too has a sound construction; the wording was not intended to confine the subject to the predicate. A comparable expression is the saying, “The pilgrimage is ʿArafah.” It is obvious that a man does not become a pilgrim merely by standing on ʿArafah; rather, the saying mentions the principal component of the pilgrimage—and, likewise, the principal component of prophethood—because the most perfect qualities of a prophet are knowledge and action, and no one can be a prophet unless he is both learned and practicing.

True, prophethood is a gift from Allah Most High, granted to whomever He selects from among those already distinguished by knowledge and righteous deeds; human agency can never procure it. From this gift there arises sound, beneficial knowledge. Still, to quote the statement transmitted from Abū Ḥātim without qualification is impermissible, for it is, in essence, a purely philosophical notion (1).

Another engaging example is al-Dhahabī’s discussion of whether the Prophet ﷺ could write. In his biography of the ḥāfiẓ and distinguished scholar Abū al-Walīd Sulaymān ibn Khalaf al-Bājī (d. 474 AH) he relates:

“When Abū al-Walīd examined the ḥadith in al-Bukhārī about writing on the Day of Ḥudaybiyyah, he interpreted it according to its outward wording. The jurist Abū Bakr ibn al-Ṣāʾigh denounced him for that and declared him an unbeliever for allowing the possibility that letters were written by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the Unlettered Prophet, considering such a view a denial of the Quran. Others who failed to grasp the issue then took up the matter, branding him seditious, and their preachers vilified him before the general public in the Friday sermons. One of their poets even recited:

I disavow the one who barters the Hereafter for this world
and claims the Messenger of Allah once wrote.

Abū al-Walīd composed a treatise proving that this view does not undermine the prophetic miracle, and through it a number of people retracted their censure.”

[Al-Dhahabī adds:] “I say: Not everyone who can write nothing more than his own name thereby ceases to be classed as unlettered, for such a person is not called a scribe. Many kings have grown accustomed to affixing their signature, yet they remain illiterate; rulings follow what is predominant, not an occasional anomaly. The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘We are an unlettered community,’ meaning that most of us are so, for writing was scarce among the Companions. Allah, Exalted is He, says, ‘He it is who sent among the unlettered…’”}