Al-Baqarah Verse 78

And among them are the illiterate who know nothing about the Scripture except lies, and ˹so˺ they ˹wishfully˺ speculate.

And among them there are illiterate people, who know nothing of the Scripture except wishful thinking, and they do nothing but guesswork.

And some there are of them that are common folk not knowing the Book, but only fancies and mere conjectures.

Some of them are uneducated, and know the Scripture only through wish-ful thinking. They rely on guesswork.

And of them are unlettered ones who know not the Book but vain desires; and they do but conjecture.

And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires, and they do nothing but conjecture.

Then there are among them some un-lettered people who have no knowledge of the Book but depend upon empty hopes and are guided by mere conjecture and guess-work.

Among them are heathens who know nothing of the Book but only what they wish to believe, and are only lost in fantasies.

And among them are the unlearned that do not know anything of the Book except to recite something therefrom or parts of their own fabrications; they are in absolute illusion.

And among them are the illiterate who know nothing of the Book except hearsay, and they only make conjectures.

Among them are the illiterate folk who do not know anything about the Book except fancies from hearsay, and merely follow their conjectures.

And (some) among them are illiterate, who do not know the Scripture except cramming it up, and are doing nothing but making conjectures.

And from them (are) illiterates/belonging to a nation they do not know The Book except (as) wishes/desires/lies and that they are except assuming/ supposing

And among them are the unlearned that do not know anything of the Book except to recite something therefrom or parts of their own fabrications; they are in absolute illusion.

And some of them there are, illiterate folk, that know not the Book, but their own fancies, conjectures and idle tales

And there are among them (Jews) unlettered people, who know not the Book, but they trust upon false desires and they but guess.

And some of them are illiterate; they know not the Book but only (from) hearsay, and they do but conjecture.

And there are among them illiterates who know not the Book but only lies, and they do but conjecture.

Among them are unlettered folk who know the Scripture not except from hearsay. They but guess.

Some of them are illiterate and have no knowledge of the Book except for what they know from legends and fantasy. They are only relying on conjecture.

And some of them are common (people) and do not know the Book, but only wishful thoughts, and they are only doubters.

And there are among them (Jews) `Ummyyun (unlettered) people, who know not the Book, but they trust upon Amani (false desires) and they but guess.

There are among them unlettered people who have no real knowledge of the Scriptures, knowing only their own wishful thinking and following only conjecture.

And among them are uneducated who know the Scripture only through hearsay, and they only speculate.

And there are some of them, the Jews, that are illiterate, unlettered, not knowing the Scripture, the Torah, but only desires, lies which were handed down to them by their leaders and which they relied upon; and, in their rejection of the prophethood of the Prophet and fabrications of other matters, they have, mere conjectures, and no firm knowledge.

The Meaning of Ummi

Allah said,

وَمِنْهُمْ أُمِّيُّونَ



And there are among them Ummyyun people,

meaning, among the People of the Book, as Mujahid stated.

Abu Al-Aliyah, Ar-Rabi, Qatadah, Ibrahim An-Nakhai and others said,
Ummyyun, is plural for Ummi, that is, a person who does not write.

This meaning is clarified by Allah's statement,

لَا يَعْلَمُونَ الْكِتَابَ

Who know not the Book,

meaning, are they not aware of what is in it.
Ummi was one of the descriptions of the Prophet because he was unlettered. For instance, Allah said,

وَمَا كُنتَ تَتْلُو مِن قَبْلِهِ مِن كِتَـبٍ وَلَا تَخُطُّهُ بِيَمِينِكَ إِذاً لاَّرْتَـبَ الْمُبْطِلُونَ

Neither did you (O Muhammad) read any book before it (this Qur'an) nor did you write any book (whatsoever) with your right hand. In that case, indeed, the followers of falsehood might have doubted. (29;48)

Also, the Prophet said,

إِنَّا أُمَّةٌ أُمِّيَّةٌ لَا نَكْتُبُ وَلَا نَحْسِبُ الشَّهْرُ هكَذَا وَهكَذَا وَهكَذَا

We are an Ummi nation, neither writing nor calculating. The (lunar) month is like this, this and this (i.e. thirty or twenty-nine days).

This Hadith stated that Muslims do not need to rely on books, or calculations to decide the timings of their acts of worship.

Allah also said,

هُوَ الَّذِى بَعَثَ فِى الاُمِّيِّينَ رَسُولاً مِّنْهُمْ

He it is Who sent among the Ummiyyin ones a Messenger (Muhammad) from among themselves. (62;2)
The Explanation of Amani

Allah's statement,

إِلاَّ أَمَانِيَّ

But they trust upon Amani,

Ad-Dahhak said that Ibn Abbas said that the Ayah means,

"It is just a false statement that they utter with their tongues."

It was also said that;
Amani means `wishes and hopes'.

Mujahid commented,

"Allah described the Ummiyyin as not understanding any of the Book that Allah sent down to Musa, yet they create lies and falsehood."

Therefore, the word Amani mentioned here refers to lying and falsehood.

Allah's statement,

وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلاَّ يَظُنُّونَ



And they but guess, means,

Mujahid said that Allah's statement means,

"They lie."

Qatadah, Abu Al-Aliyah and Ar-Rabi said that it means,

"They have evil false ideas about Allah."
Woe unto Those Criminals among the Jews

Allah said

Among them are illiterates who do not know the precepts nor the mandates according with AL-Tawrah’s texts; they only know what the demagogic rabbi had purposed, and the knowledge they imparted was wholly infested with falsehood yielding only false hopes vested with ignorance and illiteracy, thus affording conjecture