In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad

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ship: " I-Ie who taught by means of the pen, taught humankind that which
they did not know." Between the Creator and humankind, there is faith
that relies and feeds on the knowledge granted to people by the Most
Bountiful (al-Akmm) to allow them to answer His call and turn to Him.
The first verses establish an immediate correspondence with what
Revelation was later to rc:count about the creation of humankind: " He
[God] taught Adam the names of all things."F\ Reason, intelligence, lan-
guage, and wriring will grant people the qualities required to c:nable th em
to be God's khalifahs (vicegerents) on earth, and from the very bCg1nning,
Quranic Revelation allies recognition of the Creator to knowledge and
SCIence, thus echoing the origin of creation itself.^9
Numerous traditions report that the second Revelation corresponded
to the beginning of the surnh ''AI-Qalam'' (The Pen): those verses con-
firmed the divine source of this inspiration as well as me necessity of
knowledge. T hey also mentioned me ~Iesscnger's moral singularity, as
w1tnessed b}' the first fo rty years of hIS life:

Nlin. By the pen and by that which they write. You [Muhammad] are not,

by the grace of your Lord [Rabb, "Educator"], possessed. Vcrily, fOurs IS

an unfailing rC'.\>'l\rd. And surely }'Ou havc sublime morals. You wiU soon

sec, and thcy will see, which of you is afflicted With madness. 10

j\Tfm is one of me letters of the Arabic alphabet; in the same \\'ay, ''"al"-

ious other letters Introduce some su rahs (chapters) of th e Quran, while

no commentator-nor even the Prophet himself-1s able to say exactly

what they mean or what their presence at the beginning of a chapter S)'fll -

bolizes. Thus, at the very mo ment when the Creator swears "by th e pen"

and confirms the necessiry of the kno\\'ledge conveyed to human beings,

He opens the verses witll II mysterious len er, min, e.'Xpressing th e limits of

human knowledge. The dignity of humankind, conferred by knowledge,

cannot be devoid of the humility of reason aware o f its own limits and

thereby recobrnizing the necessity of faith. Accepting, and accepting not

to understlnd, the mysterIOus presence of the letter nun requires faith;

understanding and accepting the unmystenous Slatcments of the "crses

that follow require thc use of a reason thaI is active but nccessarily-and

indeed narurallr-humbled.