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Muhammad and illiteracy: Difference between revisions
modern scholars "virtually unanimous" that ummi does not mean illiterate
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'''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. | '''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 as illiterate, and that this was a reinterpretation arising some time after his death. | ||
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===The word ''ummiy'' in the Quran=== | ===The word ''ummiy'' in the Quran=== | ||
The word ''ummiy'' (أمي) appears 6 times in the Quran. Two times in the singular in relation to Muhammad himself (verses 7:157-158) and four times in the plural form (verses 2:78, 3:20, 3:75 and 62:2). <ref>http://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=Amm</ref> From these verses quoted below we will see that the word doesn't have to necessarily mean "illiterate", but can also mean "ignorant" or "not given a scripture". | The word ''ummiy'' (أمي) appears 6 times in the Quran. Two times in the singular in relation to Muhammad himself (verses 7:157-158) and four times in the plural form (verses 2:78, 3:20, 3:75 and 62:2). <ref>http://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=Amm</ref> From these verses quoted below we will see that the word doesn't have to necessarily mean "illiterate", but can also mean "ignorant" or "not given a scripture". | ||
Mehdy Shaddel says that modern academic scholars "virtually unanimously" agree that the Arabic word ummi did not mean that the Prophet is illiterate, contrary to the Islamic tradition. In at least three of the six verses where the word appears such an interpretation does not fit. This is also true of its usage in many cases in the hadith tradition. It is less easy to positively determine exactly what it did mean, though in general it is now believed to mean gentile i.e. coming from an unscriptured people.<ref>Mehdy Shaddel, [https://www.academia.edu/8811286 Qurʾānic ummī: Genealogy, Ethnicity, and the Foundation of a New Community] (Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 43, 2016, pp. 1-60)</ref> | |||
In his commentary on the Quran, Gabriel Said Reynolds (a modern academic scholar) points to verse 3:20 as evidence that the word refers to those who do not know the word of God (similarly verses 3:75 and 62:2).<ref>Reynolds, Gabriel Said, "The Quran and Bible:Text and Commentary", New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018 p.54 (commentary on Q. 2:78-9)</ref> Thus, Muhammad is described as an ummi prophet in verses 7:157-158 because he came from a people to whom God had not yet sent down revelation, not because he was illiterate. As Reynolds further points out (crediting Holger Zelletin), verses 29:47-48, which are commonly cited to interpret the other verses on this topic, deny that Muhammad wrote the Quran himself, yet this does not imply that he could not read: | In his commentary on the Quran, Gabriel Said Reynolds (a modern academic scholar) points to verse 3:20 as evidence that the word refers to those who do not know the word of God (similarly verses 3:75 and 62:2).<ref>Reynolds, Gabriel Said, "The Quran and Bible:Text and Commentary", New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018 p.54 (commentary on Q. 2:78-9)</ref> Thus, Muhammad is described as an ummi prophet in verses 7:157-158 because he came from a people to whom God had not yet sent down revelation, not because he was illiterate. As Reynolds further points out (crediting Holger Zelletin), verses 29:47-48, which are commonly cited to interpret the other verses on this topic, deny that Muhammad wrote the Quran himself, yet this does not imply that he could not read: | ||