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Muhammad and illiteracy: Difference between revisions
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|title=Muhammad and illiteracy | |||
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{{QualityScore|Lead=4|Structure=4|Content=4|Language=4|References=4}} | {{QualityScore|Lead=4|Structure=4|Content=4|Language=4|References=4}} | ||
'''Muhammad's literacy''' is a commonly mentioned topic in regards to the historicity, revelation, and compiling of the Quran. Many Muslim scholars have argued that Muhammad's illiteracy is evidence that the Quran is a divine miracle. However, skeptics disagree that this is enough to constitute a miracle and challenge the claim altogether. Among modern academic scholars there is virtual unanimity that the Quran does not in fact describe Muhammad or his people as illiterate, and that this was a reinterpretation arising some time after his death. Indeed, there is now known to be abundant evidence of significant literacy among the pre-Islamic Arabs. | '''Muhammad's literacy''' is a commonly mentioned topic in regards to the historicity, revelation, and compiling of the Quran. Many Muslim scholars have argued that Muhammad's illiteracy is evidence that the Quran is a divine miracle. However, skeptics disagree that this is enough to constitute a miracle and challenge the claim altogether. Among modern academic scholars there is virtual unanimity that the Quran does not in fact describe Muhammad or his people as illiterate, and that this was a reinterpretation arising some time after his death. Indeed, there is now known to be abundant evidence of significant literacy among the pre-Islamic Arabs. | ||
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{{Quote|{{Quran|2|78}}| | {{Quote|{{Quran|2|78}}| | ||
And among them are '''unlettered ones''' (أُمِّيُّونَ, ''ummeeoona'') who do not know the Scripture except in wishful thinking, but they are only assuming.}} | And among them are '''unlettered ones''' (أُمِّيُّونَ, ''ummeeoona'') who do not know the Scripture except in wishful thinking, but they are only assuming.}} | ||
====Chapter 3 Verse 20==== | ====Chapter 3 Verse 20==== | ||
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Tafsir Al-Jalalayn on 3:20 says: | Tafsir Al-Jalalayn on 3:20 says: | ||
{{Quote|Tafsir Al-Jalalayn on 3:20| | {{Quote|Tafsir Al-Jalalayn on 3:20| | ||
So if they the disbelievers dispute with you O Muhammad (s) concerning religion say to them ‘I have surrendered my countenance to God that is to say I have submitted to Him I and whoever follows me’ wajh ‘countenance’ is chosen here because of its noble character for the other parts of the body will just as soon surrender once the countenance has; and say to those who have been given the Scripture the Jews and the Christians | So if they the disbelievers dispute with you O Muhammad (s) concerning religion say to them ‘I have surrendered my countenance to God that is to say I have submitted to Him I and whoever follows me’ wajh ‘countenance’ is chosen here because of its noble character for the other parts of the body will just as soon surrender once the countenance has; and say to those who have been given the Scripture the Jews and the Christians and to the uninstructed '''the Arab idolaters''' ‘Have you submitted?’ that is to say ‘Submit!’ And so if they have submitted they have been guided from error but if they turn their backs to Islam your duty is only to deliver the Message; and God sees His servants and so requites them for their deeds — this statement was revealed before the command to fight them had been revealed.}} | ||
Here, | Here, in Tafsir Al-Jalalayn "and to the uninstructed" is just a translation of his quote from the Arabic verse itself, which he then simply comments are the mushrikeen Arabs. Academic scholars generally interpret that the word ''ummiy'' here means unscriptured people, i.e. those not given a scripture. | ||
====Chapter 3 Verse 75==== | ====Chapter 3 Verse 75==== | ||
{{Quote|{{Quran|3|75}}| | {{Quote|{{Quran|3|75}}| | ||
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62:3 "And [to] others of them who have not yet joined them. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise."}} | 62:3 "And [to] others of them who have not yet joined them. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise."}} | ||
For these verses, Tafsir al-Jalalayn gives the traditional interpretation that the word means illiterate and refers to the illiterate Arabs: | |||
{{Quote|Tafsir Al-Jalalayn on 62:2| | {{Quote|Tafsir Al-Jalalayn on 62:2| | ||
It is He Who sent to the unlettered folk among the Arabs '''ummī means ‘one who cannot write or read a book’''' a messenger from among them namely Muhammad (s) to recite to them His signs the Qur’ān and to purify them to cleanse them from idolatry and to teach them the Book the Qur’ān and wisdom in the rulings that it contains though indeed wa-in in has been softened from the hardened form with its subject having been omitted that is to say understand it as wa-innahum before that before his coming they had been in manifest error.}} | It is He Who sent to the unlettered folk among the Arabs '''ummī means ‘one who cannot write or read a book’''' a messenger from among them namely Muhammad (s) to recite to them His signs the Qur’ān and to purify them to cleanse them from idolatry and to teach them the Book the Qur’ān and wisdom in the rulings that it contains though indeed wa-in in has been softened from the hardened form with its subject having been omitted that is to say understand it as wa-innahum before that before his coming they had been in manifest error.}} | ||