Al-Kitabah
Definition
Al-kitabah — writing — is the skill traditionally attributed to Idris as the first human to write with a pen. This attribution connects him to the Quranic emphasis on the pen as a supreme instrument of knowledge: the first words revealed to the Prophet ﷺ were 'Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous — Who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.' For Ibn Kathir, Idris's association with the origin of writing positions him as the symbolic patriarch of all human learning, record-keeping, and the transmission of knowledge across generations — making his role in the prophetic chain not only spiritual but civilizational.
As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Kathir and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
1 book in the library
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