endowed with wisdom by Almighty God. He was an African black who was bought as a slave in his
childhood and sold in another country and lived at the time of Prophet David (pbuh). He was an
extremely pious man and used to mostly remain silent while he pondered about the nature of life.
Sometimes he would come to Prophet David to discuss problems. Luqman was so wise and respected
that a Surah in the Quran is called by his name (Chapter 31).
One of Luqman’s wives and some of his sons were disbelievers and so he preached to them about faith
in Almighty God till they embraced Islam. Luqman lived for one thousand (1,000) years from the time
of Prophet David to that of Prophet Jonah. His life and words are a great lesson in morals (Akhlaq)
for mankind.
It is narrated from Imam Jafar Sadiq (pbuh) that Luqman was granted wisdom not because of his
family or his wealth and nor was he gifted for his physical strength or appearance but for the fact that
he was a man of manner who was quite stable and insistent in God’s way and rejected everything
which was against God’s will. He was a silent man who looked poor but who had a deep and sharp
insight and a great sense of logic. He was quite careful of his behavior and gestures and never laughed
at whatever he saw or heard lest it would be considered as a sin for him.
He never joked or get angry with anyone and never passed two fighting men indifferently. In such
cases, he used to stop, talk with them and reconcile them. He used to have close connections with
philosophers and jurisprudence experts.
He was always refusing Satan and asked others about the different ways to overcome passion and sen-sual
desires. He never traveled, except when necessary for these reasons God granted him wisdom
and infallibility, but he was not a Prophet.
The Almighty commanded a group of angels to visit Luqman in the middle of the day, of course in a
way that he would not see them. So they come dawn on him. Angels said: "You Luqman! Do you wish to be God’s Prophet on the earth and rule over all people?"
Luqman replied: "If God commands me to be so, I shall listen and obey
Him because if He asks me this, He Himself will be there to guide me, teach
me how to step in the way of salvation, and protect me from committing
sins. But if he gives me the freedom of choice, I shall choose good health?"
Angels asked: But why should you do so? Luqman answered: "For it’s too difficult to judge among
people." If your judgments are true and accurate you may keep yourself safe and sound otherwise you
have not only taken the wrong path to Paradise but also you will definitely lose your life.
It would be much better to be a weak and humiliated man in this world than being strong and pow-erful
but poor, miserable and humiliated in the Hereafter. Moreover, He who prefers this world to
Hereafter will lose in both worlds for this world will soon come to an end and he won’t enjoy the
Hereafter, either.
The angels were quite surprised of his wisdom and the Almighty, also found his philosophy and logic
satisfactory. So when night fell upon and Luqman went to bed, God bestowed him the great wisdom
to such an extent that it filled his whole body from head to toe.
The day after when Luqman got up he was the wisest man and the fairest judge of his time. He went
among people and talked words of wisdom to share his knowledge with other people.
An example of the wise words he told his son are:
‘O’ my dear son! From the day you were born in this world, you have turned
your back at it and advanced towards the Hereafter. The house to which
you’re heading is closer to you than the house from which you have started
out. Keep in touch with philosophers, but never dispute with them. Indulge
in the worldly blessings to an extent that they will not be considered a disadvantage for your
Hereafter. Thus if you wish to have honor in this world, suppress your greed for what other people
possess. Do know that you should have proper answers for four things in God’s presence in near
future. These four things you will be questioned for are:
Firstly, you are asked about haw you have wasted your youth, secondly on what you have spent or
wasted your life for, thirdly how you have acquired your wealth and properties, and finally how you
have spent your wealth.
Whose pleasure shall we seek
Once Luqman said to his son, "Oh son! Do not tie your heart in seeking the pleasure of people. You
are not likely to succeed. Do not pay attention to what people say. Instead tell yourself always to seek
the pleasure of God."
Luqman wanted this lesson to be always remembered. Never to be forgotten. He thought of a way. He
then told his son to ride a donkey. The son obeyed. The father followed behind on foot. They traveled
in this way for some distance. After some distance they came across a group of people. Seeing the son
on the donkey, one of them said, "What an impolite and bad boy. The old father is walking on foot.
The young son is comfortably riding on the donkey. This is no manner to show respect to one’s father."
Father and son heard this. The son came down from the donkey. Luqman
rode on the animal. After sometime they came across another group of peo-ple.
On seeing the father riding the donkey, the elder of the group said, "Oh
you old man! This is not the way to bring up a son. You make him walk in
the hot sun, while you sit comfortably on the donkey."
Luqman paid attention to what the people said. He came down from the donkey. Both father and son
walked on foot. The donkey walked in front. They went a little further. People seeing them, said, "How
foolish you are? You walk behind a donkey. Why don’t you ride it?"
Luqman and his son once again accepted what the people said. They both rode the donkey and went
further. They came across a river. There was a bridge to be crossed. Some people were sitting there.
They saw Luqman and his son riding the donkey. One of them said, "It is very unkind and cruel of you
two to ride on the poor donkey. The little animal can hardly take all your burden."
S
o taking this advice Luqman and his son dismounted from the donkey. They traveled a little dis-tance
further. Looking very lovingly Luqman said to his son, "You have heard and seen what the
people said. It must have assured you, by now, that whatever you do or whichever way you move,
one is not able to please the people of the world." He pointed at the flowing river and added, "A per-son
can build a wall across the river. It will stop the flow of the water. But it is not possible to shut the
mouth of the people from criticism."
Very clearly, similar is the case in our world today. The tongue has no bone.
It can speak even without thought. There are as many opinions as there are
people in the world. It is very bad to find fault with the other person.
Especially when he is doing something good.
A person can feel very hurt when he listens to all the tongues that talk loose. To avoid getting hurt by
loose talk, a person can train himself. He can discipline himself to think. By thinking he can know
what is wrong and void. When a person is sure that what he is doing will please his Master, the
Almighty God, then he must never worry what others speak.
Admonitions by Luqman the wise
O my son! If you learn discipline in childhood you will benefit from it after you grow up.
O my son! You must set aside some hours in the day and night for achieving knowledge because there
is nothing which can destroy man's knowledge.
O
my son! Do not quarrel with the quarrelsome nor argue with any wise and learned person. Do not make the rich your enemy and do not keep company of the oppressors and do not cultivate brotherhood with a sinner nor sit with a disgraced and notorious person.
My precious son! Fear Almighty God, as He deserves to be feared. Be afraid of Him even if you have at your credit all the virtues and good deeds done by all men and jinn if you have to stand before Him for giving account of your deeds.
O my dear son! Do not have a wish for the world and do not engage yourself in it because no creation of Almighty God is more worthless than the world in the sight of Almighty God. O my son! You must keep a weapon ready by which you can fell (defeat) your enemy and that weapon (tactic) is that you should shake hands with him and show pleasure to him without separating from him, without showing enmity to him so that he may reveal to you what is hidden in his heart about
harming you.
O my son! Make a thousand friends because even a thousand friends are less but do not make even one enemy because even one enemy is sufficient.
Keep your secrets hidden and your inner self, pure.
Keep your soul clean of Almighty God’s disobedience and characterless ness.
My son! Hard work for attaining a useful thing should be considered light and less effort in achieving a harmful thing should be considered heavy.
The one whose faith in Almighty God’s attribute of being the Provider is less, must take a lesson of advice and the one who is weak in asking provision from the Almighty must take a lesson of advice because it is only Almighty God who brought him from non-existence into existence and gave him
provision in three states and there was no source of getting provision whatsoever in any of the said
three states. So he much have rest assured that He will provide him maintenance in the fourth state
of his life also.
One of the above mentioned three states is when he was in the womb of his mother. It was only
Almighty God who provided him sustenance and sheltered him in a restful place where he suffered
neither heat nor cold.
In another state he was brought out of his mother’s womb by Almighty God and he provided his pro-vision
of milk from his mother’s breast. It was a pure and clean and enough for him in that state.
Almighty God nourished and raised him in that state wherein there was no other source of nourish-ment
and training, no strength for earning and no power of warding off harms.
The third state was when his milk supply ended. Then he was provided maintenance through his par-ent’s
earnings who spent on him with maximum love and pleasure and compassion, so much so that
sometimes they gave him preference over themselves.
This continued until he grew up and got enough strength and intelligence to earn his provision him-self.
Then he himself made things difficult for him by entertaining undesirable thoughts about his
Lord and did not spend for fulfilling and observing the rights of Almighty God and began to give less
to his family members fearing loss of wealth thereby losing faith in Almighty God.
This was despite the fact that Almighty God always rewards him for spending in His path both in this
world and in Hereafter. So bad indeed is such a slave.
My son! Everything has a sign by which it is recognized. That sign gives witness for that thing. So reli-gion
too has three signs: Faith (Imaan), Knowledge (Ilm) and Deeds (Amal).
Faith has three signs: Testifying of Almighty God’s Books. Knowledge also has three signs: Knowing his Lord, ascertaining what his Lord likes and what He dislikes. Again there are three signs of the one
who acts according to his Knowledge: Daily prayers (Salat), fasts (Soum) and poor tax (Zakat). Also
there are three signs of a man who closes the door of knowledge for himself and does not become
learned: He quarrels with one who is wiser than him, mentions things which are higher than his level
of intelligence though he acts against it, oppresses the weak and assists the oppressors.
And there are three sings of the hypocrites: His tongue does not corroborate his heart, his heart does
not corroborate his character and his outward appearance is different from his inner self.
There are three signs of a sinner: He misappropriates people’s wealth, tells lies and acts contrary to
his words. There are three signs of a Riyaakaar (one who make a show): He is slack in his worship
while he is alone but makes a show of full attentiveness in worship while in public and he does it so
that people may praise him.
The envious has also three signs: He backbites people and flatters them on the face, feels happy when
people are in trouble. There are three sings of extravagant: He eats things which are beyond his capac-ity
and so also he wears likewise, and he feeds others crossing his limits of capacity.
There are three signs of a indolent (lazy): He is slack in doing good deeds and he postpones good
deeds until and unless he is threatened and he becomes so lazy that the job is spoiled and thus he
becomes a defaulter. There are three signs of a negligent man: He is doubtful in his worship, becomes
careless in matter of remembering his Lord and he forgets good deeds.
As Salaam Alaikum Wa Rehmatullahi Wa Barkatu.
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