and thus they say: “It is not valid for someone who can recite to follow an unlettered person in prayer, but an unlettered person may follow another unlettered person,” and discuss similar rulings. By “unlettered” here, they mean someone who cannot perform the obligatory recitation, regardless of whether he can write or do arithmetic. Some forms of this unlettered condition constitute neglect of an obligation for which a person is liable to punishment—if he is able to learn but neglects to do so.

Other forms are blameworthy, such as the condition Allah, Almighty and Majestic, described among the People of the Book when He said:

“Among them are unlettered people who know the Scripture only through mere recitation, and do nothing but conjecture.”

This describes someone who neither understands Allah’s words nor acts upon them, but confines himself to merely reciting them. As al-Hasan al-Basrī said: “The Quran was revealed to be acted upon, but they made reciting it their action.” The unlettered person here may recite the words of the Quran or other writings without understanding them. Indeed, he may speak on matters of knowledge on the basis of superficial statements and conjecture. Such a person is also blameworthily unlettered, as Allah condemned him, because he lacks obligatory knowledge, whether it is an individual or a collective obligation.

Still other forms involve [forgoing] what is better and more complete, as with someone who recites only part of the Quran, understands only what concerns him, and understands of the Sharia only what is obligatory