Muhammad had a most fascinating experience, an account of which is given by his future wife ʿĀ’ishah.
The first aspect of revelation to God’s Messenger was that his dreams came true. Whatever vision he might have had in his sleep would occur as he had seen. Then, he began to enjoy seclusion. He used to retreat alone into the cave of Ḥirā’, where he would spend several days in devotion before going back to his family. He used to take some food with him, and when he came back he would take a fresh supply for another period. He continued to do so until he received the truth while in the cave of Ḥirā’. The angel came to him and said: “Read”. He replied: “I am not a reader.” The Prophet says: “He held me and pressed hard until I was exhausted, then he released me and said: ‘Read’, and I replied: ‘I am not a reader.’ So he held me and pressed me hard a second time until I was exhausted, then he released me and said: ‘Read’. I replied: ‘I am not a reader.’ He then held me and pressed hard for a third time. Then he said: ‘Read, in the name of Your Lord Who created. It is He Who created man from clots of blood. Read! Your Lord is the most bounteous, Who has taught the use of the pen. He has taught man what he did not know.’” The Prophet returned home to Khadījah, trembling, and said: “Wrap me! Wrap me!” They wrapped him and his fear subsided. He turned to Khadījah and exclaimed: “What has happened to me?” He related to her what happened and said: “I fear for myself,” and Khadījah replied: “You have nothing to fear; be calm and relax. God will not let you suffer humiliation, because you are kind to your relatives, you speak the truth, you assist anyone in need, you are hospitable to your guest and you help in every just cause.” Then she took him to Waraqah ibn Nawfal, her paternal cousin who was a Christian convert and a scholar with good knowledge of Arabic, Hebrew and the Bible. He had lost his eyesight, as he had grown very old. Khadījah said to Waraqah: “Cousin, would you like to hear what your nephew has to say?” [Waraqah was not, in fact, the Prophet’s uncle. Khadījah’s reference to Muhammad as his nephew was in accordance with the standards of politeness which prevailed in Arabia at the time.] Waraqah said: “Well, nephew, what have you seen?” The Prophet related to him what he saw. When he had finished, Waraqah said: “It is the same revelation as was sent down to Moses. I wish I was a young man so that I might be alive when your people turn you away from this city.” The Prophet exclaimed: “Would they turn me away?” Waraqah answered: “Yes! No man has ever preached a message like yours and was not met with enmity. If I live till that day, I will certainly give you all my support.” But Waraqah died soon after that…3
This ḥadīth is related in both of the two most authentic collections of the Prophet’s traditions prepared by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, and also related by Imām Aḥmad in his collection.
Al-Ṭabarī also relates the following ḥadīth, on the authority of ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Zubayr:
The Prophet said: “While I was asleep he came to me carrying a case of a very rich material in which there was a book. He said: ‘Read’. I replied: ‘I am not a reader.’ He pressed me so hard that I felt that I was about to die. Then he released me and said, ‘Read’. I asked: ‘What shall I read?’ (I said this only out of fear that he might repeat what he had done to me before.) He said: ‘Read: in the name of Your Lord Who created. It is He Who created man from clots of blood. Read! Your Lord is the Most Bounteous, Who has taught the use of the pen. He has taught man what he did not know.’ I read it. He stopped. Then he left me and went away. I woke up feeling that it was actually written in my heart.”
The Prophet went on to say: “No man was ever more loathsome to me than poets or deranged persons. I could not bear even looking at either. I thought: ‘The man [meaning himself] is undoubtedly a poet or deranged. This shall not be said about me amongst the Quraysh. Let me climb higher up the mountain and throw myself down and get rid of it all.’ I went to carry out this intention. When I was halfway up the mountain, I heard a voice coming from the heavens saying: ‘Muhammad, you are the Messenger of God and I am Gabriel.’ I raised my head up to the sky and I saw Gabriel in the image of a man with his feet next to one another up on the horizon. He said again: ‘Muhammad, you are the Messenger of God and I am Gabriel.’ I stood in my place looking up at him; this distracted me from my intention. I was standing there unable to move. I tried to turn my face away from him and to look up at the sky, but wherever I looked I saw him in front of me. I stood still, moving, neither forward nor backward. Khadījah sent her messengers looking for me and I remained standing in my place all the while until they went back to her. He then left me and I went back to my family…”4
An Address from Heaven
Before continuing with the narrative to see what the Prophet did when he arrived home, it is necessary to say a word or two about the significance of the relationship which was established at that point in time when Muhammad received the Angel Gabriel, who brought him his revelations. One cannot do much better than quote one of the leading twentieth-century scholars. Sayyid Quṭb (may God bless his soul) writes in his priceless work In the Shade of the Qur’ān:
The true nature of this event is that God, the Great, the Compeller, the Almighty, the Supreme, the Sovereign of the whole universe, out of His benevolence has turned to that creation of His which is called ‘man’, and which takes its abode in a barely visible corner of the universe, the name of which is ‘earth’. He has honoured this species of His creation by choosing one of its numbers to be the recipient of His Divine light and guardian of His wisdom.
This is something infinitely great. Some aspects of this greatness become apparent when man tries, as much as he can, to perceive the essential qualities of God: absolute power, freedom from all limitations and everlastingness; and when he reflects in comparison on the basic qualities of God’s servants who are subject to certain limitations of power and life duration. One may then perceive the significance of this Divine care for man. He may realize the sweetness of this feeling and manifest his appreciation with thanksgiving, prayers and devotion. He feels that the whole universe shares in the general happiness spread by the revelation of Divine words to man in his obscure corner of the universe.
What is the significance of this event? With reference to God it signifies that He is the source of all the great bounties and unfailing compassion. He is the benevolent, the loving, who bestows His mercy and benefaction for no reason except that benevolence is one of His Divine attributes. As for man, this event signifies that God has bestowed on him an honour, the greatness of which he can hardly ever appreciate and for which he can never show enough gratitude, not even if he spends all his life in devotion and prostration. This honour is that God has taken notice and care of him, established contact with him and chosen one of the human race as His messenger to reveal to him His words; that the earth, man’s abode, has become the recipient of these Divine words which the whole universe echoes with submission and devotion.
This great event began to bear on the life of humanity as a whole right from the first moment. It marked a change in the course of history, following the change it brought about in the course followed by human conscience. It specified the source man should look up to in order to derive his ideas, values and criteria. The source is heaven and the Divine revelations, not this world and man’s own desires. When this great event took place, the people who recognized its true nature and adapted their lives accordingly enjoyed God’s protection and manifest care. They looked up to Him directly for guidance in all their affairs, big and small. They lived and moved under His supervision. They expected that He would guide them along the road, step by step, stopping them from error, leading them to the right. Every night they expected to receive some Divine revelations concerning what they had on their minds, providing solutions for their problems and saying to them, ‘do this and leave that’.
The period which followed the event was certainly remarkable: twenty-three years of direct contact between the human race and the Supreme Society [Supreme Society refers to the angels]. The true nature of this period cannot be recognized except by those who lived in it and went through its experience, witnessed its start and its end, relished the sweet flavour of that contact and felt the Divine hand guiding them along the road. The distance which separates us from that reality is too great to be defined by any measure of length this world has known. It is a distance in the spiritual world incomparable to any distance