"The pen is mightier than the sword" is a phrase we have been hearing a lot in the past few days.

The saying trumpets the power of writing and learning over violence.

Since the attacks in Paris it has flooded social media because main targets of the Charlie Hebdo magazine attacks were cartoonists.

Held aloft at demonstrations, the pencil has become the main symbol of defiance against acts of terror.

The idea that the pen is mightier than the sword is a phrase repeated throughout history.

The novelist and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton was the first to use the exact wording in 1839.

But a very similar saying is attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam who Muslims believe is the "messenger from God".

Islamic expert Akbar Ahmed, former Pakistan high commissioner to the UK, explained that the phrase "the ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr" is one of the "hadiths" - the key teachings of the Prophet, known as prophetic traditions.

"But people [today] aren't as aware of this 'Hadith' because, to my horror but not entirely to my surprise, I have discovered a general lack of knowledge," he said.

He said that the Qur'an, Islam's holy book, has 300 references to "using your mind", adding that the word for "knowledge" features more than any other word apart from "God".

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