Moreover, his statement:

“We are an unlettered community”

is not a command, for they were unlettered before the revealed law came, as Allah Most High says:

“It is He who has sent among the unlettered a Messenger from themselves.”

And He says:

“And say to those who were given the Scripture and to the unlettered, ‘Have you submitted yourselves?’”

Since this was already their condition before the Prophet’s mission, they were not being commanded to adopt it. They might, however, be commanded to retain some of its associated rulings, for we shall explain that they were not commanded to remain in their former condition in every respect.

If it is asked: Why could this not be a purely factual statement that they do not engage in writing and calculation and are not obliged to do so, since they have another method available to them? It would then provide no evidence that writing and calculation are prohibited, but only that they are not obligatory. Being unlettered is, after all, a deficiency rather than a perfection, so someone in that condition is more deserving of being excused than praised.

The reply is: This interpretation is untenable, because the community to which Allah sent him included many who could read and write, as was the case among his Companions, and some who could calculate. He (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent with the laws of inheritance, with all the calculations they entail. It is also authentically reported from him (peace and blessings be upon him) that when his zakat collector, Ibn al-Lutbiyya, returned, he examined his accounts. He also had several scribes—such as Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Zayd and Muʿāwiya—who wrote down the revelation, drew up agreements, and wrote his letters to people—to those to whom Allah had sent him