in most cases, someone who cannot recite al-Fātihah properly. Thus, His words, exalted is He:

“Among them are unlettered people who know the Book only through recitation”

mean that they know the Book only as a recitation whose meaning they do not understand. This includes someone who has not previously learned to write or read and whose knowledge comes only from hearing recitations, as Ibn al-Sā’ib said. It also includes someone who recites it from memory but does not read it from a written copy, as Abū Rawq and Abū ʿUbaydah said.

It may be said that His words, “do not know the Book,” mean writing: that they cannot write and can only recite. It also includes someone who can write and recite but does not understand what he reads and writes. As Ibn ʿAbbās and Qatādah said, they are unfamiliar with the meanings of the Book: they know it through memorization and recitation, without understanding, and do not know what it contains.

The Book here means the revealed Book, namely the Torah; it does not mean writing, for He said:

“They do nothing but conjecture.”

This indicates that He denied them knowledge of the Book’s meanings. A man’s inability to write with his own hand does not necessarily mean that he has no knowledge and merely conjectures. Indeed, many who write with their own hands do not understand what they write, while many who do not write understand the meanings of what others write.

Moreover, Allah mentioned this in a passage censuring them. Yet there is nothing blameworthy in a man’s inability to write if he fulfills his obligations. Rather, the blame lies in his failure to understand