Salaamun alaykum, dear readers!
One of Rashad Khalifa’s God-given duties as the Messenger of the Covenant was to convey that whenever Quranic verses were revealed to Muhammad, he wrote them down by his own hand.
So the prophet was actually literate, and there are multiple pieces of evidence to suggest that.
Evidence from History
Even beyond the Quran, we can intuitively figure out that the prophet was not illiterate when realizing that he was a merchant who dealt with numbers throughout his career. The numbers at the time were based on Arabic letters (with each letter representing a certain number), as there was no standard numerical system at the time, and this is known as gematria.
When you work as a seller of goods (which is what a merchant is), you have to keep records of transactions and do calculations. If the Arabic letters served as the numbers at the time, then the prophet had to work with Arabic letters throughout his career as a merchant for recordkeeping.
Thus, it is very unlikely that a merchant at the time would not be familiar with how Arabic letters looked like.
Evidence from Hadith
Before reviewing the Quranic evidence, let us first review what the Hadith says. Muhammad was narrated to have written documents in a multiplicity of Hadith narrations after he became a prophet (Bukhari Hadith, no. 114, 65, 4431, 4432, and 5669; Sunan Abu Dawud no. 2999 and 5136, etc).
Evidence from Quran
As for the Quran, the very first revelation the prophet received is verse 1 of Surah 96, which says: “Read, in the name of your Lord who created.” Thus, the prophet was commanded to read the Quran.
That means even if the prophet was illiterate before, God is ordering the prophet to read the Quran from now on.
Not only that, but God is telling the prophet in the Quran that He will make Muhammad read:
- [87:6] We will make you read (sanuqriuka), then you will not forget.
In all fairness, the word “sanuqriuka” can linguistically mean both read or recite. So this is where Rashad Khalifa’s revelation comes in to clarify the issue.
Rashad Khalifa was told by God to convey that the prophet wrote down the Quran with his own hand. Therefore, this is confirmation that the word “sanuqriuka” and “iqra” when applied to the prophet means both “read” and “recite” because the prophet can do both.
What Does “Ummi” Mean?
The Quran, however, in a few places such as verse 7:157, says that Muhammad was an “ummi” prophet.
Linguistically, the word “ummi” in Arabic means illiterate. However, God in the Quran uses the word “ummi” to mean either a group of people who have never received a scripture or messenger before the Quran, or a group of people who lack awareness and understanding about God’s scriptures.
The first meaning applies to the gentiles (non-Jews) today, because after prophet Abraham and before prophet Muhammad, it was primarily the descendants of Israel who received scripture. The Quran says in verse 40:53 that the Children of Israel inherited the Book. And the vast majority of the prophets mentioned in the Quran (Moses, Jesus, Joseph, even Israel himself) were sent to the descendants of Israel.
The second meaning of “ummi” that is used in the Quran is someone who lacks knowledge about the scripture. This can apply even to Jewish people, or Christians and Muslims too, because it’s possible to grow up as a Jew, Christian, or Muslim, but have little understanding of their own scriptures.
Usage of Ummi as “Gentile”
Verse 3:20 instructs to asks the ones who received the scripture, as well as the “ummiyoon” if they have submitted. In this verse, the word “ummi” is used as the opposite of “those who were given the Book”. Thus, “ummi” here refers to gentiles, or non-Jews, as non-Jews were not given a Book from the time of Israel to the time of Muhammad.
- [3:20] So if they argue with you, then say, “I have submitted my face to God, as well as whoever followed me.” And say to the ones who were given the Book, as well as the ummiyoon (those who were not given the Book), “Have you submitted yourselves?” If they submitted, then certainly they have accepted guidance. But if they turned away, then only upon you is the clear conveyance, and God is Seeing of the servants.
Verse 7:157 states that Muhammad is the “ummi prophet” found in the past scriptures. The Old Testament (namely Deuteronomy 18 and Isaiah 42) mentions a future prophet who will be a “light to the Gentiles” but doesn’t mention or predict the coming of an illiterate prophet. Thus, the word “ummi” in this verse means a gentile (non-Jew).
- [7:157] The ones who follow the messenger, the ummi (gentile) prophet whom they find written in the Torah and Injeel with them…
Usage of Ummi to Mean “Scripturally Illiterate”
Verse 2:78-79 indicated that among the ones who write the Book with their hands for distortion purposes are the “ummi’” who do not know the Book.
They can read, write, and distort God’s scriptures, but they lack knowledge about God’s scripture, hence they are called “ummi”.
- [2:75-79] Do you then hope that they would believe for you, while certainly there has been a group of them who hear God’s word, then distort after when they understood it, while they know? …And among them (the distorters) are ummiyoon who do not know the Book, except what they long for, and they do not but assume. So woe to the ones (distorters) who write the Book with their hands, then say, “This is from God,” for they may purchase a cheap gain with it…
So the prophet meets the criteria of both definitions of ummi in the Quran: Gentile (non-Jew), and someone who is scripturally illiterate (lacks basic knowledge about past scriptures).
That’s because prophet Muhammad used to not know what scripture was, nor did he know anything about Islam or faith in God (verse 42:52).
The Quran said he used to not recite or inscribe any scripture in the past (verse 29:48), and used to not know anything about the information of previous prophets which was given to him in the Quran (11:49).
This means before he was given the Quran, he was completely unfamiliar with the contents of the past scriptures, and this is why he meets both the first definition (gentile) and the second definition of “ummi” in the Quran.
[29:48] And you used to neither recite any Book before it, nor inscribe it with your right hand. The falsifiers would then definitely have doubted.
[42:52]…You neither used to know what the Book was, nor the faith, but instead, We made it a light with which We guide whom We will of Our servants; indeed you definitely guide to a straight path.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, the prophet Muhammad was not an illiterate person for his entire life, he learned to read and write at some point if he didn’t grow up learning to read and write, as per what the Quran and even other Hadith states.
Many want to make a miracle out of the fact that the Quran is a great piece of Arabic literature, and a convenient way to do so is to believe that the prophet was illiterate for his whole life.
But that is not where the Quran’s greatest miracle is.
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