—Ibn ʿUtbah, from his father, said: “The Prophet ﷺ did not pass away until he had both read and written.” (1)

I remark: Nothing has been reported of the Prophet ﷺ actually writing anything except what is found in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, namely that on the day of the Treaty of al-Ḥudaybiyyah he wrote his own name, “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh.” (2)

Judge Abū al-Walīd al-Bāji (3) used this as proof, whereupon a number of Andalusian jurists objected, denounced him as an innovator, and some even charged him with unbelief.

Yet the matter is slight: writing his blessed name does not strip him of the description ummī, “unlettered.” Many kings know nothing of writing beyond affixing their personal sign, and people do not consider them scribes—rather, they remain unlettered. Isolated cases carry no weight; rulings rest on what is predominant.

Out of His wisdom, Allah Most High did not inspire His Prophet to learn writing or to read books, thereby cutting off any pretext for the falsifiers, as He said: “You never recited any scripture before it, nor did you write it with your right hand; otherwise, those who follow falsehood would have doubted.” (al-ʿAnkabūt 29:48)

Even so, they fabricated and said: “It is nothing but fables of the former peoples which he has had written down; they are dictated to him morning and evening.” (al-Furqān 25:5)

Look, then, at the insolence of the obstinate! Who in Mecca at the time of his mission possessed knowledge of the stories of the messengers and the bygone nations? In truth, not a single person in Mecca had such knowledge.

What, then, would prevent the Prophet ﷺ—given his extraordinary intelligence, sharp understanding, and constant association with those who wrote down revelation before him and the letters sent to the various kings—from learning to write his own name and that of his father? Moreover, his signet-seal was in his own hand,