Combat illiteracy

It is sad and annoying that the rate of illiteracy in the Muslim nation approximates 80% and that the Islamic World as a whole is considered a part of the group of the developing countries, which is a nicer way of referring to undeveloped countries, or what is also called the third world. There may even be some countries who might go even lower and be considered on their own as a fourth world!

It is a great shame on the Muslims to remain in such a situation of illiteracy and backwardness, while their religion constitutes the greatest incitement to learning and progress. It even provides them with the material and social conditions as well as the psychological and intellectual context to allow them to extirpate themselves from ignorance into knowledge, from primitive life into civilisation and from obscurantism into enlightenment.

As far as we know, Islam was the first religion which initiated the war against ignorance and illiteracy, and called for education, and the valorisation of knowledge and its people. Suffice it to quote the Messenger 's (PBUH) saying, "Learning is an obligation of each Muslim'' ( This was related by Ibn Majah and others, quoting Anas. In the text of the Hadith there is no specific mention of female Muslims because what it means is every Muslim, be they male or female. This interpretation represents the consensus of the scholars as it was authenticated by the Al Hafidh As Suyuti and others, and by the scholar Albani in the Hadiths quoted in our book The Problem of poverty and how it is dealt with in Islam, published by Al Maktab Al Islami.).

Suffice it also to reiterate that the first verses to have been revealed to the heart of the Noble Prophet were a glorification of reading and writing, knowledge and the teaching of writing, "Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth, createth man from a clot. Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous, Who teacheth by the pen, teacheth man that which he knew not" (Surah 96, Verses 1-5.).

The second Surah in the history of the revelation of the Qur'an is the Surah of the Pen. This Surah was called so because in it Allah swore by the pen and the knowledge and wisdom that the writers use it to write. Allah Almighty said, "Nun. By the pen and that which they write (therewith)". The first Book that it is used to write is the Glorious Qurtan, which Allah has called the Book in reference to this meaning.

The way of Allah in the Qur'an is to swear by something, to draw the attention of people to its great usefulness. What is of greater use in our time than the pen, it spreads knowledge, and consolidates it, and carries from generation to generation. Isn't the print shop in our time but a pen which has evolved, and now fills the world with sciences and knowledge, and culture and civilisation. The glorification of the pen in the Qur'an and Allah's swearing by it is an encouragement of the Muslims to perfect their writing with it, and especially that Islam instructs the Muslims to write concerning many matters, among which is the recording in writing of debts "When ye contract a debt for a fixed term, record it in writing" (Surah 2, Verse 282).

There is also the written record of the will as in the Hadith, "It is a duty of every Muslim not to sleep without having written his will", as quoted in the Hadith of A1 Bukhari. The Prophet (PBUH) has also been quoted to have said, "The right of every son upon his father is that the latter teaches him writing, swimming and aiming" (Quoted by Ibn Hibban quoting Aisha in The book of the poor.). It is also surprising that it is the illiterate Prophet who could not read a book, or write it with his right hand lest the liars be perplexed, who did not stop at the theoretical encouragement and the liking of learning to read and write, but he militated to provide the scientific means to spread education, and combat illiteracy as much as he could.

Among these means is his benefiting from the opportunity of the Muslims' capturing a number of prisoners of war from Quraish, who were participating in the Battle of Badr. These prisoners could write well, and did not have any money to redeem themselves, so the Prophet (PBUH) conditioned their redemption by teaching writing to ten Muslims.

In his Musnad, Imam Ahmed quotes Ibn 'Abbes (God Bless them both) saying, "Some of the prisoners did not have any money, so the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) conditioned their release by their teaching the sons of Ansars writing." That was the first project that a head of state organised to proclaim war against illiteracy in the history of this nation, and may be in the history of humanity as a whole. Among the sons of Ansars who benefited from this project, the genius boy named Zaid Ben Thabit, the recorder of the revelations, and the collector of the Qur'an afterwards, who was charged by the Noble Prophet to learn the language of the Jews, so that he can read their letters to him (PBUH), and write his letters to them.

When science spread amongst Muslims, the messenger imposed solidarity between Muslims in this area, as he had imposed it in the area of the daily living expenses. The knowledgeable man had as a duty to teach the ignorant and the literate had to enlighten the illiterate and help him.

Al Tabarani relates in Al Kabir, quoting Bakir Ben Ma'rouf quoting Alqamah Ben Said Ben Abdurrahman Ben Abzii quoting his father and grandfather, he said, "The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) gave a speech once, and made good comments about some groups of Muslims and then he said, "How can some people not educate, teach, advise and admonish their neighbours, and how can some people not learn, not be enlightened or advised by their neighbours? By Allah, people should teach, enlighten, advise, enjoin and admonish their neighbours, and others should learn, be enlightened and be advised by their neighbours, otherwise I will speed up punishment to them".

So the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) descended and some people said, "Who do you think he meant by these people?" Somebody said: "Al Ash'ariyn are knowledgeable people, and they have neighbours who are useless, people of the water and from foreign lands". This reached the Ash'ariyn and they went to the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), and said: "Messenger of Allah, you talked kindly about some people and you talked about us unkindly, what is wrong with us?" He said: "People should educate, advise, enjoin, and admonish their neighbours, and people should learn, be enlightened and advised by their neighbours, otherwise I will speed up punishment to them in this world". They said: "Should we understand people other than us?" He repeated his words to them and they repeated theirs to him " Should we understand people other than us?" He repeated his words again. Then, they said: "Give us one year", and he gave them one year to teach, educate and enlighten their neighbours. Then the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) read the following verse, "Those of the Children of Israel who went astray were cursed by the tongue of David, and of Jesus, son of Mary. That was because they rebelled and used to transgress. They restrained not one another from the wickedness they did. Verily evil was that they used to do!" (Surah 5, Verses 78-79. As to the reference of the Hadith, which we should mention, it is authenticated by Bakir Ben Ma'ruf more than its challenges. See our comment on the Hadith no. 82 in Al Muntaqa, from incitement to intimidation)

Dr. and Professor Mustapha Subai, May Allah have his soul, commented on this Hadith and said: "You read in this Hadith truths that should be pointed out,

1- The Messenger (PBUH) could not accept that people be ignorant when they are in the vicinity of knowledgeable people.

2- He considered the remaining of ignorant people in their state and the refusal of learned people to educate them a disobedience to the commands of Allah and His law.

3- He also considered that an aggression and a sin which require reprimand and punishment.

4- He declared war on the two parties and promised to punish them so that they hasten to learn (for some of them) and to teach (for the others).

5- He gave them a deadline of one year to erase all of ignorance amongst them.

6- Even if the incident referred to the Ash'ariyn scholars and their ignorant neighbours, the Messenger proclaimed the principle in a general manner, not concerning the Ash'aryin alone, with the proof that when the Ash'ariyin came to ask him about the reason why they were especially accused of this denial as the people construed it, he did not tell them that they were the ones that were meant by the Hadith. He repeated the general comment that had been repeated three times earlier without specifying it to the Ash'ariyin, in order to point out that the matter was one of general principle that is not specific to any particular group or period of time.

That is how the Messenger (PBUH) announced the battle against illiteracy fourteen centuries earlier than its proclamation by the modern countries in our time, and all this is surprising to come from an illiterate Prophet who lived in an illiterate environment, except that he was the Messenger of Allah.