This introductory meaning has a direct relation with the words of Luqman...

This introductory meaning has a direct relation with the words of Luqman, the wise, which are referred to in this Surah. Of course, there is no problem that both of the meanings of /hikmat/ are meant in the above verse.

The next verse states the ultimate aim of the descent of the Qur’an by saying: “A guidance and a mercy for the righteous ones,” ‘Guidance’ is, in fact, an early preparation for Allah’s mercy, because, at first an alert man finds the fact under the light of the Qur’an and believes in it and then he uses it in his actions and after that he will be involved in the endless Divine bounties and His All-Embracing Mercy.

It is noteworthy that here the Holy Qur’an is counted as the source of guidance and mercy for the righteous and at the beginning of Surah An-Naml, No. 27, verse 2, the Qur’an implies it is the source of guidance and glad tidings for the believers: “A guidance and glad tidings for the believers”, and at the beginning of Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2 verse 2, it qualifies the Qur’an as: “…a guidance to the pious ones”.

This very difference of statements may be for the sake that without piety and righteousness the soul of submission and accepting the facts will not become active in man and naturally there will not be any guidance for him. Next to this stage, i.e. the stage of accepting the truth, there comes forth the stage of being faithful in which, besides ‘guidance’, the glad tidings to Divine bounties will also exist.

And when we pass the stages of piety and faith, we reach the stage of righteous deed where the mercy of Allah will be added. Thus, the above mentioned verse reiterates three stages of development of the servants of Allah one after another: the stage of accepting the truth, the stage of having faith, and the stage of righteous action, and in these three stages the Qur’an is sequentially the source of: “ guidance ”, “ glad tidings ”, and “ mercy ”.

/ (Be careful) The next holy verse qualifies the righteous ones with three qualifications. It says: “Those who establish prayer and pay the poor-rate and they are certain of the Hereafter.” Their link with Allah is through prayer, with the servants of Allah by means of paying poor-rate, and their certainty to the court of Judgment in Hereafter is a powerful motive for avoiding from sin and for fulfilling the duties.