Speaking at Google's Zeitgeist Conference in Hertfordshire in 2011, Stephen Hawking, a theoretical physicist and the author of "A Brief History of Time," made the bold claim that philosophy is dead. Hawking said that philosophy has become passe because it has not kept up with the physical sciences. Referring to the origins of the universe, the famous physicist told the audience that "most of us don't worry about these questions most of the time. But almost all of us must sometimes wonder: Why are we here? Where do we come from? Traditionally, these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead." Instead of philosophy, Hawking holds we should turn to the physical sciences to find answers to these "big questions."This is not a new argument and has been claimed by the positivists since the 19th century. For the positivists, science held the key to the reality of things and, accordingly, philosophy, religion, theology and other ways of knowing had to be jettisoned for a rational, scientific future for humanity. In the land of philosophy, it was Nietzsche who proclaimed the death of philosophy because he believed he had shown the futility of philosophy to answer the big questions of the human mind.As far as I can tell, Hawking is not a reductionist positivist. But here in a rather simplistic way he repeats the old motto of scientism that the physical sciences should be the only guides in our search for the origin of the universe and the meaning of physical existence. Hawking's dilemma is that his declaration of the death of philosophy is not a scientific proposition, but a philosophical claim.Having said that, Hawking is right to attack philosophy as far as philosophy is seen as mental gymnastics, linguistic theorizing and abstract and conceptual commentary on science, technology and the effects of hypermodernity on contemporary societies. Academic philosophy is increasingly turning into a long commentary on what philosophers in the past have said. Serious philosophers cannot compete with the celebrity culture of the modern world. Their few moments of airtime on television or social media are crushed by the next breaking story or the latest social media trend.In regard to the sciences, Hawking has a point, too. What the physical sciences have to say about the physical composition of the universe cannot be ignored. A proper philosophical outlook should be able to integrate the findings of physical sciences into its analyses.But where Hawking errs is when he ignores that the sciences answer not the "why" but the "what" question, i.e., explaining what an atom is and how it works. But the most important and deepest questions that concern us as rational human beings are the "why" questions. This is where philosophy comes back again. But which philosophy?The word philosophy, derived from the Greek philo-sophia, means 'love of wisdom'. According to the story, Pythagoras, who is credited with using the term for the first time, said that wisdom belongs to the "gods" and we finite and fallible human beings cannot own it. But we can love it. The Greek sage thus combined the act of knowing and loving in one stroke. This is a fundamental dimension of philosophical knowledge that we have rather forgotten. What does wisdom mean? It means more than information and data. It refers to a higher understanding of things beyond numbers, statistics and fact sheets. It encompasses philosophy and science but also introduces a different order of reality.According to Aristotle, wisdom is the understanding of causes, i.e., knowing why things are the way they are. This is a more fundamental definition than the "what" question because it relates not just to knowing that things are a certain way but why they are so. In wisdom, the question of "why" takes precedence over the questions of "what" and "how."All of this is properly summed up in the definition of philosophy that Muslim philosophers put forward. For them, philosophy is "to know the reality of things as they are to the extent possible for human beings, and act accordingly." From al-Farabi and Ibn Sina to Ibn Rushd and Mulla Sadra, Muslim philosophers saw philosophy as a search for theoretical understanding as well as virtuous action. In their work, they combined scientific investigation, philosophical understanding and ethical-spiritual refinement. Philosophy as wisdom -"hikmah" - does not exclude either science or metaphysics. It combines both and dovetails them to equip the human mind with the proper conceptual instruments to make sense of the reality of which we are a part.The course that modern technological civilization took has made philosophy as the "love of wisdom" a rather irrelevant enterprise. We no longer feel the need to ask "why." Modernity a la Hegel and Weber defines freedom as making a choice without regard to its meaning or consequences. When we strive for an explanation, it is handed to us in the form of drug prescriptions, user guides, contracts, schedules, guidelines and instructions and we are told to follow them to find satisfaction and contentment. Questions of substance are replaced by statements of quantity. But wisdom demands real answers to real questions.The present state of humanity makes philosophical reflection ever more pertinent and urgent. Instead of seeking to reduce philosophy to science, we need to recover the meaning of philosophy as understanding and wisdom. It is only then that we will have a proper synthesis of scientific discovery, conceptual analysis and ethical-spiritual quests.