The Unlettered Prophet

The Unlettered Prophet

Muhammad had not studied philosophy in the schools of Athens or Rome, Alexandria,

India or China, yet he could proclaim the highest truths of eternal values to mankind.

Born as an orphan and blessed with no worldly goods, yet he was loved by all. He had

studied at no military academy, yet he could organize his forces against tremendous

odds and gained victories through the moral forces that he marshaled. In the person of

the Prophet of Islam, the world has seen the most exceptional union of a prophet,

organizer, and leader. He was unlettered, yet he could speak with an eloquence and

fervor that moved men to tears of ecstasy.

297

His supposed weakness (being unlettered) was his greatest miracle. He was

among Arabs who considered the mastering of their language as important as their

pride. When the Quran was revealed, the beauty of the language of the Quran

overwhelmed the Arabs. They were astounded by the rhetorical miracle of the language.

Allah challenged the Arabs to compose ten verses like the Quran. When the Arabs

failed, He challenged them to compose only one verse. Once again, they failed. Like

Moses’ and Jesus’ miracles, the miracle of Muhammad (the Quran) is in the subject that

his people perfected, mastered and held in high regard.

Before the revelation, Muhammad was not known to be among those who

mastered the language. It is a known fact that no one can master a language

instantaneously at the age of forty. So when Muhammad started reciting the Quran to his

people, they accused him of being possessed by evil spirits, because they had not seen

him talking this way. Any Arab-speaking student can differentiate right away between

any verse in the Quran and a statement from the Prophet. None of the thousands verses

in the Quran has any similarity in style to any of the thousands sayings of the Prophets.

Because the Arabs did not see anything like the Quran, which was narrated by an

unlettered man, and they denied the message, they concluded that the Quran must have

been from evil spirits. This is a classic case in all religions. It is the same old story:

• Pharaoh accused Moses with black magic, and that Moses was possessed with evil

spirits, Surah 20, Ayah 71.

• The Jews accused Jesus with black magic, and that Jesus was possessed with evil

spirits, Luke 11:15

• The pagan Arabs accused Muhammad with black magic, and that Muhammad was

possessed with evil spirits.

• Now, some Christians and the Jews accuse Muhammad with black magic, and that

Muhammad was possessed with evil spirits in Sunday schools and by half the truth

TV evangelists!

•

The Quran refers to the accusation of the pagan Arabs to Muhammad in many

verses:

Surah 51, Ayah 52 “Similarly, no apostle came to the Peoples before them, but they

said (of him) in like manner, "A sorcerer, or one possessed"!”

298

Surah 25, Ayah 5 “And they say: "Tales of the ancients, which he has caused to be

written: and they are dictated before him morning and evening."

The pagans spread the rumor that Muhammad, similar to all previous prophets, was a

sorcerer, or one possessed with evil spirit. When the beauty and power of the Quran are

pointed out, and its miracle as coming from an unlettered man, the pagans hint at other

men wrote them, though they could not produce any one who could write anything like

the Quran.