He recited Allah’s Book at the beginning of the night;
By its end, he had met his destined death.

Ummiyyūn (unlettered people) is derived from umma (community). Some say it refers to the community and the condition of ordinary people; thus an ummī is an ordinary person without discernment. Al-Zajjāj said: “He retains the disposition of a community that has not received instruction, remaining in his natural state.” Others said that it is derived from umma, because writing was practiced by men rather than women, and because such a person remains as his mother bore him.

The correct view is that it is derived from umma, just as ʿāmmī (commoner) is derived from ʿāmma (the common people), who have not distinguished themselves from the populace through the qualities that set the elite apart. Likewise, an unlettered person has not distinguished himself from the community through the reading and writing that distinguish its elite. The term ummī is applied to someone who cannot read or write a book. It is also applied to people who have no Book revealed by Allah to read, even though they may read and write material that was not revealed.

In this sense, all the Arabs were unlettered, for they had no Book revealed by Allah. Allah Most High said:

“And say to those who were given the Scripture and to the unlettered, ‘Have you submitted yourselves?’ If they submit, they are rightly guided.”

He also said:

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

Many Arabs could write and read written texts, yet they were all unlettered. When the Quran was revealed to them, they were no longer unlettered in the sense of being unable to recite a Book from memory. Rather, they recited the Quran from memory, and their gospels were in their breasts. They remained unlettered, however, in the sense that they had no need to write down their religion; rather, their Quran was preserved in their hearts