Could the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) Read and Write?

QUESTION

The Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) is considered 'Ummi.’

Is this a reference that he (Allah bless him and give him peace) categorically could not read and write or is it instead a reference that he was untaught by man?

There are some circles that deny the former position outright and advocate the latter meaning of 'Ummi' as the only orthodox view.

ANSWER

Preamble

There are several things that must be discussed to give this question justice.

First: There is a question of fact—did or did not the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) read and write?

Second: If he did not, there is a question of language, expression, and adab: can we call the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) ‘unlettered’ or ‘illiterate’—assuming that the facts show he did not learn how to read or write?

We will start by addressing the following questions:

1-What is the meaning of Ummi generally, and specifically with regard to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)?

2-What is the preferred translation of the term Ummi?

3-What is the adab when speaking about the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)?

4-Could he read and write?

Maqsid 1—UMMI

Ummi—one with an unlettered community. He (Allah bless him and give him peace) was sent to an unlettered people, and Allah called them as such. Likewise, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, انا أمة امية لا نکتب ولا نحسب “We are an unlettered community, we do not write or calculate.”

 Unletteredness—illiteracy—was the norm in ancient Arabian society. That doesn’t mean everyone was illiterate. There are Companions who would write down the revelation, and some of the prisoners of Badr taught others how to read and write.

Ummi—one who is in the state as his mother bore him. A mother is an Umm, so this would mean an Ummi is Fitri, in a natural state.

Ummi—one who has an Umma. Ummi can be an ascription to Umma, like Madina=Madani. This would mean that he has a Nation. There is a hadith in Ibn Hibban’s collection that states the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) is an ‘Ummi Prophet’ sent to an ‘Ummi people’ (gentiles)

Ummi—one who is not skilled in reading or writing. Al-Hafiz al-Sakhawi said in al-Qawl al-Badi’: ‘The word ummi is ascribed to the word umm, and describes someone who can neither read nor write. It is as if the person’s literacy is undeveloped, and he is likened to one who remains in the same state as when his mother bore him.’

Ummi—One from Mecca, called Umm al-Qura.

Ummi—One given the Umm al-Kitab, or “Mother of the Book”, either because it was revealed to him (Allah bless him and give him peace), or because he confirmed it and invited others to believe in it as well.

Ummi—Primordial. The word Ummi is a positive ascription, while the word “unlettered” is a negation of ‘letteredness’ or literacy.

According to many spiritual teachers, the word Ummi takes the meaning of ‘source,’ ‘font,’ ‘origin,’ etc.

The one who is ascribed to the Umm—the Source—is called Ummi. One totally connected with the source.

Some scholars have interpreted the word Ummi as “the Prophet’s primordial nature divested of everything but Allah, save for what Allah teaches him directly and without intermediary.” (i.e., only Allah is his teacher)

Ibn ‘Ata’ al-Adami (a student of Imam Junayd, and who passed away in 309 AH) said, ‘The Ummi means the Foreigner (al-A‘jami)—the one who is foreign to everything besides Allah, who is knowledgeable of Allah and what is revealed to him of His speech and realities…The true Ummi is he who knows nothing of the lower world or the world to come except what his Lord has taught him. His state with Allah is a single state: unmitigated purity (tahara) by being needy unto Him and free of neediness from all others besides Him.’

Some scholars say that the verse in Sura al-A’raf mentioning the Prophet’s names correspond to the three components of the Deen:

Rasul—Islam

Nabi—Iman

Ummi—Ihsan

Maqsid 2—ADAB

The believer strives to show the utmost adab when speaking about the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and things connected with him. This means his language is very careful. We try to use the most beautiful terms to describe him, and we must avoid ugly terms or terms that have negative connotations, especially when there is enough richness in language to find alternative expressions.

(When the Shama’il was translated, we went with ‘perspire’ instead of ‘sweat’ for this very reason.)

Therefore, it is offensive and ugly to translate Ummi as illiterate.

Illiterate means incapable of reading. This implies lack of ability.

In the World English Dictionary, illiterate means:

1. unable to read and write
2. . violating accepted standards in reading and writing: an illiterate scraw.
3.  uneducated, ignorant, or uncultured: scientifically illiterate.

Etymology:

Early 15c., ‘uneducated, unable to read (originally of Latin),’ from Latin illiteratus ‘unlearned, unlettered, ignorant; without culture, inelegant…’

We see that unlettered is included among the synonyms. For this reason, in most contexts, my preferred translation of Ummi is Primordial, and not ‘Unlettered.

Maqsid 3—Could the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) Read and Write?

There is a difference of opinion among ‘Ulama’ about this. The majority of scholars are of the view that he did not read or write.

THE FIRST POSITION—HE COULD NOT READ OR WRITE

1-Ummi takes the meaning of ‘one unskilled in reading and writing’. This is based on one of the linguistic meanings of the word Ummi, as well as the statement of al-Bara’ b. ‘Azib in Sahih al-Bukhari who explained it as such.

2-Allah says in Sura ‘Ankabut:

و ما کنت تتلو من قبله من کتاب ولا تخطه بيمينک

‘And before, you did not recite a book, nor write it with your right hand.’

3-The hadith about us being an Ummi nation that neither reads nor calculates—Ummi is explained in this narration.

4-Presenting the Holy Qur’an to mankind despite not being able to read and write was a miracle of the Holy Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), if he did know how to read and write then people would have claimed that he studied previous scriptures and wrote it himself. Therefore, to affirm literacy for the Prophet in this context detracts from his rank.

5- The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said to ‘Ali as the treaty of Hudaybiyya was being written up:

 ارني مکانها فأراه مکانها فمحاها

‘“Show me that place”; so he showed him, then he wiped it off.’ (Muslim)

THE SECOND POSITION—HE COULD READ AND WRITE

The scholars who believe that he did know how to write provide the following evidence, some of which are textual and others rational:

1-Allah says in Sura ‘Ankabut:

و ما کنت تتلو من قبله من کتاب ولا تخطه بيمينک

‘And before, you did not recite a book, nor write it with your right hand.’

In the commentary of this verse Imam al-Alusi says:

 يفهم من ذالک أنه عليه الصلاة والسلام کان قادراً علي التلاوة والخط بعد انزال الکتاب ولو لا هذا الاعتبار لکان الکلام خلواً عن الفائدة

‘It is understood from that that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) did know how to read and write after the revelation of the Qur’an, otherwise there would be no point in saying this.’

They maintain that the Qur’an denies the Prophet’s knowledge of writing before the revelation of the Qur’an (the first miracle), but him knowing how to write after its revelation—without being taught by any human being—is a second miracle.

Imam al-Alusi continues:

لأنه قيد النفي بما قبل ورود القرآن

‘That is because He restricted the negation to what was before the Quran.’

2-Reading and writing is a human excellence and a blessing of Allah. Allah says:

 الذي علم بالقلم علم الإنسان ما لم يعلم

‘He who taught [by means of] the pen; taught mankind what they knew not.’

Hence, they argued: Many humans are blessed with this excellence, so how can it be possible for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) to not possess this excellence?  Thus, they maintain that the meaning of him being ‘Ummi is simply that he did not learn to read and write from any human being.

3-Anas b. Malik reports:

 کتب النبي صلي اللّٰه تعاليٰ عليه وسلم کتاباً أو اراد أن يکتب فقيل له أنهم لا يقرأون کتاباً إلا مختوماً فاتخذ خاتماً من فضة

 ‘The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) wrote a letter or wanted to write a letter and was informed that they only read a letter with a seal on it, so he had a silver seal made.’

4-The hadith in Bukhari:

 فاخذ رسول اللّٰه صلي اللّٰه تعاليٰ عليه وسلم الکتاب و ليس يحسن يکتب فکتب هذا ما قاضي محمد بن عبداللّٰه الخ

‘The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) took the letter, and he was not skilled in writing, and he wrote ‘this is what Muhammad b. Abdullah has decreed…’

5-Mu’awiyah used to write in the presence of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). He once said to him:

ألق الدواة وأنصب الياء وفرّق السين ولاتعورالميم وحسن الله ومد الرحمن وجود الرحيم وضع قلمك على أذنك اليسرى فانه أذكر لك

‘Put your ink pot straight and sharpen your pen, write ba’ straight, make the sin clear, don’t make the mim empty, write “Allah” properly, put a ‘madd’ [elongation] on “Rahman” and write “Rahim” properly. Place the pen atop your left ear, for it is more conducive to your memory.’

This is recorded by Daylami in Musnad al-Firdaws, and is cited by Qadi ‘Iyad in his Shifa, and by Qurtubi, Suyuti, Alusi, and Muttaqi al-Hindi, but it has an extremely weak chain.

Of course, the majority have responded to the inferential proofs of the minority view in different ways.

• The words ‘the Messenger of Allah took the treaty and wrote’ have been understood by the scholars to mean he ‘had someone write.’ It is therefore figurative (majaz). It is like saying, ‘The commander invaded the town.’ It was not the commander himself, but rather the army. The commander led it.
• The hadith of Anas has ‘or he wanted’—which points to this being figurative.
• In the hadith of Bukhari where the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) ‘took the treaty and wrote’, Imam al-Dhahabi and others say he only wrote his name.
• There are variant wordings to many of these hadith showing it was others who wrote.
• It is possible to read some of the narrations (un-voweled) as ‘He had it written’ or ‘Had it read.’

The great Maliki jurist Abu al-Walid al-Baji (403-474) faced a great trial in his life for his affirmation that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) could write. Some scholars refuted him harshly, such as the Andalusi scholar ‘Abdullah Mufawwaz al-Ma’afiri al-Shatibi (d. 475) in his treatise al-Tahdhir min Nisbat al-Kitaba ila al-Nabi Yawma Sulhi al-Hudaybiya. (Warning Against Ascribing Literacy to the Prophet on the Day of the Armistice of al-Hudaybiya)

Some accused Imam al-Baji of disbelief (kufr) on the grounds that affirming the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) could read and write was a direct contradiction of the Quran.

Imam al-Baji wrote an entire book on the topic entitled Tahqiq al-Madhab. (Verification of the Position Concerning the Literacy of the Prophet). He replied to those who anathematized him and said there is no contradiction between affirming the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) reading and writing and affirming the inimitable miracle (mu’jiza) of the Quran.

Many scholars got involved in the debate but for the most part, the scholars disapproved of the anathematization and defended his position as valid at the very least.

CONCLUSION

• If one affirms the majority position, it is to be done with adab, with the right words, avoiding terms that give the impression of ignorance and disrespect.
• If one affirms the minority position, he or she must not accuse those of the majority position of speaking in an ugly way about the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)—provided they are not mentioning Ummiyya as a way that detracts from his noble status.

The position I personally incline to is that it stands to reason that the Prophet was unlettered until the later part of his life, after the Quran was transmitted, and that as he was constantly increasing in knowledge he did learn through observation as his scribes took dictation from him.

This is not really a third position, but rather an affirmation of the first position with some caveats.

And Allah and His Messenger know best!