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Scribes of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم: Introduction
25 Safar I 1446 AH
Daily Nurture
August 29, 2024
In partnership with
Salaamun ‘Alaykum,
Welcome to today’s edition of the Daily Nurture, wherein we start a new series, (our series on the Life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ will continue iA), the Scribes of the Prophet (كُتَّابُ النَّبِيّ) ﷺ.
Introduction
From the nucleus of one man blossomed a nation and an ideal, a timeless religion richly enrobed, transforming a landscape of ignorant idolatry into a pool of radiance proclaiming the Oneness of Allah ﷻ. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ’s legacy touches our lives in a myriad of ways, just as it touches the lives of every Muslim and non-Muslim generation preceding us, the course of history amended by a visionary who is still held in the highest esteem. From the dawn of Islam, Muslim scholars have poured their efforts into capturing the broad and subtle shades of his life: the particulars of his demeanour and habits, his piety and supplication, his policies and their underlying wisdom etc.
Since ancient times the Prophet’s correspondences have attracted special attention even among the Companions we find ‘Amr ibn Hazm, Ibn ‘Abbās and other expressing a fascination with his letters. Their heirs in this field included ad-Dibalī, at-Ṭabarānī in his Letters of the Prophet1 , Ibn Ṭūlūn in I’lām as-Sā’ilīn, and others. Our own times have witnessed Prof. Muhammad Hamidullah’s monumental work Al-Wathā’iq as-Siyāsiyyah.
Not limited to the documents themselves, as we know, the Prophet ﷺ is النَّبِيُّ الْاُمِّيّ (the unlettered Prophet), hence this interest extended to the scribes who penned them under the Prophet’s dictation and direction. Some historians and scholars, like Ibn Abī’l Ja’d and Ibn Shabbah, all compiled books on this subject, whilst others chose to incorporate them into the Seerah, including Ibn Isḥāq, aṭ-Ṭabarī and as-Suhaylī.
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The scribes listed in this work can be subdivided into three groups:
1. Those who have received a great deal of attention already, being well recognised in their role as scribes.
2. A group which has garnered less attention, perhaps because they were less active
3. companions whose names have been from gathered from works such as Al-Wathā’iq as-Siyāsiyyah, but whose names have not been cited in the classical sources in this regard.
By no means do we claim to have gathered the full list of of all the Prophet’s scribes; there may yet be relevant manuscripts not in our possession. The names will be listed alphabetically without any heed to the person’s chronology or importance2 .
Future editions of this series will cover short biographies of the scribes of the Prophet ﷺ, but we will not enter into any great depth (with a few exceptions), since the aim here is to introduce them from a distinctly secretarial and administrative aspect. The more renowned personalities (such as Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, ‘Ali, Khalid and others [رضي الله عنهم]) already enjoy extensive biographical libraries, and how could we possible fir their accomplishments with any justice into the space of a few lines of this newsletter?