Was Mu'awiya a scribe of the revelation?

One of the points argued between Ibn al-Mutahhar al-Hilli and Ibn Taymiyya is whether Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan should be called a "scribe of the revelation". Al-Hilli denies it; Ibn Taymiyya replies that the denial has no proof. ¹

In Ibn Taymiyya's quotation al-Hilli says that the Sunnis called Mu'awiya a scribe of the revelation although he never wrote a single word of it for the Prophet. The scribes of the revelation, he says, numbered ten and some, and the closest and most particular of them to the Prophet was Ali. ¹ He adds that on the day Mecca was conquered Mu'awiya was in Yemen reviling the Prophet, and that he wrote verses to his father Sakhr ibn Harb, that is Abu Sufyan, taunting him for embracing Islam. ²

Ibn Taymiyya says this is a claim made without proof or knowledge. What evidence is there, he asks, that Mu'awiya wrote not a single word of revelation and only wrote letters for the Prophet? There is no doubt, he adds, that Ali also wrote for the Prophet, as when he wrote the truce between him and the polytheists. ¹

He notes that all people were unbelievers before they believed, and that some had been more hostile to the Prophet than Mu'awiya and then embraced Islam and became good Muslims. One was the Prophet's cousin Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith (may God be pleased with him) ibn Abd al-Muttalib, who had satirised him before Islam. He also notes that Abu Sufyan ibn Harb and his wife Hind had been bitterly hostile until Hind embraced Islam and told the Prophet, in the report al-Bukhari gives, how her hatred had turned to love. ² He holds that the verses ascribed to Mu'awiya are certainly a lie against him. They mention al-Uzza, but after the conquest the people embraced Islam and the Prophet sent Khalid ibn al-Walid to destroy al-Uzza, so neither al-Uzza nor anyone to blame others for abandoning her remained. ³

The reports of the Prophet's scribes in the sira and hadith books, the hadith scholars' statements on whether Mu'awiya's writing is established, Imami sources taken directly and academic readings have not yet been added. See who was Mu'awiya.