Though I’ve yet to convince my 11 year old son of this, reading must be one of the most essential and delightful (if you’ve ever read a Leif Enger novel) skills we possess in the modern world. And its absence, illiteracy, carries a strong social stigma.
Get this: Muhammad was likely illiterate and many Muslims see this as a good thing.
Now when I read that he was illiterate, I right away think, “Well, our guy Jesus could read and write. He argued with the smarty pants in the Temple at twelve years old and he wrote on the ground in John 8.6 (overlooking the questionable provenance of that text) and that means we’re ahead!” (Because my inner me is still concerned with getting that last pie piece in my Trivial Pursuit token!)
It turns out Muslims believe Muhammad’s illiteracy actually lends credibility to the Quran! “Only God could produce such a book. And certainly Muhammad didn’t write it because he could neither read nor write.”
It’s a fascinating take, though Muhammad’s alleged illiteracy might not be true to history. Either way, intelligence, or the illusion of it, was less tied to literacy in Muhammad’s day than ours. Reading, writing or not, Muhammad would have done well to spend more time with the Gospels and Paul’s letters, than hanging out in a cave hearing things from Gabriel.
Follow Up Good News
Our new favorite football player, Ahmed Hassanein, who I wrote about one month ago did get drafted! The Detroit Lions took him in the sixth round, making him the first Egyptian to ever reach the NFL. It also super-charged his potential platform for sharing about his faith in Jesus. May God protect him and use him as an ambassador to the many Muslims living in and near the shadow of Ford Field and beyond.