2.2 Method of Writing

The Qur’an refers to God as He who taught the use of the pen, taught man what he knew not.(The Qur’an 96:4-5) The Prophet was highly committed to spread the message of God but in those days there were very few who knew reading and writing. Therefore, when seventy Makkans were held as prisoners of war in the battle of Badr they were asked to pay a ransom for their release. The few educated among them who were unable to pay were asked to teach the skill of writing to ten children and adults to get their release. Zayd bin Thabit who acted as one of the scribes and interpreter to the Prophet was one of those who learnt the art of writing from the captives.

In the beginning the Prophet made arrangements to write down whatever that was revealed to him. The Prophet used to recite those verses and a group of companions who were assigned the role and duty of official scribes used to write them down upon palm leaves, leather, bark, big bones etc. The Prophet appointed Abdullah bin Sayyed bin As to teach the art of calligraphy to create more scribes.

In Madinah, after the establishment of a state, quite a large number of scribes were engaged with specific duties to perform. While some of them were responsible for writing down the revelations of the Prophet, others were used to prepare drafts of official letters to be submitted for the approval of the Prophet. Some were specially appointed to correspond with foreigners and more than 200 letters of the Prophet have survived. ( Alam, 1991, pp 37-38)