Grand Ayatullah Shirazi: Out of Wisdom, Prophets spoke to people according to their intellectual level
The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadegh al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Friday and Saturday 20th and 21st of Rabi al-Awwal. In these sessions, like the previous meetings, the Supreme Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi pointed to verse 269 of Surah Al-Baqarah, “God bestows the grace of wisdom on whomever He wills, and whoever is given wisdom and knowledge has received much mercy and care, and this truth is only known to the wise,” and said: Wisdom is beyond knowledge. Quranic exegesis and hadiths have mentioned that wisdom means putting everything in its place, and God Almighty also says in verse 125 of Surah al-Nahl: O Messenger, invite people to the path of your Lord with wisdom (and powerful reasoning) and good preaching, and argue with them using the best way (and your duty is no more than this). Here, the Prophet of God has been invited to apply wisdom and the best manners of argumentation in order to communicate with people.”
His Eminence continued: “Wisdom means that one should speak to a child in one way, speak to a scholar in another way, and should also speak to an ignorant person in a different way. This means putting everything in its own position. So, for example, if someone speaks to his wife in a way that is proper to her position, and to his children proper for them, he has acted wisely. But if he speaks to a child as befits a great and wise man, this behavior is against wisdom; that is, everything is not put in its place. One of the characteristics of the prophets was applying such wisdom.”
He then cited a narration of the Holy Prophet: “We, the group of prophets, are tasked to speak to people according to their intellectual level,” and said: “Here too, speaking to people according to their intellectual level means wisdom. Sometimes it is necessary to use hints or allusion when speak to someone, which helps them understand the concept. But sometimes a person does not understand hints and allusion, and you must speak to them frankly. This is what wisdom means, and the prophets were given the gift of wisdom to establish the best way to behave towards people and how to speak.”
