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Ummi Prophet, illiterate or not!-I

The Knowledge of Divine Prophets (PBUT), and the more exalted of them, the five Olol-Azm ones, I.e. Noah, Ibrahim, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad (PBUT), and of course, the most exalted of them all, the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH&HP), are from Allah; i.e. they did not attend schools and had no regular earthly teachers, and they were directly taught by Allah; as a sample, we read in Qur'an that the Prophet Jesus (PBUH) as an infant, announced that he was a Prophet and servant of Allah and that Allah had bestowed upon him, the Book [Qur'an, 19:30]. The bestowed Knowledge of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH&HP) includes the Knowledge of Ghaib (that which is concealed and unseen to others) [Qur'an, 72:26 to 28]:

(Allah) The Knower of the Ghaib; so He (Allah) does not reveal His Ghaib to any,

Except a Rasool (Messenger/Apostle) whom He has chosen and is pleased with; for surely He makes a guard to march before him and after him,

So that He may know that they have truly delivered the Messages of their Lord, and He encompasses what is with them, and He records the number of all things.



As Qur'an confirms, Allah has bestowed the knowledge of that which is concealed to others, upon His Chosen, and then Allah guards those upon whom the knowledge of Ghaib has been bestowed, i.e. the Chosen Ones are infallible by Allah's protection; and by Allah's command, as the Prophet has clarified in the Ghadir Sermon and many other statements, the Prophet taught every thing to Ali (PBUT) -who was with the Prophet every moment of his life, from when he (Ali) was born until the second he buried the Prophet-, and then each Divinely chosen Imam to the next; I.e. This knowledge has been transferred to the Divinely Chosen Successors of the Prophet -the Ahl-Ol-Bait (PBUT)-, and He (Allah) encompasses what is with them and He records the number of all things.

Such Divinely bestowed Knowledge which has originated by Allah Himself, encompasses all the knowledge gained by the entire humankind. As Imam Baaqer and Imam Saadeq (PBUT) have confirmed, the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH&HP) not only knew how to read and write but also knew very well, over seventy languages, and the reason the Prophet was called "Ommi/Ummi", was due to the fact that he was from the "Omm-Al-Qora" (Elal-O-Shsharaaye', …), and Omm-Al-Qora is -based on Qur'an- Mecca [Qur'an, 42:7]; the Imam has also said that, the Prophet not only read and wrote, but also read that which was not written (Basaa'er-O-Ddarajaat, …); i.e. this is how extensive the Knowledge of the Prophet is, the knowledge which has been transferred to the Ahl-Ol-Bait, and today the holder of that Knowledge is the beloved Imam Mahdi (PBUT) whom we are Anticipating with every breath we take.

In Arabic a person being from a place is indicated by the name of that place plus usually the equivalent of an English 'I' attached to the name of the place; for instance, a person from Mecca is called Macci/Makki, similarly in English a person from America is called American, here the 'n' is the added letter. In this manner a person from the Omm-Al-Qora is called Ommi, and this is exactly what Imam Saadeq (PBUH) has emphasized upon in regard to the verse 7 of Surah Shora[42] in which the Prophet is commanded to Warn the Omm-Al-Qora, the Imam has said that because the Prophet was from there, therefore the Prophet was called Ommi (Tafsir Noor-O-Ththaqalain, …).

The word Omm in Arabic basically means the base, origin and essence therefore mother in Arabic is also called Omm (as the word mother has the meaning of origin in other languages also, such as in English); Mecca is called the Omm-Al-Qora which means the OMM (origin) of Qora (cities and lands); from one aspect, because based on Qur'an Ka'bah in Mecca was the very first House and symbol of Monotheism for all people and nations which Ibrahim and Ismael (PBUT) raised its existing foundations [Qur'an, 2:127, 3:96]; and also from another aspect, "Dahw-Ol-Ar(d)z' which is on the 25th of Dhyl-Qa'dah, is the day when the land where Ka'bah is, expanded, and therefore Dahw-Ol-Arz is sometimes called as the earth's birthday [Qur'an, 3:96,91:6, …] (Khesaal of Sheikh Sadooq, …); i.e. the land of Ka'bah is one of the origins of all lands.

In addition, the word Ommi is also used for a person who is unlearned; one aspect of this, is a person who has not gained any knowledge and therefore, his knowledge is as of the time he was born of his mother, thus the word Ommi is used for such illiterate and unlettered people; but the second aspect of this issue, is in the case of Prophets and infallible ones (PBUT) whose Divinely bestowed Knowledge are with them as they are born of their mothers and any added Knowledge is also directly from Allah and not through learning from regular teachers:

Allah has revealed to you (Mohammad) the Book, and the Hekmat (Wisdom, …), and taught you what you did not know. Great has been the grace of Allah on you. [Qur'an, 4:113]

As Qur'an also confirms this fact in the case of the Prophet Jesus (PBUH), who as an infant, announced that he had already received the Book; thus all the Prophets (PBUT) from this aspect, were Ommi, including the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH&HP).

In the Tafsir of Ali-Ebne-Ibrahim yet another aspect of this issue has been narrated from the infallible ones (PBUT), who have said that the people who had no Book from Allah with them (from one aspect, perhaps had forsaken it completely), or the people whom no Prophet was yet sent to them -while they even knew how to read and write, and had possessed other human knowledge- were also called Ommiyoon (which is the plural of Ommi). i.e. if people lack knowledge of the Book of their Creator, Allah, it is as if they are unlearned, even though they know how to read and write, and they may even know many sciences; i.e. learning the Word of the one and only Creator is of utmost importance, because human's everlasting Salvation depends upon it.



To be continued... .