While there might have been a period of time that separated Adam’s learning of the names of everything, and the guiding as well as educating prophetic revelations that came to him, Prophet Muhammad was instructed to read and explore concurrently the signs (ayat) revealed to him directly from Allah in the holy Quran, and the signs (ayat) that had been “revealed” through created things, events and experiences, and as much in the smallest and most insignificant as in the grandest and most consequential.

Muhammad was asked to read at once the revealed book, al-Quran al-tadwini, and the book of creation, or the ontological “qur’an”, al-qur’an al-takwini.

Those operational parallels between the first and final Messenger of Allah to mankind signify a sign of a pattern that was applicable to all prophets and their prophet-hood missions.

Apart from the revealed knowledge and wisdom, they were also given by different means and through different ways the knowledge of all other existential things, which was indispensable for the successful articulation and implementation of the former.

That is perhaps one of the meanings of hikmah (wisdom), which is often mentioned in the Quran as an endowment granted to prophets along with revealed holy books and other forms of revelation.

Hikmah is similarly referred to as a special divine gift conferred on some special individuals, who were not prophets. Accordingly, such individuals were known as possessing special insights into the meanings and qualities of things, and they knew how best to deal with them.

They possessed remarkable knowledge, experiences and good judgments. In short, they were wise.

In Islam, furthermore, knowledge comes before action (Muhammad, 19). While knowledge without action is wrong and insufficient, action without knowledge is dangerous and deluding. Speaking without knowledge is proscribed in equal measure.

When Allah created man, He provided him with the tools for seeking knowledge, namely, hearing (ears), sight (eyes) and reason, or intellect (hearts) (Al-Sajdah, 9).