When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of Allah. 2For I determined not to know anything among you, except ‘Isa al-Masih, and him crucified. 3I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4My speech and my message were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of Allah. 6We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. 7But we speak Allah’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which Allah foreordained before the worlds for our glory, 8which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But as it is written,
“Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard,
Nor has it entered into the heart of man,
What God has prepared for those who love him.“[1]
10But to us, Allah revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of Allah. 11For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of Allah, except Allah’s Spirit. 12But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from Allah, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by Allah. 13Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. 14Now the natural man does not receive the things of Allah’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one. 16For “who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has taught him?“[2] But we have al-Masih’s mind.
[1] 2:9 See the Taurat, Shaya 64:4. There is a hadith that seems to quote the above verse from the Injil. This hadith is found in various forms in Sahih Bukhari as well as other collections. For example, Bukhari volume 9, number 589, narrated by Abu Huraira says: “the Prophet said, ‘Allah said, “I have prepared for My righteous slaves (such excellent things) as no eye has ever seen, nor an ear has ever heard nor a human heart can ever think of.’ ”
[2] 11:3 Quoting the Taurat, Shaya 40:13.