Reading and writing

[YmirGF]

It is fairly common knowledge that Muslims are implored to gain knowledge and the increase their understanding. Then my eye wandered over the following and I couldn't help but wonder...

AYAT al-`Alaq - Yusuf Ali (Saudi Rev. 1985)
96:1 - Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created-
96:2 - Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood:
96:3 - Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,-
96:4 - He Who taught (the use of) the pen,-
96:5 - Taught man that which he knew not.

Here, in the above, Allah is clearly stating that he taught mankind the use of the pen, to write, to be able to read.
Why is it, considering he had ample opportunity to do so, that Muhammad never learned to read or write? He was surrounded by people who could have taught him - even at a leisurely pace - necessary for a busy man.

Are there any particular reasons why Muhammad never learned to read or write?

 

[whirlingmerc]

In any case in English a older person can learn to read, if taught properly in a very short time... they just have to be willing

In any case Mohamed called on Jews and Christians to read their Torahs and use it as a truth standard in testing his claims which I think is wise advice.

 

[Madhuri]

Please note that this is the Islam DIR so should not elicit responses from non-Muslims.

 

[YmirGF]

Hmmm. No takers on the question posed by the OP?

@Cordoba @Godobeyer @FearGod @firedragon @sovietchild @muhammad_isa @Shia Islam @Tomorrows_Child

 

[sovietchild]

In Islam we believe that if someone killed someone it's not him who killed him, it was Allah who took his life. There is a reason for why Muhammad never knew how to write. There is a reason for everything.

 

[Shia Islam]

It is fairly common knowledge that Muslims are implored to gain knowledge and the increase their understanding. Then my eye wandered over the following and I couldn't help but wonder...

AYAT al-`Alaq - Yusuf Ali (Saudi Rev. 1985)
96:1 - Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created-
96:2 - Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood:
96:3 - Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,-
96:4 - He Who taught (the use of) the pen,-
96:5 - Taught man that which he knew not.

Here, in the above, Allah is clearly stating that he taught mankind the use of the pen, to write, to be able to read.
Why is it, considering he had ample opportunity to do so, that Muhammad never learned to read or write? He was surrounded by people who could have taught him - even at a leisurely pace - necessary for a busy man.

Are there any particular reasons why Muhammad never learned to read or write?

The Miracle of the prophet Muhammad (P) is the Quran itself. If He was taught to read and write, people would have said that the Quran was taken from some old scripts such as the books of the ancient prophets and so forth.

 

[Sakeenah]

It is fairly common knowledge that Muslims are implored to gain knowledge and the increase their understanding. Then my eye wandered over the following and I couldn't help but wonder...

AYAT al-`Alaq - Yusuf Ali (Saudi Rev. 1985)
96:1 - Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created-
96:2 - Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood:
96:3 - Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,-
96:4 - He Who taught (the use of) the pen,-
96:5 - Taught man that which he knew not.

Here, in the above, Allah is clearly stating that he taught mankind the use of the pen, to write, to be able to read.
Why is it, considering he had ample opportunity to do so, that Muhammad never learned to read or write? He was surrounded by people who could have taught him - even at a leisurely pace - necessary for a busy man.

Are there any particular reasons why Muhammad never learned to read or write?

Hi

The verses that you are referring to are the first verses revealed to the prophet muhammad(peace be upon him) when he was in seclusion in the cave of Hira. According to Islam it was the beginning of his prophethood.

These verses aren't only referring to gaining knowledge through reading and writing.
These verses inform of the beginning of man's creation and that out of Allah's generosity He taught mankind that which he did not know. Knowledge here may be intellectual, spoken and written.

The word اقرء(iqra) in this chapter is a verb(command) it doesn't only mean read but it can also means recite, depending on the context that it is used. If I say اقرا القران ( recite/read the Quran) it can refer to reciting from memory.In the arabic language words can have various meaning depending on the context,for example the word صوم can mean to withhold or to fast and both are used in the Quran. In chapter Maryam(Mary) she is told to withold(صوم) from talking for three days and in chapter baqarah(the cow) muslims are commanded to fast(صوم) in the month of Ramadan,same word different meaning.

In regards to your question, I believe there's a reason why prophet muhammad(peace be upon him) wasn't able to read or write.

Allah says in the Quran:

"He it is Who sent among the unlettered ones a Messenger from among themselves, reciting to them His Verses, purifying them" (62:2)

The quranic exegesis scholar Al Qurtubi said regarding this verse

"It was said: ‘the unlettered ones’ means those who do not write. Such were the Quraysh. Mansoor reported from Ibraaheem, who said: ‘Al-ummi (the unlettered one) is the one who neither reads nor writes. "A Messenger from among themselves" means Muhammad , who was unlettered and never read a book nor learned how.’ Al-Mawardi said: ‘What is good about the fact that Allaah sent an unlettered Prophet? There are three things:
(i) his message fulfilled the foretelling of the previous Prophets;
(ii) this made him similar to and closer to other Prophets;
(iii) this would eliminate all suspicion that he had learned the message he preached from books and writings that he had read."

I hope this answers your question

 

[Godobeyer]

It is fairly common knowledge that Muslims are implored to gain knowledge and the increase their understanding. Then my eye wandered over the following and I couldn't help but wonder...

AYAT al-`Alaq - Yusuf Ali (Saudi Rev. 1985)
96:1 - Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created-
96:2 - Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood:
96:3 - Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,-
96:4 - He Who taught (the use of) the pen,-
96:5 - Taught man that which he knew not.

Here, in the above, Allah is clearly stating that he taught mankind the use of the pen, to write, to be able to read.
Why is it, considering he had ample opportunity to do so, that Muhammad never learned to read or write? He was surrounded by people who could have taught him - even at a leisurely pace - necessary for a busy man.

Are there any particular reasons why Muhammad never learned to read or write?

Hello friend

It's could be equal to a miracle, that someone can't read or write delivered a book like "Quran",


Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) was opharan,yes he was busy man with trades, then deliver the message of God to world.

btw the Angel order him to "read",so he said " I can't read" at that time in cave. this is in Sirah (story of Muhammad pbuh).

Now,there is millions of people can't read or write.

 

[FearGod]

It is fairly common knowledge that Muslims are implored to gain knowledge and the increase their understanding. Then my eye wandered over the following and I couldn't help but wonder...

AYAT al-`Alaq - Yusuf Ali (Saudi Rev. 1985)
96:1 - Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created-
96:2 - Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood:
96:3 - Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,-
96:4 - He Who taught (the use of) the pen,-
96:5 - Taught man that which he knew not.

Here, in the above, Allah is clearly stating that he taught mankind the use of the pen, to write, to be able to read.
Why is it, considering he had ample opportunity to do so, that Muhammad never learned to read or write? He was surrounded by people who could have taught him - even at a leisurely pace - necessary for a busy man.

Are there any particular reasons why Muhammad never learned to read or write?

The world is weird and we don't have the answers for everything, see for example how
Thomas Edison was called as an idiot by his teacher and then he studied at home and
the result was one of the greatest inventors of this world.

It's God's will, for example did you choose to be a Canadian, or me a Jordanian or
what gender we wanted to be or and or and or, the only answer we got "it's God's will".

 

[firedragon]

Hmmm. No takers on the question posed by the OP?

@Cordoba @Godobeyer @FearGod @firedragon @sovietchild @muhammad_isa @Shia Islam @Tomorrows_Child

YmirGF you old time gamer. How are you doing??

Well this is my take on this.

You cant really conclude that Muhammed never learned to read or/and write. It could be a latter concoction to portray him to be a miraculous person. Ummi does not necessarily mean illiterate. It could mean he did not know scripture.

As you clearly said about the pen, kalaami.

 

[Gharib]

Reading and writing - literacy - was not a common thing at the time. Nor were the verses mentioned a command to learn to read and write. !3 years had passed from the revelation of those verses until the migration to Madinah. When the first war occured - the battle of Badr - a number of prisoners of war were given a condition to teach the Muslims to read and write in return for their freedom.

And just like all people, Muhammed was more into contemplation and reflection which is why in his free time he would go into the cave 'Hira' where revelation first came to him. Poetry was probably more wide spread than anything else, if he had to have known something, poetry would be first and foremost but not even this has ever been reported, that he sat with poets or listened to poetry.

 

[Augustus]

You cant really conclude that Muhammed never learned to read or/and write. It could be a latter concoction to portray him to be a miraculous person. Ummi does not necessarily mean illiterate. It could mean he did not know scripture.

What is your opinion towards this explanation (which also appears in several translations of the Quran)? Any thoughts?

Furthermore, this understanding is confirmed by the use of the word umma in other Semitic languages: Arabic umma (< ummi) relates to Proto-Semitic *umma (Aramaic:ummtha\ Hebrew: umma.)111 In Hebrew, umma signified a 'nation of Gentiles,' or non-Jews, implying by this the idea of 'peoples who did not have a Scripture and did therefore not read it.'

The 'Gentile Prophet' seems to make quite a lot of sense given the previous expectation that prophets would come from among the Jews.

 

[firedragon]

What is your opinion towards this explanation (which also appears in several translations of the Quran)? Any thoughts?

Furthermore, this understanding is confirmed by the use of the word umma in other Semitic languages: Arabic umma (< ummi) relates to Proto-Semitic *umma (Aramaic:ummtha\ Hebrew: umma.)111 In Hebrew, umma signified a 'nation of Gentiles,' or non-Jews, implying by this the idea of 'peoples who did not have a Scripture and did therefore not read it.'

The 'Gentile Prophet' seems to make quite a lot of sense given the previous expectation that prophets would come from among the Jews.

I believe that is the correct interpretation.

Ummi could mean unlettered in scripture.