Al-Ḥakīm - The Ultimately Wise One
Al-Ḥakīm is the one who possesses wisdom, and wisdom consists of the knowledge of the most excellent things gathered through the instrumentality of the most excellent branch of knowledge. The most sublime subject of all that is known is God Most High. It has been shown above that no one other than He knows the essential nature of His knowledge. He is the true Al-Ḥakīm because He knows the most sublime things by means of the most sublime (type of) knowledge. The most sublime of (all) knowledge is the eternal and everlasting knowledge, the extinction of which is inconceivable, a knowledge that corresponds with all that is known in such a way that there can be no doubt or uncertainty. Only the knowledge of God Most High can be characterised in this manner. The name ḥakīm is (also) applied to the one who has mastery over and command of the finer points of the various crafts. The perfection of this, too, is possible only for God Most High. He (alone) is the true Al-Ḥakīm.
The one who knows all things but does not know God Most High is not worthy of being called ḥakīm, for he does not know the most sublime and best of all things. Wisdom is the most sublime (kind) of knowledge. The sublimity of knowledge is commensurate with the sublimity of the thing known, and there is nothing more sublime than God.
The one who has been vouchsafed wisdom has been vouchsafed much good. To be sure, the one who knows God speaks differently from other men. He seldom concerns himself with particulars; rather is his discourse universal and all-inclusive. He does not concern himself with temporal advantages, but rather does he concern himself with that which will avail him in the hereafter.
Perhaps it is because this characteristic of the wise man (i.e. to concern himself with universal matters) is more obvious to (common) people than this knowledge of God that they apply the name “wisdom” to such general statements, and they describe the one who utters them as being wise. An example of that is the saying of the chief of the prophets – may the blessings of God be upon him – “the crown of wisdom is awe-struck awareness of God”.
