This paper traces the use of a Hadith prohibiting women from learning to write. Although rejected by most Hadith scholars and jurists, it returned to prominence in the works of South Asian scholars in the second half of the 19th century and was weaponized as a response to British colonialism and the spread of English-medium education believed to contain Christian missionary influence. As debates on colonial education spread to other localities, such as Egypt, the Hadith came with it and empowered scholars who attempted to push back against modernizing national educational projects that were also seen to have an underlying Christian missionary message. As a result, the paper highlights the importance of the Hadith literature as a pragmatic – and not simply normative – source within Islamic legal discourse as it informed the debates of scholars and their responses to colonialism in different localities.