their contents against their own principles and rules, accepting whatever accords with them and rejecting whatever contradicts them. Others assess them against the Scripture and wisdom brought by the messengers. Their translation into Arabic gave rise to various forms of corruption and confusion, compounded by shortcomings and negligence in understanding the Scripture and wisdom brought by the messengers. Consequently, many people came to suppose that the wisdom praised in the Quran and Sunnah was the wisdom of that nation or of similar nations, such as the Indians and others.

They did not realize that the term “wisdom” is like the terms “knowledge,” “reason,” “understanding,” “religion,” “truth,” “justice,” “goodness,” “truthfulness,” “love,” and similar terms: humankind agrees that what they denote is commendable and praiseworthy. Their disagreement concerns only determining where these terms properly apply and altering what they denote.