Until recently I believed that Mohammed was illiterate and that the Koran was not written down in his lifetime. Then I came across a video on Youtube which claimed that Mohammed was literate.
I have just done a search, and the work book appears in the Koran more than 200 times. Several passages refer to Muslims as followers of the book. If the Koran had not yet been written down at that time, then what was the book?
Surah 68 begins with a reference to "the pen and what the angels write". So presumably someone, whether man or angel, wrote something. There must have been a book prior to the death of Mohammed.
Does this matter? Following the death of Mohammed, the Caliph Uthman produced a correct version of the Koran, and then had all other versions destroyed. We are therefore unable to be sure that he did not alter the Koran to suit his own purposes. It makes sense that he should invent a rumour that Mohammed was illiterate, and that there was therefore no correct version (or indeed any version) of the Koran prior to Mohammed's death.
I have just done a search, and the work book appears in the Koran more than 200 times. Several passages refer to Muslims as followers of the book. If the Koran had not yet been written down at that time, then what was the book?
Surah 68 begins with a reference to "the pen and what the angels write". So presumably someone, whether man or angel, wrote something. There must have been a book prior to the death of Mohammed.
Does this matter? Following the death of Mohammed, the Caliph Uthman produced a correct version of the Koran, and then had all other versions destroyed. We are therefore unable to be sure that he did not alter the Koran to suit his own purposes. It makes sense that he should invent a rumour that Mohammed was illiterate, and that there was therefore no correct version (or indeed any version) of the Koran prior to Mohammed's death.
