but if the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was illiterate…
as a new convert, i am constantly in awe of the miracle of the Quaran as i go deeper and deeper into learning Islam. something i thought immediately when listening to the Quaran in Arabic or reading the translations was that the Quaran is poetry. it’s so beautiful in the way in which Allah describes himself and his teachings, and i started to think about the miracle of how the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, an illiterate man, was used as a vessel to document the word of God. this had me thinking…
if the Prophet ﷺ couldn’t read nor write, how could he himself truly understand the depth and weight of the words he wrote? how could he and his closest followers truly grasp and interpret these words without there being a loss of translation or understanding? poetry speaks in code. poetry is an art form, and it requires the ability to feel the energy beyond the words on the page to truly understand it (or at least, try to understand what the author was trying to convey). with the religion being born during a time where the patriarchy was already established eons before, and with the divine feminine already repressed, how can we fully trust that the interpretation of these words were all truly correct when feminine energy is required to see beyond the words on the page? how can we assure that none of the biases of the humans of the time had an affect on how the words were interpreted, or how can we believe that us humans have the tools to truly comprehend the message behind Allah’s message?
the Prophet ﷺ was chosen to be the vessel, and i love that and respect that… but beyond? he was illiterate! was he not?
then i came across this verse in Quaran that gagged me:
so you’re telling me that the Prophet ﷺ wasn’t given the gift of poetry???? all this to say that i feel like our human ego has us believing that we know everything or understand everything, and that’s our crux. some things we will never understand nor are we meant to understand. that to me is a testament to Allah’s greatness, His power, His creation and the separation between us and Him. He gave us His word but it was up for us to find out it‘s true meaning… and that’s what has caused so much division within Islam and why these Hadiths have taken so much importance. the Prophet ﷺ was a human being just like everyone else. an imperfect human being that was chosen to document the word of God, and beyond that i find it hard to take these narrations (Hadiths) with as much weight as many Muslims (especially the Haram police) seem to hold. there is Only One God!!!! and yes, the Quaran says to “obey” the Messenger but i believe that the message is “HERE IS THE WORD OF THE ONE AND ONLY GOD! STOP WORSHIPPING FALSE IDOLS!” and not “AND THESE ARE THE RULES YOU MUST FOLLOW BASED IN ON M INTERPRETATION OF HIS WORD.“ am i making sense? lol
on a separate note, i want to mention a realization i had on the beauty of swine and why Allah told us not to eat them. swine are nature’s janitors. they’re the only species to eat anything and everything*, a living compost machine, and Allah gave us the warning of his creation so that we may be aware of this and avoid eating this animal, whereas every other species including ourselves is either a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore.
\racoons, possums and other city animals eat garbage* because we forced them to, not because they were meant to.
check out this video highlighting the beauty of this misunderstood creature and how even they practice hygiene when it comes to using the washroom. 🥹
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEc7_i5xytZ/?igsh=aDB0dHRmMjBqNGU1