Muhammad Syahrur's view about the illiterate of Prophet Muhammad based on Quran: critic study of thematic tafsir about the interpretation of “Ummi” verses in Quran

We have known that many Muslims consider his beloved prophet Muhammad SAW was illiterate. It was based on many evidences, Quran evidences, prophetic hadith evidences, and history evidences. However this claim is still far from right, because it has been known that Prophet Muhammad had great intelligences. Before being a prophet or apostolate, Muhammad was known with many epithets among his people, such as al­amien. He was also wise man who could give solution when many tribes at Mecca want to fight just to appoint of who has the right to put nhajar aswad". Muhammad Syahrur, a modern Islamic scholar, denied that claim and tried to reveal the real meaning of ummi in Quran. Fortunately, Muhammad Syahrur did not writing about this topic only in his masterwork "al-Kitab wa al­Qur'an; Qira'ah Mu'ashirah". However this topic is still an interesting topic to be discussed. This paper tried to reveal any possibilities meaning about ummiyatu of Prophet Muhammad. By using thematic tafsir concepts, and rational-historical arguments, the writer tries to reveal the true meaning of "ummi" in Quran. So, it will be found a conclusion that Prophet Muhammad, substantively, was not itfiterate.In this paper Muhammad Syahrur's views about ummi, is analyzed with many other scholars' interpretations and views about ummi in Qur'an, Muslims scholars until Orientals.