The unlettered (al-ummi)

An ummi is one who cannot read or write. The Qur'an describes the Prophet in this way, and Muhammad Rashid Rida counts this as one of the proofs that the Qur'an comes from God. ¹ Al-An'am 114

Rida holds that a detailed book on beliefs, laws, God's ways among people and the stories of nations was sent down through a man who could not read or write, who grew up among his people for more than forty years without anything like it being known from him. Such a thing could only come by revelation from a wise knower. ¹

Rida adds that learned People of the Book who know their scriptures can distinguish true revelation from other things. They recognise that the Qur'an is of the same kind as the revelation sent to their prophets, because no one who has not read or written could have learned the like of it. ¹

This is Rida's argument in his commentary on Al-An'am 114, and it is attributed to him. The views in the exegetical literature on the meaning of "ummi", and what the exegetes said about its sense, have not yet been presented.