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= The prohibition on writing is supported by the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri in Muslim (3004), who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Do not write from me, and whoever has written from me anything other than the Qur'an, let him erase it."

Al-Khattabi said: It is likely that the prohibition came first, and the last of the two matters was permissibility.

Al-Nawawi said in his "Commentary on Muslim": Al-Qadi [meaning 'Iyad] said: There was considerable disagreement among the early generations of the Companions and the Followers regarding the writing of knowledge; many of them disapproved of it, while most of them permitted it. Then the Muslims reached a consensus on its permissibility, and that disagreement ceased. They differed, however, as to the meaning of this hadith containing the prohibition. It was said: It applies to one whose memory is trusted, and it is feared that he will rely on writing if he writes; the hadiths indicating permissibility are interpreted as applying to one whose memory is not trusted, such as the hadith: "Write for Abu Shah," and the hadith of the scroll of 'Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, and the hadith of the letter of 'Amr ibn Hazm containing the obligatory shares, the Sunan, and the blood-wits, and the hadith of the letter on charity and the nisab of zakat which Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, sent with Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, when he dispatched him to Bahrain, and the hadith of Abu Hurayrah that Ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As used to write while he did not write, and other such hadiths. And it was said: The hadith of prohibition is abrogated by these hadiths; the prohibition was when there was fear of its being confused with the Qur'an, and when that was no longer feared, permission to write was granted. And it was said: He only prohibited writing hadith together with the Qur'an on a single sheet, lest it become mixed and be ambiguous to the reader. And Allah knows best.

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim said in "Tahdhib al-Sunan" 5/245: It is authentically established from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, both the prohibition on writing and the permission for it, and the permission came later, thus it abrogates the hadith of prohibition. For the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said during the Conquest: "Write for Abu Shah," meaning his sermon which Abu Shah had asked to have written down, and he permitted 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr to write, and his hadith came after the prohibition, for he continued to write, and he died with his writings in his possession, namely the scroll which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, used to call al-Sadiqah. Had the prohibition on writing been later, 'Abdullah would have erased it, because of the Prophet's, peace and blessings be upon him, command that whatever was written from him other than the Qur'an be erased. Since he did not erase it and preserved it, this indicates that the permission to write came after the prohibition on it. And this is clear, and praise be to Allah. And the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, wrote for 'Amr ibn Hazm a great letter containing the blood-wits, the obligatory shares of zakat, and other matters. And his letters on charity are well known, such as the letter of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab and the letter of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq which he gave to Anas, may Allah be pleased with them all. =