_ living islam : Islamic tradition _ https://www.livingislam.org/ Un/letterdness This issue was discussed a while back [on ...] MSA-EC Subject: "Unlettered", date: Tuesday, July 06, 1999 and also at https://www.livingislam.org/fiqhi/fiqha_e54.html Scroll to the passage beginning: --- begin quote --- How do you explain the hadith in which [the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace] requests something to write with (Bukhari vol. IV, no.393) when he is supposed to be illiterate? --- end quote --- The Ulema concur that the Prophetic Ummiyya in the sense of unletteredness, both his being unschooled and his "not being good at writing" (laysa yuhsinu yaktubu, in the words of al-Bara' ibn `Azib in the hadith reported by al-Bukhari in his Sahih) are actually among the proofs of his Prophethood (dala'il al-nubuwwa) and illustrate his utter God-dependence. Thus does Shaykh `Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghuri rahimahullah also explain the Ummiyya of the Awliya who did not read or write, in his brief introduction to Kitab al-Ibriz in one of its Damascene editions. Hence, to affirm literacy for the Prophet in such a context actually detracts from his rank rather than enhances it. Here is the full hadith: "When the Prophet salla Allahu `alayhi wa-Sallam decided to accomplish the Minor Pilgrimage in the month of Dhu al-Qi`da [year 6], the Meccans refused to grant him permission to enter Makka until he stipulated to them that he would not stay for more than three days. After the treaty was formulated, it was written: 'This is what Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, has stipulated.' They said: 'We do not acknowledge that you are so. If we knew that you were the Messenger of Allah, we would not prohibit anything to you. However, you are Muhammad ibn `Abd Allah.' He said: 'I am the Messenger of Allah _and_ Muhammad ibn `Abd Allah.' Then he said to `Ali ibn Abi Talib radya Allahu `anh: `Erase <>.' `Ali said: No, by Allah! I will never ever erase you! (la wallahi la amhuka abada!)." Whereupon the Messenger of Allah took the treaty - he was not good at writing (laysa yuhsinu yaktubu) - and wrote: 'This is what Muhammad ibn `Abd Allah has stipulated: He shall not bring any weapon into Makka except sheathed swords; he shall not leave it with any of its dwellers even if they wish to follow him; and he shall not prevent any of his Companions from residing in it if he so wishes.' "After he [the Prophet] had entered Makka and the term had elapsed, they came to `Ali and said: 'Tell your friend to get out from among us, for the term is over.' So the Prophet departed but Hamza's daughter followed him, shouting, 'Uncle, Uncle!' `Ali received her and took her by the hand, saying to Fatima - upon her peace: `Take her (dunaki)! for she is your uncle's daughter.' So she let her ride behind her. [Later,] `Ali [ibn Abi Talib ibn `Abd al-Muttalib], Zayd [ibn Haritha ibn Sharahil], and Ja`far [ibn Abi Talib] disputed her [custody]. `Ali said: 'I took her in for she is my uncle's daughter.' Ja`far said: 'She is my uncle's daughter and her maternal aunt is my wife.' Zayd said: 'She is my brother's daughter.' The Prophet ruled to give her to her maternal aunt and said: 'The maternal aunt is as the mother.' Then he said to `Ali: 'You are part of me and I am part of you'; he said to Ja`far: 'You resemble me in appearance and character'; and he said to Zayd: 'You are our brother and freedman.' `Ali said: 'Why do you not marry Hamza's daughter?' He replied: 'She is my milk-brother's daughter.'" Narrated from al-Bara' ibn `Azib by al-Bukhari, Ahmad, and al-Darimi. Muslim narrates it in shorter form. (Note: In the narrations of Ahmad and Ibn Hibban, our liegelords `Ali, Ja`far and Zayd began to hop on one leg one after another around the Holy Prophet from the joy they felt at his compliment of each of them.) The words "the Messenger of Allah took the treaty and wrote" have been understood by the scholars to mean "had someone write." The great Maliki Faqih Abu al-Walid al-Baji (403-474) faced a great trial in his life for his affirmation that the Prophet salla Allahu `alayhi wa-Sallam could write on the literal basis of the above hadith. Al-Qadi `Iyad and al-Kattani mentioned the incident in Tartib al-Madarik and al-Taratib al-Idariyya respectively. Among those who wrote against al-Baji on this issue was the ascetic Andalusian scholar `Abd Allah ibn Mufawwaz al-Ma`afiri al-Shatibi (d. 475) in his treatise al-Tahdhir min Nisbat al-Kitaba ila al-Nabi Yawma Sulhi al-Hudaybiya. Accusations of kufr were leveled on the grounds that affirming the Prophet could write contradicted the Qur'an. In his book Tahqiq al-Madhhab (in print), al-Baji replied to those who attacked and anathemized him that there was no contradiction in a mu`jiza taking place at the hand of the Prophet. Several jurists went into the fray but the major ones as a rule defended the validity of al-Baji's position - such as his teacher Abu Dharr al-Harawi, Abu al-Fath al-Naysaburi, and Qadi Ibn al-`Arabi in his book Siraj al-Muridin - which in fact was nothing new since the hafiz and Sira historian Ibn Shabba (d. 262) had already said it in his book al-Kitab on the basis of the hadith of `Abd Allah ibn `Utba ibn Mas`ud: "The Prophet did not die before he could first write and read." Al-Sha`bi is related to have commented on this report: "True! We have heard many of them mention this." Al-Dhahabi considers that the Prophet only wrote _his noble name_ in the Hudaybiya hadith, but he mentions that some scholars asserted he wrote the entire text as an evidentiary miracle (mu`jiza) on his part. Our teacher Dr. Nur al-Din `Itr said in a class communication that it stands to reason the Prophet learnt to read late in his life, at the very least the words that he often instructed to be written in letters or in the Qur'an, such as the Basmala, the Name of Allah Most High and his own, etc. Mere observation of his surroundings as his scribes took his dictation for the Qur'an as well as the many letters he sent to potentates (Ibn Tulun documents over fifty letters sent out by the Prophet from Madina in his I`lam al-Sa'ilin `an Kutubi Sayyid al-Mursalin) would have made it easy for him to learn this art, and learn it faster than most since Allah Most High gave him a superior intelligence. Nevertheless, one should not attempt to pin down a confirmation of this skill through the reports that state that he "read" or "wrote" something, as (a) these reports either exist in a variant version that specify the act of reading or writing was actually done by someone else on his behalf or (b) it is possible to read the active Arabic expressions themselves in the passive sense to mean that "he had it read" or "he had it written" even without variant versions explicit to that effect. An example of the first category is the hadith of our liegelord `Umar bringing an Arabic copy of the Torah, or part of it, to the Prophet, whereupon the latter "began to read it"; other versions specify that it was actually `Umar who began reading it back to the Prophet. Similarly, the claim someone made that our liegelord Anas would take out his note-books and say: "These are the traditions which I had heard from the Prophet and _submitted for his perusal_" is based on a mistranslation of Anas's related words qara'na `alayh, qara'tu `alayh, `aradna `alayh, all of which mean the act of reading outloud for those present to hear. And Allah Most High knows best. GF Haddad 2009-01-19