If Muhammad was illiterate! Why didn't he ever learned and lived his life illiterate?

Question

Do you know or wondered why! He advocated that Muslims should be educated, but he wasn't. Why not!
just wondering why he didn't.

Answer 1

It has been part of the Muslim’s belief, based on traditions, that Prophet Muhammad was illiterate. God says in verse 29:51 that the Quran itself is the only miracle of the prophet. By alleging illiteracy for him, traditional Muslims were trying to make the claim even "more miraculous," for a book of such literary quality was sent down through an illiterate man. This is despite the many assertions in the Quran to the contrary. The first Quranic revelation that came down to Muhammad is, "Read! In the name of your Lord who creates...." (96:1) It is clear that this is also a commandment. To all of us, including the prophet, God stresses the importance of literacy in the very first revelation. Furthermore, the second revelation is "The Pen" which indicates again the importance of written communication. This makes the importance of literacy even more compelling. If indeed Muhammad was an illiterate man when the Quran was first revealed to him, how could he not make himself learn to read and write during the twenty some years of his mission? Perhaps a more poignant question should be, "How dare he not to obey his Lord’s clear commandment to read and write?" Being a messenger of God, of course he would not dare disobeying his Lord.
A still more transparent picture emerges from the interesting incident described in Quran 25:4-5. In this verse, Muhammad’s opponents who rejected the divine source of the Quran accused him of fabricating narrations. "Tales from the past that he wrote down; they were dictated to him day and night," or so they alleged. This is a clear Quranic evidence that Prophet Muhammad was a literate man. Not only was Muhammad accused of writing down what he heard, one cannot dictate to an illiterate person. Some have argued that this is not a solid proof, since the statement came from shady characters, in this case from Muhammad’s enemies. But this argument is in itself weak. We may have a good reason to suspect the material content of the allegation (namely that Muhammad fabricated the Quran). However, there is no good reason to doubt the peripheral issue mentioned, i.e. Muhammad’s writing and his friends’ dictation to him, since they had no reason to lie on this issue. On the other hand, it sheds light of confirmation on the importance of reading and writing in God’s eyes, and the prophet’s adherence to it.

It was also a well known historical fact that Muhammad was a successful merchant before his call as a messenger prophet. As a matter of necessity, he obviously knew how to count. During his time, the numeral system as we know it today was not in use. The numerals that we use today, known as the Arabic numeral system, were invented after Islam. Historically, letters were used to represent numbers before the numeral system was invented. This is true in all Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, and other languages as well. For example, the Roman numerals came from the Roman alphabets. Therefore, since Muhammad knew how to count numbers as a merchant, he should also know how to read and write a transaction. This is a reasonable enough argument.

The Muslim scholars derived the illiteracy concept for Muhammad from verses 7:157-158 of the Quran. They say that the word ummy means illiterate. It is true that in today’s standard Arabic, "illiterate" is one of the meaning of this word. But this is not a compelling evidence, since "gentile" is also another meaning of it. In fact, if we study the Quran carefully where this word is found, its usage has always been in the context of "the people of the scripture" vs. "the gentiles" (see for example 3:20, 3:75, 62:2, 2:78). It is even possible to surmise that the "illiterate" meaning is secondary. It came to be used after the Quran was revealed, since it is reasonable to deduct "illiterate" as the opposite of "those who can read." This in turn may well be coming from "those who read the book," or "those who received the book," or "the people of the book" (ahl al-Kitab), which is precisely the opposite of "the gentiles."

It is interesting that in his book "Sirat Rasul Allah," the 8th century historian Ibn Ishaq also recorded a written communication between Prophet Muhammad and one of his contemporaries. Ibn Ishaq wrote one of the earliest chronicles of Islam (he was born in Medina some 85 years after the Hijra), and his book predates hadith collections by at least a century. Of course, as with any historical records (of which the hadith collection is one), we must apply a certain degree of judgment. Our primary criterion is of course information from God’s revelation, i.e. the Quran. Therefore, some things that Ibn Ishaq (or anyone else for that matter) wrote, which clearly disagree with the Quran, we can easily reject. On the other hand, other records that support the Quran can be accepted as part of history. What follows, therefore, is a historical record from early Islam.

Answer 2

From the Qur'aan: "He (Allaah) it is Who sent among the unlettered ones a Messenger (Muhammad) from among themselves, reciting to them His Verses, purifying them (from the filth of disbelief and polytheism), and teaching them the Book (this Qur'aan,) and the Wisdom (meaning the Sunnah: legal ways, orders, acts of worship, etc. of Prophet Muhammad). And verily, they had been before in manifest error. [Jumu'ah 62:2]
unlettered - cannot read or write
Education can mean many things. Muhammad salal lahu alay he wasalam (peace & blessings be upon him), was the most knowledgeable of mankind regarding the religion. Allaah sent him the Quraan (God's word) through an angel. Allaah willed for him to be illiterate. Had He willed He could have chosen another man to be the last prophet, He is All-Powerful. One of the reasons He chose Muhammad as an illiterate prophet is so the arabs would have no arguement when accusing him of writing the Quraan. Muhammad did not write the Quraan, but rather it was revealed to him. He also lived in a time when it was not too uncommon for someone to live a normal life without being able to read or write, in fact the arabs of that time had a great oral tradition. Furthermore, there was no need for him to compile the Quraan in written form because it was preserved orally. It was only compiled after his death by his righteous companions. Allaah had decreed for his companions to compile the Quraan, not the Prophet. When he said Muslims should be educated, this means they should be educated in their religion not specifically that they should learn to read or write. If you wish to learn about Islam please go to http://spubs.com
there you can learn Islam starting with the most basic and most important aspect, worshiping one God alone without any partners. Once you have understood this, these matters will become clear to you inshallah.

Answer 3

Well lets see...that was about 1300 years ago or more....they didn't really have college per se back then, the bulk of the population didn't know how to read....
I am going to take a "stab in the dark" and say that when he is talking about Muslims educating themselves, he is saying that a Muslim has a duty to memorize the Koran, to educate themselves to the fullest possibility IN THEIR RELIGION, not in every day education.
You have to be careful and not compare now to then, because obviously what was considered an education now (college, etc.) was not the same then...

Think about it: nowadays you need to be able to read to perform most jobs, not so back then..

Answer 4

He used to be a pervert who married 12 extra occasions after the demise of Khadijah.The motives are given underneath one million) He married Ayesha whilst she used to be simplest nine years historic.. Can you supply different examples from Arab historical past wherein a few man in his fifties marries a nine-eleven 12 months historic lady? Only a pedophile could do this. two) Mohammed married his followed son's spouse on the age of fifty three. Only a pervert could do this. Mohammed married Zaynab who used to be his followed son Zaid's spouse. Zainab used to be a lovely girl. three) He additionally married a Jewish Slave lady named Safiyah whilst he used to be fifty four historic. Safiyah used to be additionally good recognized for her cosmetic. Mohammed additionally had a Coptic slave named Mariah who used to be present from the Governor of Alexandria.

Answer 5

Someone else in here just said that he wrote the Koran, so does anyone have proof one way or the other about whether he was literate?

Answer 6

Ask Allah.

Type down the word "God" in this Aramaic dictionary to find out what Jesus used to call God:
http://www.peshitta.org/lexicon/

Look at the name used here :
http://www.learnassyrian.com/aramaic/church/church.html


….

Answer 7

Probably for the same reason that my father, who was a H.S. dropout wanted me to go to college...

Answer 8

You realize that you used the word 'if' right?