“They said: Glory be to You, we have no knowledge except for what You have taught us. Verily, it is You, The All-Knower, The All-Wise.” (Surah Baqarah, Verse 32)
“They said: Glory be to You, we have no knowledge except for what You have taught us. Verily, it is You, The All-Knower, The All-Wise.” (Surah Baqarah, Verse 32)
The Arabic word “Bayaan” means clarity of expression, and the fact that Allah taught us clarity of expression comes right after the Ayat where Allah says that He created us, as we can see in Verses 3-4 of Surah Ar-Ra’hmaan:
(Allah) Created man. (Allah) Taught him Bayaan.
In fact, Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala has taught forms of self-expression to all of His creations in the form of language. Everything can communicate in their individual languages via signals or speech. One wonderful example of this would be from Surah An-Naml, Verse 18, where an ant called out to the others of her kind, “O you ants, go into your homes, lest you get crushed by Solomon and his soldiers, without perceiving.”
How Glorious is Allah! Even seemingly non-living things vibrate with their own natural frequencies, uttering the Glory of Allah every time they do so:
The seven heavens and the earth and whatever is in them exalt Him (Allah). And there is not a thing except that it exalts (Allah) by His praise, but you do not understand their (way of) exalting. Indeed, He is ever Forbearing and Forgiving. (Surah Al-Isra, Verse 44)
However, Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala has bestowed upon humankind another amazing form of expression of language. This bestowal from Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala is the ability to interpret and produce writing. This includes interpreting alphabets, understanding the words that they form, and jotting the words down into meaningful sentences. This is why Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala says in Al-Qur’an, “Who (Allah) Taught by the pen. Taught man what he did not know.” (Surah ‘Alaq, Verses 4-5)
We can obtain a hint from these verses that Allah, the Most Merciful, has taught language to humankind in the form of writing. This is because a pen is used for writing alphabets, and He, The Most Glorious, has provided us with the capability of learning via reading about information previously unknown to us.
The most relatable example of such a book is Al-Qur’an. Allah, The Most Gracious, informs us of the complete way of life through this wonderful book. We have been provided with the ability to read it, and understand it afterwards in order to apply the acquired knowledge to the real-world scenario with the hope of a reward from Allah for obeying His command and for abiding by His law.
For this reason, the ability to read and write is a Ni’mah. Another way in which we can feel the blessing of Allah in these two abilities is when we note down a few key points to assist in memorization of important information. This involves reading to gain knowledge, and writing to store studied material more efficiently in our brains.
At the very beginning of the very first revelation to the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu ‘alaihi Wasallam, Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala links the creation of humankind to the action of deciphering written form of language, by Commanding the practice of reading, when He says:
“Read in The Name of your Lord Who Created. Created man from a clot of blood.” (Surah ‘Alaq, Verses 1-2)
Why is the connection between the creation of Allah to the arts of the implementation of different versions of language portrayed with so much significance; in so many places in The Holy Qur’an?
Such a question arises, because a similar connection is noticed even in Surah Al-Baqarah.
In the 30th verse of this Surah, Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala refers to the creation of mankind, where He tells about the time He told the angels that He would place human beings generation after generation on Earth.
In the verse which immediately follows this one, Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala says:
“And He (Allah) Taught Adam the names of all things, then He showed them to the angels and said, Tell Me the names of these if you are truthful.” (Surah Baqarah, Verse 31)
There is always a curiosity regarding what names Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala might have taught Adam (Peace be upon him). I would like to share what occurred to me about it, as well.
Allah taught Adam (Peace be upon him) something that the angels were unaware of, because Allah, The Most Glorious, has put down their reply to Verse 31 of Surah Baqarah in the following Verse of the same Surah:
“They said: Glory be to You, we have no knowledge except for what You have taught us. Verily, it is You, The All-Knower, The All-Wise.” (Surah Baqarah, Verse 32)
This ayat clearly shows that the angels did not know the names of those things shown to them by Allah, the Most Glorious, in the previous verse.
However, the angels might have known which thing is what, as they knew words like ‘earth’, etcetera, and what these were, as we can understand from Surah Baqarah, Verse 30:
And, when your Lord said to the angels, “Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority.” They said, “Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?” Allah said, “Indeed, I know that which you do not know.”
Let’s have a close look at the angels’ reply in the verse copied above– it contains names of objects and actions. This means that the angels knew and understood these names.
Looking back at Verse 31 of Surah Baqarah, Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala tells us of Him showing them to the angels afterwards, where them seemingly refers to the names learned by Adam (Peace be upon him) from Allah.
How would we show names to someone? The obvious answer would be– by writing them down!
This brings me to my opinion that it could be such that Allah, The Most Merciful, taught Adam (Peace be upon him) the names of alphabets, because these are the tools which are used for writing the names of all things. Or, the names of all things could also mean the names of all the alphabets of all written languages that would ever come down to the earth. Or, such could also have been meant by Allah that He showed names or nouns written using alphabets.
Besides, it might be such that Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala has given the knowledge of alphabets only to the human race, because the angels did not know them.
In addition, about the jinn-kind, in Verse 19 of Surah Al-Jinn, Allah says:
“When the slave of Allah stood up invoking in prayer to Him they just made round him a dense crowd as if sticking one over the other.”
Here, Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala refers to the jinn to be crowding around Muhammad Sallallaahu ‘alaihi Wasallam in order to listen to his (Sallallahu ‘alaihi Wasallam’s) recitation, rather than reading from The Kitaab of Allah by themselves. This means that the jinn too, possibly, are unable to read.
After all, Allah Sub’han Allah Ta’ala Knows the best. The power of reading and writing is definitely an invaluable gift to us from Allah, the Most Merciful. We should cherish it through practice. In addition, we should be grateful to Allah, The Lord of ‘alameen.
