If Muhammad was illiterate, why does Sahih Hadith such as Bukhari say he used to write letters?

Prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him) was illiterate. Before Allah sent His first revelation, Prophet Muhammad used to worship alone in a cave called " Hira". He was forty at that time when the angel Jibraiel(A.S.) came to him while he was in Hira and asked him to read. The Prophet said," I don't know to read". Jibraiel again asked him to read but got the same reply. Jibraiel asked him to read three times but The Prophet gave him the same answer. Then Jibraiel held his arm firmly and started reciting the verses of First Revelation,

"READ! In the name of The Lord, who created. He created man from the clot of blood. Read! And your Lord is the most merciful Who taught by pen and told you which you didn't know"(Al- Quran)

Just after Jibraiel finished reading these verses, the prophet went back to his home and narrated the whole matter to his wife.

Just after the first revelation, the Prophet was no more an illiterate.

Obviously he was not but the sects benefit from propagating this myth. To base your convictions on secondary sources both as a source of belief or attacking the Muslim faith is plain nuts. There is no sound base for these reports and all of them stand impossible to verify.

Allow me to add, howcome most people tend to hear only one side of the story? Of course there is something comforting about walling yourself off from inconvenient truth, or as somebody once put it; spending your time in ideological “cocoons.” . It is easy to hang around people and/or sites where you are part of a choir than to raise your hand and ask the tough questions. Like how do you know what you know and what makes it the truth?

Edit: M@ Where does it say in the entire chapter Al-Alaq

; Muhammad replied, "I can't read", here is the entire chapter ...

Recite in the name of your Lord who created - (1) Created man from a clinging substance. (2) Recite, and your Lord is the most Generous - (3) Who taught by the pen - (4) Taught man that which he knew not. (5) No! [But] indeed, man transgresses (6) Because he sees himself self-sufficient. (7) Indeed, to your Lord is the return. (8) Have you seen the one who forbids (9) A servant when he prays? (10) Have you seen if he is upon guidance (11) Or enjoins righteousness? (12) Have you seen if he denies and turns away - (13) Does he not know that Allah sees? (14) No! If he does not desist, We will surely drag him by the forelock - (15) A lying, sinning forelock. (16) Then let him call his associates; (17) We will call the angels of Hell. (18) No! Do not obey him. But prostrate and draw near [to Allah]. (19)

I guess it never stops (claiming stuff is in the Quran when in reality it has nothing to do with Quran)

Edit: John@ I am responding to //// (1) In the Qur'an, 96:1, Gibreel said "iqra" = read.

Muhammad replied, "I can't read". ////

when someone is deemed illiterate, according to US school standards,, they have less than a 6th grade writing/reading skill..

Mohammed might have known how to write his name, or scratch a bit or read some letters, but he by no means was able to read and write out the elaborate skill of arabic in which the quran was written in..

and also, what you've written out up there, doesnt mean Mohammed himself wrote it.. quite possibly, he asked someone to fetch him a quill and ink, and have a scribe write for him as he dictated..

He had sahabah writing for him as well.. but he could read after the first revelation. Before that he could not read nor write.

There are several (not one or two) examples of him appearing to be able to write in the sunnah/hadith.

I am afraid Muslims have no leg to stand on when it comes to trying to convince others that it is not the case.

Contort, twist and massage all one wants but the facts are that he is recorded to have been literate.

They can talk about metaphors etc all they like. It simply doesn't stick.

John

@ Life Guru: Look in the hadith. The OP is asking about the ahadith; not the quran

Prophet saas dictated many letters which were stamped by his seal .

Learn islam from authentic islamic sources before asking(24/7) questions copy pasted from hate websites.

where is the documentation? number of the hadith please?

The first hadith is talking about the seal.

It did not mean that he personally wrote the letter. Like for example when a "king writes a letter to another one" , this phrase does not mean that the king personally wrote the letter in his bare hands.

You made use of it ha?

second one is not literal. In Arabic when we marry , we say "

katabt ktaby ma3 Sarah

means LITERALLY " i wrote my marriage contract with Sarah"

but i did not write it O.o

even when we want to refer to the marriage contract in Arabic we say, "katb alkitab"

katb is derived from the word "kataba" meaning write.

tell even christians and they will tell u that the groom did not write it with his bare hands but its just said that to indicate that i married.

third one:

give the full hadith please.

@M:

Gabriel pbuh told Mohammad pbuh the word "iqra" means read and Mohammad pbuh replied "" ma' ana biqari'" / " i cannot read" but when Gabriel continued reading, "iqra" turned to be a word from an ayah ! Thats the question. Then Mohammad pbuh memorized after Gabriel was reciting after him as in every revelations.

your second point is vulnerable and can't be near the truth.

thirdly,

Ibn 'Abbas said, "When the ailment of the Prophet became worse, he said, 'Bring for me (writing) paper and I will write for you a statement after which you will not go astray.' But 'Umar said, 'The Prophet is seriously ill, and we have got Allah's Book with us and that is sufficient for us.' But the companions of the Prophet differed about this and there was a hue and cry. On that the Prophet said to them, 'Go away (and leave me alone). It is not right that you should quarrel in front of me." Ibn 'Abbas came out saying, "It was most unfortunate (a great disaster) that Allah's Apostle was prevented from writing that statement for them because of their disagreement and noise. (Note: It is apparent from this Hadith that Ibn 'Abbes had witnessed the event and came out saying this statement. The truth is not so, for Ibn 'Abbas used to say this statement on narrating the Hadith and he had not witnessed the event personally. See Fath Al-Bari Vol. 1, p.220 footnote.) (See Hadith No. 228, Vol. 4).

It could mean that he does not want to write it with his bare hands because he was ill and sick but wanted to show them a statement that will be written by his companions.

This doesn't mean he wrote it himself.They are talking idiomatically meaning they are saying this for he spoke the words himself someone else wrote the letters and the last statement for him.

Maybe he learned to read.

Most of the Muslims believe that Muhammad was illiterate.

But there are few points.

(1) In the Qur'an, 96:1, Gibreel said "iqra" = read.

Muhammad replied, "I can't read".

He was afraid and told Khadija to wrap him etc etc.

Now, was Gibreel the Allah's voice unaware of illiteracy of Muhammad?

Or Muhammad was lying?

Secondly many translators tried to translate iqra as recite.

Now, can't Muhammad recite if a small child can recite the Qur'an, after all he was prophet?

Whatever may be the matter.

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(2) Quranist like Rashad Khalifa (whom Muslims reject) was quite confident that Muhammad was literate and the word ummy/ummi (Q. 7:157-158 ) means "gentile".

Also some Muslims say ummi means "one who has no book".

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(3) The third reference that you missed is:

Narrated 'Ubaidullah bin 'Abdullah:

Ibn 'Abbas said, "When the ailment of the Prophet became worse, he said, 'Bring for me (writing) paper and I will write for you a statement after which you will not go astray.' ...

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 3, Number 114)

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(4) ...An Angel came to him and asked him to read. Allah's Apostle replied, 'I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO READ.' The Prophet added, "Then the Angel held me (forcibly) and pressed me so hard that I felt distressed. Then he released me and again asked me to read, and I replied, 'I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO READ.'Thereupon he held me again and pressed me for the second time till I felt distressed. He then released me and asked me to read, but again I replied. 'I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO READ.' Thereupon he held me for the third time and pressed me till I got distressed, and then he released me and said, 'read, in the Name of your Lord Who has created (all that exists), has created man out of a clot, read! And your Lord is the Most Generous. Who has taught (the writing) by the pen, has taught man that which he knew not." (96.1-5). ...

(Sahih Bukhari, Book #87, Hadith #111)