradition from its Qur’ānic roots to its philosophical development and ethical-spiritual integration. The study concentrates on three philosophers and theologians, namely al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā and al-Ghazālī, with their various philosophies and theological concepts. Their thought patterns do differ, but they have a similar goal: to make ḥikmah not only a possession of knowledge or abstract rationality, but a faculty that unites sound knowledge with good action and moral quality. The analysis starts with the main passages in the Qur’ān in which the term ḥikmah is mentioned, focusing on Qur’ān 2:269, 31:12, 33:34 and the phrase al-Kitāb al-Ḥikmah at various places. These verses give the conceptual framework that enables us to explain the concept of ḥikmah as a gift from God that is connected to knowledge, good judgment, moral discernment, and guidance. A study based on this textual bedrock investigates the understanding of al-Fārābī of ḥikmah as the perfection of the rational faculty and the attainment of ultimate truth, the further development of this philosophical account by Ibn Sīnā, who combines the metaphysical with the ethical dimension of wisdom, and the re-interpretation of ḥikmah by al-Ghazālī in the Qur’ānic ethical and spiritual paradigm that brings together reason, revelation and spiritual purification. The article does not aim to put these viewpoints in opposition as ideas, but as complementary stages in the intellectualization of the Qur’ānic idea of the ideal of ḥikmah. The comparative approach shows how the philosophical investigation and ethical-spiritual reflection enhance the understanding of the way of knowing, doing and arriving at human flourishing called ḥikmah. In this way, it can serve as a reminder of the continued importance of the classical Islamic tradition of thought for modern debates on wisdom, moral development and utilitarian ethics.