Intelligence vs. Wisdom in Islam ( And What Iblis Teaches Us) | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine

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Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine

Intelligence vs. Wisdom in Islam ( And What Iblis Teaches Us) | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine

It’s easy to assume that more knowledge automatically makes someone closer to God, but intelligence and wisdom were never the same thing.

Some of the most knowledgeable people in Islamic studies aren't practicing Muslims at all: they’re fluent in the language, expert in the texts, and still missing the point entirely.

That's exactly what happens when knowledge gets separated from action. In this Snapshot, Imam Tom Facchine unpacks why intelligence and wisdom are not the same, and why the Qur'an warns that knowledge without action can become a source of harm rather than benefit.

This episode covers:

— Why knowledge without action breeds hypocrisy

— The difference between mastering a text and living by it

— What Iblis's story teaches us about intelligence versus guidance

— Why the Companions learned the Qur'an differently than we do today

Watch on YouTube

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.

00:00Intelligence is not the same as wisdom. It is a vision that some say is dysfunctional. What's got much shame on you? You say that you claim that you care about using AI for good, but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military.

00:14Fifty thousand people have died. A woman got up and started shouting about the use of Microsoft technology by the Israeli military. There's a whole lot of smart people in the world, and a great many of them are probably going to be in the hellfire. In some way, we've been told that we are like two cats in a bag.

00:28A lot of them are probably going to be in the hellfire. Alhamdulillah. No, I say Alhamdulillah not because we want anyone in the hellfire, but because it would be difficult if entrance into Jannah was an IQ test. But this is really, really important because you'll find things that make you scratch your head.

00:42You'll find somebody who maybe they are a PhD in Islamic studies, fluent in Arabic, fluent in Persian, fluent in Ottoman and Urdu, reviewing manuscripts, but they're not a Muslim. Wait a minute, how could that possibly happen? How does such a thing even come to be?

00:55Well, part of that comes to be with separating knowledge from action. And separating knowledge from action is something that all of the scholars warned us about. And in fact, many of them start their books of hadith with this warning, that action without knowledge is craziness.

01:10But knowledge without action breeds hypocrisy. And what greater hypocrisy could there be than somebody who is, I don't know, a PhD in Qur'anic studies, but actually doesn't follow the Qur'an? Is knowledge just then a good no matter what? Just more and more knowledge, knowledge, knowledge?

01:23No, the Companions understood this. And this is why the Companions, when they learned even the Qur'an, they made sure to take it bit by bit. They didn't learn the Qur'an the way we push our kids to learn the Qur'an today, cranking out huffadh left and right that have no clue what they're saying.

01:36They took it ten verses at a time, and they didn't go on until they implemented what they learned. Because they understood that knowledge without action breeds hypocrisy. And that that knowledge would actually be a case against them,

01:50or a proof against them in the afterlife. If you knew something, but you failed to act on it, that actually was going to cause you harm in the afterlife. As opposed to if you didn't know it at all. If you didn't know it at all, you might have had an excuse. But if you know it, you're going to be asked about it.

02:04You're going to be required to act on it. And there's no better archetype of this than Iblis himself. Iblis had more knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala than you or I. Iblis was in that type of company with the angels.

02:16Iblis knew very, very well Allah's attributes and his magnificence and his power and his might and his knowledge and everything. And yet, did that knowledge benefit him?

02:27Did he act on that knowledge such that it will benefit his afterlife? No, he actually acted in contrary to that knowledge. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us in Surah Al-Jumu'ah that the same is true of people that you don't want to become. He compares it to donkeys.

02:41Donkeys carrying tomes of scripture and commentary. And what's a donkey going to do with it? Donkeys, they can't even read it, let alone understand it, let alone implement it. So we have to realize that knowledge has an ethical dimension that cannot be removed, that cannot be separated.

02:56Knowledge is a test and it's good to seek knowledge and it's good to increase your knowledge. It's the one thing in the Qur'an that we have as a du'a to ask for increase in, is knowledge. But that knowledge has to come with action.

03:10In order for it to be ethical knowledge, it has to come with action.

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