Was the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ Able to Read or Write? Understanding the Meaning of ‘Ummi’ in the Qur’an
Question:
Dr Amsha Nahid from Australia asked the following question:
Assalamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
Dear Shaykh,
I read an article claiming that the word ‘Ummi’ in the Qur’an means “gentile” (non-Jew) or someone unfamiliar with the Law of Musa (2:78), not “illiterate.” I heard your YouTube Q&A explaining ‘Ummi’ beautifully, but could you please also clarify whether the Prophet ﷺ was able to read or write?
May Allah reward you abundantly in this life and the next.
Answer:
The description of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as Ummi is one of his unique and divinely appointed attributes. It was not a mere circumstance of birth or upbringing, but a deliberate distinction granted to him by Allah as part of the intellectual and rational miracle that supported his Prophethood. Allah made Ummiyyah an essential aspect of his prophetic identity, completing his attribute of risālah (messengership) and demonstrating that his knowledge, wisdom, and eloquence were entirely divine in origin, bestowed through revelation, not acquired through reading, writing, or study..Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
The Prophet’s Ummiya was as essential to his Prophethood as the virginity of Maryam (ʿalayhā al-salām) was to the miraculous birth of ʿĪsā (ʿalayhi al-salām). Just as Maryam’s virginity was the clear proof that ʿĪsā was born without a father, the Prophet’s inability to read or write was the manifest proof that he did not compose or invent the Qur’an. Both miracles serve the same divine purpose: to establish beyond doubt that what occurred was entirely by Allah’s will and power, with no human influence or authorship involved.
Ordinarily, being unlettered is seen as a deficiency. However, in the case of the Prophet ﷺ, it became a mark of perfection and a sign of divine truth. His Ummiyyah was not a lack of learning but a form of miraculous independence from human means of knowledge. His understanding was not shaped by schools, books, or teachers. Rather, his heart was directly illuminated by divine revelation and wisdom. Through this, Allah demonstrated that true knowledge and guidance come from Him alone, not from human instruction. Allah Most High declares in the Qur’an: وَمَا كُنْتَ تَتْلُو مِنْ قَبْلِهِ مِنْ كِتَابٍ وَلَا تَخُطُّهُ بِيَمِينِكَ إِذًا لَارْتَابَ الْمُبْطِلُونَ “You did not recite any book before it, nor did you write it with your right hand. Otherwise, those who deny the truth would have doubted.”
[Al-ʿAnkabūt 29:48]
This verse provides decisive evidence that the Prophet ﷺ neither read nor wrote before the revelation of the Qur’an. The verse also clarifies why this state was divinely decreed: so that no one could doubt the miraculous nature of the Qur’an or claim that he had derived it from previous scriptures or scholarly study. His Ummiyyah thus acted as a divine safeguard and a public proof of his truthfulness.
Had the Prophet ﷺ been known to read and write, the unbelievers could have alleged that he had access to previous texts or the teachings of scholars, and that he had drawn upon them to compose the Qur’an. But the Arabs of his time, his family, his tribe, and even his enemies, knew with certainty that he had never read a book or written a line in his life. When he came forth with the Qur’an, unmatched in its linguistic mastery, depth of knowledge, and perfect consistency, they were left with no explanation except divine revelation. In the authentic hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said: إنا أمة أمية، لا نكتب ولا نحسب، الشهر هكذا وهكذا “We are an unlettered nation; we do not write or calculate. The month is like this and this,” meaning sometimes twenty-nine and sometimes thirty days (al-Bukhārī and Muslim).
The term Ummi in Arabic is well-established as referring to one who neither reads nor writes. Yet, while reading and writing are the means by which human beings normally acquire knowledge, the Prophet ﷺ received perfect, comprehensive, and divinely protected knowledge directly through revelation. His intellect, understanding, and insight were not the products of study or scholarship; rather, they were divinely granted and safeguarded from error.
In other words, his Ummiya was not a shortcoming but a miracle. Through it, Allah showed that the Prophet ﷺ attained perfect understanding and the highest form of knowledge without the conventional means. He became the teacher of all teachers, the source of divine guidance for humanity, though he had never studied under any human instructor.
Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimahu Allah) described this with great clarity, saying: “His lack of writing, despite achieving all the purposes and benefits of writing, was among his greatest virtues and most magnificent miracles.”
This means that although the Prophet ﷺ did not possess the ability to read or write, he attained and conveyed knowledge more perfectly than any scholar, philosopher, or writer could ever hope to do. His message transformed nations and guided humanity for all generations, a clear proof that his wisdom was not humanly acquired but divinely bestowed.
Some have raised the question of whether the Prophet ﷺ might have written his name at the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. Reports differ: some scholars considered that if he did so, it was a momentary miracle rather than an acquired skill, while others said that he merely pointed to the place where his name was to be written. In either case, this does not alter the fact that the Prophet ﷺ was not a reader or writer by training or habit, as explicitly affirmed in the Qur’an and established by the consensus of scholars.
You Might Also Like:
Islam’s Unique Civilisation: Unity of Faith, Culture and History
Exploring Al-Jahiz on Eloquence: Cross-Cultural Definitions of Balaghah in Al-Bayan wa Al-Tabyeen
