Wisdom and the Golden Rule (Q 2:269)

Abstract Following an exhortation to give charity in accordance with the dictates of the Goden Rule in Q 2:267 (i.e., not to give what you yourself would not want to receive), the divine voice declares that God gives wisdom (ḥikmah) to whomever He wants (Q 2:269). Significantly, Christians have long viewed the Decalogue (often reformulated to include only the interpersonal or ethical commandments, with further such commandments appended to those found in the Decalogue proper, thus anticipating the Qur’an’s reformulation) and the Golden Rule as the two paradigmatic examples of natural law, and both are referred to in the Qur’an as ḥikmah.