This article traces the use of a ḥadīth prohibiting women’s literacy during the colonial period. Although rejected by most ḥadīth scholars and ignored by jurists, it gained prominence in the second half of the nineteenth century through the works of scholars who weaponized it as a response to colonial education projects. As debates on the religious permissibility of modern education spread, the ḥadīth accompanied them, empowering scholars who attempted to push back against modernizing national education projects. Through an analysis of the debate around this ḥadīth in British India and Egypt, I highlight the importance of the ḥadīth as a pragmatic – and not simply normative – source within Islamic legal discussions as they articulated responses to colonialism.