TRAINING IN WISDOM

In the Company of the Prophet

THE first ten years or so of a person’s life is called the formative period. In this initial period of life, the major part of a person’s character is formed. From the point of view of training, this phase of a person's life is of great importance.

In his lifetime, the Prophet of Islam specially selected two people for this purpose of training. One was Ali and the other was Aisha. He provided both of them the opportunity to be in his company when they were at a young age itself, and thereby they received training and obtained what is called prophetic wisdom in the Quran (2: 129).

This objective of training in wisdom can be achieved only at a young age. The method that the Prophet adopted to keep Ali in his company when the latter was still young, was by becoming his guardian. Aisha being a woman, adopting this method was not possible. Therefore, the Prophet married Aisha though she was very young.

Some people have tried to provide an interpretation of the issue of Aisha’s age when she got married. But this is an unnecessary effort. This is a question of point of view. These people look at the issue from the point of view of marriage. But the actual matter was the issue of Aisha receiving training from the Prophet in the formative period of her life.


One way of benefitting from the Prophet was to preserve his sayings and to narrate them to people. Another way was by hearing the Prophet speak or observing him closely, and inferring principles of wisdom.


The results confirm this analysis and the issue is considered an established fact amongst Islamic scholars. They agree that Ali and Aisha occupied—in terms of insight and understanding of religion—a distinctive stature among the Companions of the Prophet.

One way of benefitting from the Prophet was to preserve his sayings and to narrate them to people. In this regard, Abu Hurayrah had the most prominent position among the Prophet’s Companions. Another way was by hearing the Prophet speak or observing him closely, and inferring principles of wisdom through this. This second manner of learning from the Prophet could be obtained only through continuously being in his company. For this second purpose, Ali and Aisha were chosen, at a young age.

Consider, for instance, this saying of Ali: 'The value of a person lies in what he excels in.' This point is not found in these same words in any Hadith of the Prophet. This is a piece of wisdom that Ali derived as a result of being in the company of the Prophet. This wisdom can be expressed as follows: ‘The value of a person lies in his excellence.’ The same thing was true of Aisha. Aisha’s inferences from the life of the Prophet are very famous. All her inferences offer great wisdom. She extracted these principles of wisdom by being in the company of the Prophet. Consider, for instance, this wise saying of Aisha: ‘Whenever the Prophet had to choose between two options, he always opted for the easier of the two.’ (Sahih al-Bukhari).

Words of the Prophet that others heard him say are called Hadith. The distinction of Ali and Aisha is that they not only related sayings of the Prophet, rather they observed the Prophet closely and then deduced principles through this observation. By living in the company of the Prophet they grasped his wisdom and insight, and then expressed them in their own language. This company greatly boosted their capacity to grasp matters. At a young age, the two of them benefitted a great deal from the Prophet’s company. And they were able to share this wisdom with others for many years after the Prophet.

Ego Versus Conscience
Psychological studies show that every
human being is born with an ego and a
conscience. If you follow the tit-for-tat
policy, it arouses the ego of the other
person, whereas if you follow the policy
of forgiveness, it will activate the other
person's conscience. And it is a fact that,
in controversial matters, the conscience
always plays a positive role.