Among the divine blessings endowed to the believers in the Qur’an is that it abounds with verses praising knowledge acquisition and celebrating its elevated status. The first ever verses revealed are Allah Almighty saying, “Read, (O Prophet,) in the Name of your Lord Who created. He created humans from a clinging clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, Who taught by the pen. He taught humanity what they knew not.” (Qur’an, 96: 1-5) These five short verses contain a repeated commandment to read, an indication of the value of knowledge and learning, as well as a reference to the pen which is the tool of learning. This opening represents an Islamic celebration of knowledge and its high status, and a reminder of its critical role in distinguishing right from wrong and truth from falsehood.

Interestingly, the Prophet (pbuh) could not read or write. He never held a pen throughout his life, and he lived in an unlettered community that had no knowledge of reading or writing. Yet, the word “read” was the first divine word he heard, and it illumed his mind and heart. Here, learning was the first message addressed to people whose ears and hearts disinclined to knowledge and learning.

Besides, the unlettered Prophet (pbuh) was commanded to read at a time when he had no knowledge about reading or writing at all. Allah Almighty says about him, “You could not read any scripture before this (revelation), nor could you write at all. Otherwise, the people of falsehood would have been suspicious.” (Qur’an, 29: 48) As an aspect of its inimitability, this verse proves that the Prophet (pbuh) had knowledge despite his illiteracy, knowing that knowledge and illiteracy are almost opposite. Imam Al-Busairī referred to this miracle in his poem Al-Burdah [The Mantle], in which he addressed the Prophet (pbuh) saying,

Sufficient for you as a miracle

 Is such vast knowledge in that unlettered person

In the period of ignorance, 

As well as such refined character in an orphan. 

Here, knowledge refers to the Qur’anic encouragement to quest for wisdom, awareness and all that brings human happiness in this life and the life to come. It refers also to information about the Unseen, about former scriptures and former prophets, about ancient nations, and about future incidents that were yet to happen during the life of the Prophet (pbuh) exactly as foretold in the Qur’an.

The people of Quraysh were amazed at this unlettered person who had lived amongst them for forty years without ever seeking knowledge from the Persians, the Romans or even the Jews in Yathrib (Medina). Yet, he suddenly introduced to them words accurately conforming to science and logic. The words that came out of the Prophet’s mouth were neither false nor fabricated. However, they accused him of learning such knowledge from a Byzantine Christian who had lived in Makkah at the time and worked as a blacksmith making swords. That man would read the Torah and the Bible in a non-Arabic tongue. The Qur’an mocked such allegation and miraculously debunked it through the following verse, “We surely know that they say, ‘No one is teaching him except a human.’ But the man they refer to speaks a foreign tongue, whereas this (Qur’an) is in eloquent Arabic.” (Qur’an, 16: 103) The Qur’an derides them for that claim since the blacksmith’s language was other than Muhammad’s (pbuh) clear Arabic! It is noticeable here that the Qur’anic argument is based on the axiomatic historical fact that the Torah and the Bible had not been translated into Arabic at that time. This fact constitutes the core of the Qur’anic argument against the Quraysh’s allegation. The sheer idea of an Arabic translation of those two divine scriptures in the Arabian Peninsula during Muhammad’s time would undermine the Qur’anic argument and would allow the Quraysh to accuse Muhammad (pbuh) of “deriving knowledge from the Byzantine [blacksmith] through an Arabic translation; and thus your argument is not sustained”!  

Consider the absolute confidence then filling the heart of Muhammad (pbuh) when encountering those people and challenging them to refer to any Arabic translation of the Torah and the Bible at that time. It was not until the mid-20th century when in-depth Arabic research into the history of religions was thriving that specialized Western scholars decided that the first Arabic translation of the Torah and the Bible appeared at least two hundred years after the death of Muhammad (pbuh). How could that unlettered Prophet (pbuh) so confidently confront the Quraysh with that challenge, knowing that the fact he introduced was only proven in the 20th century?! How could he challenge them with something that required comprehensive survey of everything written in Arabic in the Arabian Peninsula, especially the writings found in monasteries and temples in the Levant?! Could such a challenge not be a revelation from Allah, from whom nothing on earth or in the heavens is hidden!

It was expected that the first verses of the Noble Qur’an would awaken the instinct of belief in Allah Almighty, being the fundamental principle in religions. However, the Qur’an opened its message to people by bringing knowledge and learning to the fore. It then warned them that belief in Islam is primarily based on knowledge and rational consideration, not on ‘emotional submission’ that is dissociated from reasoning and demonstration.