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The last Prophet Muhammed Musthafa
(may peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) was raised among the
Unlettered Arabs. So the Prophet got
the title 'the unlettered Prophet'.
There is a belief among the Muslims
that the Prophet was a mere
illiterate who could not read or
write. This wrong notion has crept
into the Muslim minds because of the
title, 'the Ummi prophet' which the
none Muslims had misinterpreted. The
literal meaning of the word Ummi is
illiterate. It is true that he had
not gone to a school or studied
under an earthly tutor. He got
everything from Heaven.
The none Muslim writers have taken
advantage of this title of the
Prophet to malign him and wrote many
false stories about him. This had
implanted the harmful idea that the
prophet could not read or write and
that he was a mere illiterate, in
the Muslim minds long since. But
Prophet Muhammad (saw) could read
and write, even though he did not
study under a tutor in the boyhood
and learn the art of reading and
writing. He did not read from a book
or write one.
The Muslims have not taken this
false allegation that he was
illiterate, seriously and thus they
had lowered the status of the
Prophet (saw) to an illiterate. The
result is that most of them
advocated illiteracy and preferred
to be illiterate. How can anyone
dare to excel the 'Illiterate
Prophet'? When we ponder over the
Ayaths of the Holy Qur'an we see
that the first man after the
revelation of the Qur'an, who acted
upon the divine order to read would
be the Prophet himself.
Let us see the first revealed verses
of the Holy Qur'an. "Read in the
name of thy Lord who created, who
created man from a clinging sperm.
Read, thy Lord is the noblest who
taught through the pen, taught man
what he did not know ". (96:1,5).
This itself is enough for a man with
common-sense to know that the
Prophet should know how to read and
write. But, for the Prophet it was
not necessary to practise the art of
reading and writing, just as the
ordinary people do, because the
Prophet was the possessor of
qualities of the highest order. He
was taught by the mighty one Jibreel
(a.s) the Arch angel.
There are people among us with
extraordinary qualities. They look
into a book for a few minutes and
reproduce it without seeing it
again! Then, why should the Prophet
not possess such high qualities when
the Qur'anic verses explain,
"Certainly you are on the highest of
qualities" (68:4). How can it be
otherwise when the Qur'an says that
he was the best example for the
humankind. (33:21).
Let us examine the other verses of
the Qur'an which throw light on the
subject. "You were not wont to read
from a book before it, nor did you
write with your right hand" (29:48)
It says before the revelation,
indicating that afterwards he could
read and write even though he had
not studied in his boyhood. He had
no need to write just as a king, who
would not write for himself, for,
his scribes wrote for him as he may
be preoccupied with other important
matters. A king would only dictate.
He ordered others to read and write
and the Qur'an says; "Do you order
others to do good things while you
refrain from it, and you read the
book, don't you think?"(2:44). These
Ayaths show us that the Prophet must
have learnt to read and write before
he ordered others to do it. If we
still believe that the Prophet was
illiterate, it would prove that we
have no common-sense. In fact we do
not have common-sense. We believe
that in the date system taught by
the Prophet, the date can be
different at different places in the
world while the day remained the
same everywhere! The following
example proves it.
For
example:
AD AH
• At Makkah = Tuesday =
23-01-1996 = 03-09-1416
• At Calicut = Tuesday =
23-01-1996 = 02-09-1416
• At Madras = Tuesday =
23-01-1996 = 01-09-1416
All the Muslims in the world believe
that the dates given for the Hijra
calendar are in order. How can three
dates (1,2 and 3) represent Tuesday?
Those who know that it is wrong are
dumb-founded because they should not
utter a word at a thing which the
'illiterate' Prophet had taught!
"Follow the revelation which is
revealed to you from your Lord."
(6:106). The Prophet is asked to
read. Who must read first? If we
have lost common-sense no one can
help us. The mischief-mongers have
fabricated false stories and said
that the Prophet was an illiterate
and we have believed it without
thinking, like the fish which
swallowed the bait that concealed a
hook attached to a line! It is the
Satan's trap set up in lure to drag
us into the hell without our notice.
This ignorance has taken us to the
plight of the lowest. All other
communities observe their festivals
in one day. They unite in their Eids.
But the Muslims believe that they
should not unite even on the new
year's day! Muslims have many new
year days in a year! If Makkah had
new year's day on Friday, Kerala
would have it on Saturday and
Tamilnadu on Sunday!
Now let us examine the historic
evidence to see whether the Prophet
knew how to write? A man who could
write must be able to read from a
book. This is again common-sense,
which we lack. The Hudaibiyya act is
a very important event in the
Islamic History. We need not go into
the details of it. To sum it up,
Hazrat Ali (r.a) was the scribe who
wrote the pact as dictated by the
Prophet. It read : "This is the
agreement between Muhammad, the
Prophet of Allah and the Quraish".
When it was read, the Quraish
objected to it saying that if they
had agreed that he was the Prophet
of Allah, there would not have been
a dispute, which ultimately led to
this pact. There upon the Prophet
ordered Ali to change it according
to their request. Hazrat Ali, out of
deep respect for the prophet did not
like to strike off "Rasoolullah" and
write Muhammad bin Abdullah. The
Prophet took the writing from him
and wrote with his own hand. "This
is what Muhammad the son of Abdullah
has decreed". This event is recorded
in Fat-hul Bari under the title
"what the Prophet wrote"
To those who have not read the real
Islamic literature and seen what
others have piled up in volumes to
denounce Islam, this would appear to
be an innovation and a novel idea.
We should understand that the
Sayyidul Mursaleen cannot be an
illiterate. History has recorded
that Moosa (asw) and Iesa (asw)
wrote books. How could the Prophet
be an illiterate?
Nabbiyyul Ummy is a title of the
Prophet because he was raised among
the Ummys. It is not in the literal
meaning of the word 'Ummy', that he
is addressed the Ummy Prophet. We
often call a dark man a fair man. It
is not at all strange to call a
person with a name bearing opposite
meaning. There are many examples for
this.
The Qur'an reads: "among them are
Ummys, they do not know the book
except by lip version. They only
guess things"(2:78). This is said
about the jews who perverted the
scriptures. Can the Muslims and the
other Prophets also be like the
Ummys, illiterate? Not at all,
Muslims and the Prophets must be
literate.
Because we degrade the Holy Prophet
to the level of a mere illiterate,
we are degraded and humiliated among
the people of the world. When a new
science is revealed we believe that
since the Prophet was an illiterate
his statement would be those of an
illiterate. When he said that if two
Muslims witnessed the onset of the
month you begin the fasting and if
two Muslims witnessed the passing
away of it you stop fasting, we are
not ready to believe even if the
whole Muslim world bore witness. We
believe that the Prophet was an
illiterate and how could he have the
knowledge about this age of science
and technology?
We believe that the Prophet would
have meant two witnesses from the
vicinity only and we think that we
must not accept the news from Makkah
because it is far away and we must
continue fasting even though the
Muslims at Makkah are celebrating
Eid! We do not know that the days
and dates are same for all in the
world. The Prophet had taught that
the days and the dates are common
for all, during the Hajjathul Wida
to a gathering from far and wide.
We do not know anything about time
management in the world. But the
Qur'an teaches us how to manage time
by ordering the followers to
establish the prayers punctually at
five definite times a day. Those
ahead in time must go ahead. Those
behind must act accordingly. But we
have no time sense, we postpone the
activities and lose the opportunity
given by Allah (swt).
Let us try to understand things and
try to be more sensible so that we
may be able to ward off humiliation
in this world and a severe
punishment in the hereafter. May
Allah guide us to the right path
(Amin)
By
Chairman, Hijra committee of India
Ernakulam 08-04-2001/14-01-1422 |
