an unlettered nation; we neither write nor calculate.’ (1)

That is because the majority of them were indeed like that, while only a few could write. Allah the Exalted says, ‘He is the One who sent among the unlettered a messenger from among themselves’ (Al-Jumuʿah 62:2).

Thus his words ﷺ, ‘nor do we calculate,’ are true, yet he knew the passage of years, basic arithmetic, the distribution of fayʾ (state revenues from war) and the shares of inheritance—by the innate Arab method of reckoning, not by the Coptic computation, nor by algebra (jabr) and equation (muqābala). May my father and my very soul be ransomed for him ﷺ! He was the master of the intelligent, and it is hardly conceivable that a man of such acumen would dictate revelation, royal letters and other documents to his scribes, continually see his noble name on his seal, and, over all that time, remain unaware of its form. None of this removes him from being described as unlettered.

Some scholars have even counted what he wrote on the Day of Ḥudaybiyyah among his miracles, since he did not know writing yet wrote. If someone were to claim that writing is impossible for him, then, were he actually to write, a sceptic would doubt and say, ‘He was skilled in calligraphy and had studied the writings of the ancients.’

We reply: He never wrote enough lines for such people to harbour those suspicions. Indeed, one might say that had he, after so many years in which documents were written before him, declared, ‘I do not know how to write my own name that is on my seal,’ the same sceptics would still have doubted and would have said, ‘He is the height of intelligence—how can he not know that? Rather, he does know it but claims ignorance.’ Their misgivings would then have been even greater and their denial more emphatic. Allah knows best.

As for the ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir, he relates that Abū al-Walīd said, ‘My father was from Bāja in al-Qayrawān, a merchant who used to travel back and forth to al-Andalus.’ (2)