The Foundations And Concepts of Islam"Say (O Muhammad): If Allaah had so willed, I should not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. Verily, I have stayed amongst you a lifetime before this. Have you then no sense?"[197] He was rather an illiterate who neither read nor wrote. He did not also, visit any Shaykh or men to produce the like of the Qur'aan. Allaah says, "Neither did you (O Muhammad) read any book before it (the Qur'aan) nor did you write any book (whatsoever) with your right hand. In that case, indeed, the followers of falsehood might have doubted."[198] This unlettered man who has been described in the Torah and the Gospel that he would not read nor write, was visited by Jewish ad Christian monks – who had some remnants of the Torah and the Gospel – and asked about issues by which they differed, and they would request for his arbitration in matters in which they contended. Allaah says, explaining the description of Muhammad in the Torah and the Gospel, "Those who follow the Message, the Prophet who can neither read nor write (i.e. Muhammad) whom they find written with them in the Torah and the Gospel, he commands them to do all that is good and forbids them from all that is evil; he allows them as lawful all good things and prohibits them as unlawful all filthy things."[199] Allaah also says, while speaking about the question that the Jews and Christians asked the Prophet, "The People of the Scripture ask you to cause a book to descend upon them from heaven."[200] "And they ask you concerning the Spirit."[201] "And they ask you about Dhul-Qarnayn."[202] "Verily, this Qur'aan narrates to the Children of
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