وَمِنْهُمْ أُمِّيُّونَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ الْكِتَابَ إِلَّا أَمَانِيَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ
Wa minhum ummiyyoona laa ya'lamoonak kitaaba illaa amaaniyya wa in hum illaa yazunnoon
Among them are the unlettered who know nothing of the scripture except wishful fancies, and they do nothing but guess.
Ummiyyūn describes those without letters, and it is the same word the Qur'an later applies to the Prophet, which kept commentators careful about reading it as a reproach in itself. Amāniyy is open in both directions: the root gives both wishes and things recited, so the phrase can mean baseless hopes or material passed on by recitation without study. The verse ends on the verb for conjecture that this passage used earlier for certainty.