Here is the definition of wisdom from an English dictionary:
the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.
In my opinion, this definition is vague and it is difficult to think about what this means concretely.
But from what I read, the middle eastern perspective of wisdom seems to be different. I believe the middle eastern way of thinking about wisdom is something more along the lines of: wisdom (Arabic word: hikmat) is understanding the of the interests of the group (including yourself). I get this from the Baha'i writings, but I have a feeling it is the same in the Middle East in general.
If you know what to do to save your community from a disaster, then this is an act of wisdom. If you know what to do in order to benefit yourself at no cost to the rest of your group, then this is also an act of wisdom (you are part of the group, so a benefit to you is a benefit to the group). If you are good at some mental task that benefits the group, this is not necessarily wisdom because just because you are good at the mental task does not mean you have any understanding at all about the interests of the group.
Another thing is that a secondary usage of the Arabic word for wisdom (hikmat) is justice. It would be strange to mix up wisdom and justice in English, but with the definition I wrote in the previous paragraph it makes more sense, because justice is sometimes defined to be taking action that benefits the group (e.g. it is just to execute a serial killer, because even though it is not in the interests of the serial killer, it is in the interests of the collective).
I also think that this way of thinking about wisdom makes more sense for this proverb in the Old Testament:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom
--Proverbs 9:10
Only doing what God wants will benefit the group (in the long term), so to be sensitive to what God wants (i.e. to fear God), is to make the group's interests your own. So this is the first step to being wise. If you think God is a joke, then you don't know anything about how to act in the interests of your group.
By the way, the Hebrew word for wisdom is chokmah, which looks like it is a cognate with the Arabic hikmat.
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