Surah Al-Ankaboot (29) — Ayah 48

(Ayah 48) ➊ { وَ مَا كُنْتَ تَتْلُوْا مِنْ قَبْلِهٖ مِنْ كِتٰبٍ … :} That is, O Prophet! Before the revelation of the Book whose recitation you have been commanded through revelation, you lived among your people for forty years; you neither read any written thing nor wrote it with your right hand, rather you were purely unlettered. All those people among whom you spent your life know this very well, in fact, except for a very few, their own condition is the same—that they are unlettered, as He said: «{ هُوَ الَّذِيْ بَعَثَ فِي الْاُمِّيّٖنَ رَسُوْلًا مِّنْهُمْ }» [ الجمعۃ : ۲ ] "He it is Who raised among the unlettered ones a Messenger from among themselves." And this very attribute of yours is mentioned in the previous books as well, as He said: «{ اَلَّذِيْنَ يَتَّبِعُوْنَ الرَّسُوْلَ النَّبِيَّ الْاُمِّيَّ الَّذِيْ يَجِدُوْنَهٗ مَكْتُوْبًا عِنْدَهُمْ فِي التَّوْرٰىةِ وَ الْاِنْجِيْلِ }» [ الأعراف : ۱۵۷ ] "Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find written with them in the Torah and the Gospel." In this verse, the unlettered nature of the Prophet (peace be upon him) is made a proof of the truthfulness of his claim to Prophethood. See Surah Al-Qasas (86) and Yunus (16). Ibn Kathir says, the state of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) remained the same until his death; he could neither read nor write a line or a letter with his hand, rather he had several scribes who wrote down the revelation and letters to various regions.

Some people have taken evidence from the word {’’ مِنْ قَبْلِهٖ ‘‘} that before Prophethood, you indeed did not know how to read or write, but after Prophethood, you (peace be upon him) learned to read and write. These people have said this out of excessive devotion, not realizing that for a person to be unlettered and yet become the teacher of the whole world is more astonishing and a sign of Allah's power, or that a learned and educated person composes a book. The proof that you (peace be upon him) remained unlettered until the end is the incident of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, whose agreement was written by Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him). Al-Bara' bin Azib (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: [ فَكَتَبَ هٰذَا مَا قَاضٰی عَلَيْهِ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُوْلُ اللّٰهِ فَقَالُوْا لَوْ عَلِمْنَا أَنَّكَ رَسُوْلُ اللّٰهِ لَمْ نَمْنَعْكَ وَلَبَايَعْنَاكَ، وَلٰكِنِ اكْتُبْ هٰذَا مَا قَاضٰی عَلَيْهِ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللّٰهِ، فَقَالَ أَنَا وَاللّٰهِ ! مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ عَبْدِ اللّٰهِ وَأَنَا وَاللّٰهِ ! رَسُوْلُ اللّٰهِ قَالَ وَكَانَ لاَ يَكْتُبُ قَالَ فَقَالَ لِعَلِيٍّ امْحُ رَسُوْلَ اللّٰهِ فَقَالَ عَلِيٌّ وَاللّٰهِ ! لاَ أَمْحَاهُ أَبَدًا قَالَ فَأَرِنِيْهِ قَالَ فَأَرَاهُ إِيَّاهُ، فَمَحَاهُ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّی اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ بِيَدِهِ ] [ بخاري، الجزیۃ، باب المصالحۃ علی ثلاثۃ أیام … : ۳۱۸۴ ] "Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote: 'This is the agreement upon which Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, has agreed.' They said: 'If we knew you were the Messenger of Allah, we would not have stopped you (from the Ka'bah), rather we would have pledged allegiance to you, but write: This is the agreement upon which Muhammad bin Abdullah has agreed.' The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: 'By Allah! I am Muhammad bin Abdullah and by Allah! I am the Messenger of Allah.' Al-Bara' said: 'And he (the Prophet) did not write.' So the Prophet (peace be upon him) said to Ali (may Allah be pleased with him): 'Erase the words "Messenger of Allah".' Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said: 'By Allah! I will never erase it.' The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: 'Then show it to me.' He showed him the words, and the Prophet (peace be upon him) erased it with his own hand." This incident occurred in Dhul-Qa'dah, six years after Hijrah, after which the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) lived for four years and a few months more. In this, it is explicit {’’وَكَانَ لَا يَكْتُبُ‘‘} (he did not write), so which narration is there that mentions that after this incident you (peace be upon him) learned to write? Hafiz Ibn Kathir said that in some narrations of Bukhari, where it is mentioned: [ ثُمَّ أَخَذَ فَكَتَبَ ] (then he took and wrote), this is interpreted in light of another narration which says: [ ثُمَّ أَمَرَ فَكَتَبَ ] "Then he (peace be upon him) ordered, so they wrote." Ibn Kathir says, as for the narration some people have reported: [ إِنَّهُ لَمْ يَمُتْ حَتّٰی تَعَلَّمَ الْكِتَابَةَ ] "that he did not die until he learned to write," this narration is weak and has no basis. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) himself acknowledged his being unlettered. It is narrated from Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: [ إِنَّا أُمَّةٌ أُمِّيَّةٌ، لاَ نَكْتُبُ وَ لاَ نَحْسُبُ، الشَّهْرُ هٰكَذَا وَ هٰكَذَا يَعْنِيْ مَرَّةً تِسْعَةً وَعِشْرِيْنَ، وَمَرَّةً ثَلاَثِيْنَ ] [ بخاري، الصوم، باب قول النبي صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم لا نکتب و لا نحسب : ۱۹۱۳ ] "We are an unlettered people; we do not know how to write or calculate. The lunar month is like this and like this." That is, sometimes it is twenty-nine (29) days and sometimes thirty (30) days.

➋ This is the glory of Allah that on one hand, He granted him (peace be upon him) such a Book that the whole world is unable to produce even the smallest surah like it, and on the other hand, He did not teach him to read or write. Yet some people say that you were 'Alim al-Ghayb and {’’ مَا كَانَ وَ مَا يَكُوْنُ‘‘} (what has happened and what will happen) you knew all. May Allah grant understanding.

➌ { اِذًا لَّارْتَابَ الْمُبْطِلُوْنَ:} That is, if you had been able to read or write with your hand, then the followers of falsehood would have had an opportunity to doubt that you had read previous books and written these things, and were gradually reciting them in your own words. Even though saying this would still be wrong, because no matter how learned a person is, or even if all the learned people of the world and all creation together tried, they could not produce a surah like this unparalleled Book. Still, if you had been literate, it would have given liars an opportunity to fabricate such claims. When your being unlettered is established among all, then there remains no room for such doubt.

➍ Despite your being unlettered, the disbelievers still made this accusation: «{ وَ قَالُوْۤا اَسَاطِيْرُ الْاَوَّلِيْنَ اكْتَتَبَهَا فَهِيَ تُمْلٰى عَلَيْهِ بُكْرَةً وَّ اَصِيْلًا }» [ الفرقان : ۵ ] "And they say: These are tales of the ancients which he has had written down, so they are dictated to him morning and evening." If you had been literate, what would have been the state of the doubts and slanders of the followers of falsehood?

➎ Here is a question: The words {’’ وَ لَا تَخُطُّهٗ ‘‘} (nor did you write it) were sufficient, so what is the wisdom in saying {’’ بِيَمِيْنِكَ ‘‘} (with your right hand)? The answer is that sometimes dictating is also referred to as writing, for example, sometimes a person who has dictated a letter says, "I wrote a letter to so-and-so." To eliminate this possibility, it is said: «{ وَّ لَا تَخُطُّهٗ بِيَمِيْنِكَ }» "Nor did you write it with your right hand."

48-1. Because he was unlettered.
48-2. Because knowledge is also necessary for writing, which you had not acquired from anyone.
48-3. That is, if you had been literate or had learned something from a teacher, people would have said that this Qur'an is the result of help from so-and-so or of learning from him.

48. And (O Prophet!) before this, you could neither read any book nor write it with your hand [80]. If it had been so, the followers of falsehood would have doubted.

[80]
The Wisdom in You Being Unlettered:

Among the things that the Quraysh invented to deny or at least cast doubt upon your ﷺ prophethood was the claim that this man has benefited from previous heavenly books, and their basis for this was that many of the subjects presented in your Book, i.e., the Quran, resembled those in the Torah, and some fair-minded People of the Book would even confirm this. In this verse, their objection is answered: before prophethood, you could neither read any book from which you could have gained such knowledge, nor could you write so that you might have listened to the scholars of the People of the Book, noted it down, and later presented it as your own. If either of these had been the case, there would have been some basis for the doubts and suspicions of these disbelievers. But since neither of these is true, then their denial of your prophethood is nothing but prejudice, stubbornness, and obstinacy. Some Muslims have inferred from "مِنْ قَبْلِہِ" that before prophethood, you truly could not read or write, but after prophethood, you learned to read and write. The basis of this invention is the Muslims’ intense devotion to you. They think that how could the Messenger who was sent as a Messenger and teacher for all the worlds be unlettered? In other words, they wish to remove the supposed deficiency of being unlettered from the person of the Prophet. Later, the opponents of Islam and Orientalist researchers of the present era also joined in this claim, because it was beneficial for them.

Did You Learn to Read and Write Later?

We appreciate the sentiment of devotion in these Muslims, but we regret that the claim of these well-meaning friends is serving the interests of wise enemies. Now, we will refute this claim in two ways: first, from a rational perspective, and second, from a historical perspective. Rationally, we should consider: is it more astonishing and a manifestation of Allah’s power that an unlettered person becomes the teacher of the whole world, or that a very learned and educated person becomes a teacher? Clearly, only the first case can be considered a miracle. This also removes all the doubts and suspicions that the opponents of Islam of that era raised against the Prophet of Islam, or that the opponents of Islam of this era are raising. And the proof of this is that the Quran, in two verses, has honored you with the title "Ummi" as a praise. [7: 157، 158]
And in Surah Jumu'ah it is said: "He it is Who sent among the unlettered ones a Messenger from among themselves." [62: 2]
From the style of the Quran, it is also clearly evident that the title "Ummi" is a source of great pride for you. And from a historical perspective, this claim is wrong because the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was written in 6 AH. The writer was Hazrat Ali ؓ and the one dictating was the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. When you ﷺ dictated "Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Raheem," the Qurayshi envoy Suhail bin Amr objected, saying, "Write instead 'Bismika Allahumma'." Then you dictated "From Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah," and he objected, "Write 'From Muhammad, son of Abdullah,' because if we accepted you as Allah’s Messenger, then what would be the dispute?" When the envoy Suhail bin Amr insisted on his point, you ﷺ said to Hazrat Ali ؓ, "Erase these words and write according to the Qurayshi envoy’s wishes." Hazrat Ali ؓ said, "My conscience does not allow me to erase the words 'Messenger of Allah' with my own hand." You ﷺ asked Hazrat Ali ؓ, "Alright, tell me, which word is it?" And when Hazrat Ali ؓ pointed it out, you erased it yourself. [بخاری۔ کتاب الشروط۔ باب الشروط فی الجہاد والمصالحة]
This incident took place when you had been granted prophethood for 19 years, and at that time you were 59 years old. And four or five years after this incident, you ﷺ passed away. So, when did you ﷺ learn to read and write?
And the second proof is the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ own admission: "We are unlettered people; we do not know how to write or calculate. (The lunar) month is sometimes like this and sometimes like that." Then you raised both hands’ fingers to show that sometimes it is thirty days and sometimes twenty-nine days. [بخاری۔ کتاب الصوم۔ باب قول النبی لا نکتب و لا نحسب]