Al-Baqarah: (78-79) And among them are the unlettered...

Know that the meaning of His statement: {And among them are the unlettered (ummiyyūn)} refers to the Jews. After Allah described their obstinacy and removed hope for their faith, He then clarified their divisions.

The first division is the misguided and misleading group, those who distort the Word from its proper places. The second division: The hypocrites. The third division: Those who argue with the hypocrites. The fourth division: Those mentioned in this verse—the common, unlettered people who have no knowledge of reading or writing. Their method is imitation (taqlīd) and accepting what they are told.

Allah, the Exalted, clarified that the reason preventing acceptance of faith is not singular; rather, each group has a different reason. Whoever contemplates the explanation Allah provided regarding the divisions of the Jews will find the exact same divisions present in the divisions of this Ummah (Muslim community). For among them are those who stubbornly resist the truth and strive to mislead others, and among them are those who are intermediate, and among them are those who are purely common folk, imitators.

Herein lie several issues:

Issue 1: The Definition of Ummi (Unlettered)

They differed regarding the meaning of al-Ummī:

1. Some said it means one who does not believe in a Book or a Messenger.
2. Others said it means one who is not proficient in writing and reading. This second opinion is more sound because the verse concerns the Jews, who did believe in the Book and the Messenger. Furthermore, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: (We are an unlettered nation; we neither write nor calculate), which indicates this meaning. Also, His statement {they do not know the Book} is only fitting for this interpretation.

Issue 2: The Meaning of Amānī (Desires/Fancies)

Amānī is the plural of umniyyah, and it has meanings sharing a common root:

1. What a person imagines: What one conceives in their self as likely to happen, creating it in their mind. From this is the saying, "So-and-so promises and gives umniyyah to so-and-so." Hence, Allah’s statement: {He promises them and gives them false hopes (yamannīhim), but what Satan promises them is nothing but delusion} (An-Nisā’: 120). If we interpret Amānī this way, then {except for their fancies (amānī)} means: except for what they are upon of their desires—that Allah will not hold them accountable for their sins, that their forefathers the Prophets will intercede for them, and what their rabbis delude them with—that the Fire will not touch them except for a few numbered days.

2. Falsehoods/Lies: {Except for fancies (amānī)} means except for various lies they heard from their scholars and accepted through imitation. An Arab Bedouin said to Ibn Da’b regarding something he narrated: "Is this something you narrated, or something you desired (tamannaytahu), or something you fabricated?"

3. Recitation: {Except for fancies (amānī)} means except what they read. This is derived from the verse: When he recited the Book of Allah one night... (referring to the context of recitation).

The author of Al-Kashshāf states that the derivation is from mannā (to estimate/decree) because the one who desires (mutamannī) estimates in their self and allows what they desire. The fabricator (mukhtaliq) also estimates, and the reader estimates that word X comes after word Y.

Abū Muslim preferred interpreting it as the desire of the heart, citing the evidence of Allah’s statement: {And they say, "None will enter Paradise except those who were Jews or Christians." Those are their wishes (tilka amānīhum)} (Al-Baqarah: 111), meaning their desires. Allah also said: {It will not be by your wishes (amānīkum) nor the wishes of the People of the Book. Whoever does evil will be recompensed for it} (An-Nisā’: 123), and {Those are their wishes (tilka amānīhum). Say, "Bring forth your proof"} (Al-Baqarah: 111). Allah also said: {And they say, "There is nothing but our worldly life; we die and we live, and nothing destroys us except time." And they have no knowledge of that; they are only guessing} (Al-Jāthiyah: 24), meaning they estimate and conjecture.

The Majority held that interpreting it as recitation is preferable, like His statement: {When he recited, Satan cast [a suggestion] into his recitation (umniyyatihi)} (Al-Hajj: 52). Furthermore, interpreting it as recitation fits the structure of the exception better. If we take it this way, there is a connection: it is as if Allah said, "They do not know the Book except by what is recited to them so they hear it, or by what is explained to them as intended, so they assume." However, they are unable to ponder and reflect. If it is interpreted as the traditions, lies, conjecture, or self-talk, then the exception becomes rare.

Issue 3: The Nature of the Exception and Its Implications

His statement {except for fancies (amānī)} is an exception of severance (istithnā’ munqaṭiʿ). Al-Nābighah said:

I swore an oath without reservation, And no knowledge [I have] except good assumption concerning the unseen.

It was also read with the light tā’ as {illā amānī}.

His statement {And they are only guessing (yaẓunnūn)} confirms what we have stated. If amānī means estimation and thought about things that have no reality, then it is ẓann (conjecture), and this would be repetition.

However, one could argue that self-talk is different from conjecture, so repetition is not necessary. If we interpret it as recitation, the meaning is improved: Allah is saying they do not know the Book except by having it recited to them so they hear it, or by being told its interpretation as intended, leading them to conjecture. Allah clarified that this method does not lead to the truth.

In the verse, there are several issues:

1. Knowledge is acquired, not innate: This is why those who do not know and only conjecture are blamed.
2. The invalidity of absolute imitation (taqlīd): This is problematic because, for us (Muslim scholars), imitation in secondary rulings (furūʿ) is permissible.
3. The blameworthiness of the deluded: Even though the misleader is blameworthy, the one deceived by the misleader is also blameworthy because Allah condemned them even in their described state.
4. The impermissibility of relying on conjecture in the fundamentals of religion (uṣūl al-dīn). And Allah knows best.

Regarding His statement {So woe (fawayla) to them}: They said Wayl is a word uttered by every distressed person. Ibn Abbas said it means painful torment. Sufyān al-Thawrī said it is the flowing pus of the inhabitants of Hell. According to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): (It is a valley in Hell into which the disbeliever falls for forty autumns before reaching its bottom.) Al-Qāḍī said: Wayl implies the utmost threat and warning. This much is certain, whether Wayl refers to a valley in Hell or to immense torment.

The Meaning of Writing and Attribution

Regarding His statement {They write the Book with their own hands}: There are two interpretations:

1. A person might say "I wrote" when they merely commanded it to be written. The purpose of {with their own hands} is to indicate that nothing occurred from them except in this manner (i.e., by their direct action or command).
2. It is for emphasis. This context is suitable for emphasis, just as you would say to someone denying knowledge of what they wrote: "Indeed, you wrote it with your right hand."

Regarding His statement {Then they say, "This is from Allah"}: This means that whoever engages in this writing and earns this earning is at the peak of wickedness because they have strayed from the religion, misled others, and sold their Hereafter for their worldly life. Thus, their sin is greater than the sin of others. It is known that lying about others in a way that causes harm magnifies the sin. How much greater, then, is the sin of one who lies about Allah, adds misleading others to the lie, adds the love of the world and scheming to acquire it, and adds that they have paved a path of misguidance that lasts forever? This is why Allah magnified what they did.

If it is asked: Did Allah recount two actions from them—writing the Book and attributing it to Allah falsely—is this severe warning tied to the writing, the attribution, or both? We reply: There is no doubt that writing falsehoods with the intent to mislead is among the reprehensible acts, and lying about Allah is likewise reprehensible. Combining both is an immense evil.

Regarding His statement {to purchase with it a small price}: This points to two matters:

1. It is a warning about the extremity of their wretchedness. A rational person should not be content with a small worldly gain in exchange for a great reward in the Hereafter. How fitting is it, then, that they would be content with great punishment in the Hereafter for meager worldly benefit?
2. It indicates that they did not perform this distortion out of religious conviction (diyānah); rather, they did it seeking wealth and status. This implies that taking money for falsehood, even if done consensually, is forbidden, because the money they received was given willingly and with satisfaction, yet Allah warned against its prohibition.

The Second Woe

Regarding His statement {So woe to them for what their hands have written}: This means that their writing, for what they wrote, is a great sin by itself, as is their taking money for it. This is why the woe is repeated concerning their earning. If the woe had not been repeated, it might have been argued that the combination of both actions necessitates the great warning, rather than each one individually. Allah removed this doubt.

They differed concerning His statement {what they earn (yaksibūn)}: Does it refer only to the money they took for this writing and distortion, or does it encompass all their sins? The closest interpretation, based on the structure of the discourse, is that it refers back to the mentioned money taken for this purpose. Although the general sense might include everything, what favors the first interpretation is that if their earning were not qualified by this restriction, the warning would not be appropriate, as kasb (earning) includes both lawful and unlawful things. Therefore, it must be qualified, and the most fitting qualification is what was previously mentioned.

Al-Qāḍī said: The verse indicates that their writing is not a creation of Allah. If it were a creation of Allah, then their attribution of it to Allah by saying {it is from Allah} would be true, because if Allah created it in them, even if the servant is the acquirer, the attribution of the action to the Creator is stronger than its attribution to the acquirer. Thus, attributing that writing to Allah would be more appropriate than attributing it to the servant, and they should deserve praise for saying it is from Allah. Since this is not the case, we know that this writing is not created by Allah.

The response is: The impetus that necessitates it (the writing) is created by Allah through the aforementioned proofs, so the writing itself is also considered created by Him. And Allah knows best.

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