The First Revelation

The First Revelation (in the form of

) was revealed in Layla Al-Qadr (The Night of Destiny) ¹ in the month of Ramadan. ² The Holy was alone in the cave of Hira, meditating and praying, when Gabriel came to him in a form of a man. The angel said to him: "اقراء" (recite), and Prophet Muhammad said: I am not a reciter, whereupon the angel embraced him so tightly that he reached the limit of his pain. Then, the angel released him and again said: 'Recite!' the Holy Prophet replied: 'I am not a reciter'. Again, the angel embraced him so tightly that he reached the limit of his pain threshold. ⁴ Then, the angel repeated his request and said:

  اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ 1 خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ 2 اِقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ الْأَكْرَمُ 3 الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ 4 عَلَّمَ الْإِنسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ5 ⁵

  Recite with the name of your Lord Who created, created man from a clot. Recite, and your Lord only is the Most Beneficent, The One Who taught to write with the pen. The One Who taught man all what he did not know.

When he had recited, the angel left. Prophet Muhammad also left the cave and hurriedly went towards his house. When he was half way down the mountain, he heard a voice above him, which said: O Muhammad (), You are the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel . The Holy Prophet looked upwards and saw that angel who was filling the whole horizon. The angel repeated his words: "O Muhammad (), You are the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel .” Prophet Muhammad kept looking at him for a while, then turned away, but whichever way he looked, he could see the angel. Finally, the angel went away and the Holy Prophet descended the slope and reached his house. His wife Khadija greeted him and was concerned to see him in such a state. When the intensity of the awe had subsided, he told her what he seen and heard. ⁶ She assured him that God would not let any harm reach him and then went to inform her cousin Warqah bin Naufil, who was a religious scholar and a follower of the Abrahamic faith. Warqah was extremely old and had become blind. When Waraqah heard the details, he said that it was the same angel which came to Moses . Then, Prophet Muhammad explained what Gabriel had revealed to him and informed Warqah about the physical appearance and conduct of Gabriel . Warqah then said that he bore witness to the fact that the Angel was indeed Gabriel , and that the words communicated by him were spoken by God. He then concluded that it was a matter of prophethood, and declared to follow Prophet Muhammad if he got the chance to live in his era. ⁷ Warqah then kissed Prophet Muhammad's and went away. ⁸ He passed away a few days later, during fatra tul wahi (the gap between the revelation). ⁹

Some people quote a Hadith here which states that ‘Prophet Muhammad was a prophet when Prophet Adam’s soul and body was being created’ ¹⁰ and allege that if he was a prophet since then, and he knew about it, then why did he seek confirmation from Warqah bin Naufil or other people regarding his prophethood. The fact is that Prophet Muhammad was an ‘Ummi’ (Unlettered) Prophet, which means that he had no teacher. So, before the declaration of his prophethood, he had no source of knowledge and he didn’t know that he was a prophet. However, when he started receiving the revelations, his knowledge crossed the boundaries of normal human beings, and then he got to know from God via revelation that he was a Prophet when Prophet Adam was being created.

Warqah's words became widely known, along with the fact that he had given credence to the Holy Prophet . This fact distressed most of his people because they were not ready to accept Muhammad as a Prophet of

.

 

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• ¹ Holy Quran, Al-Qadr (The Destiny) 97: 1
• ² Holy Quran, Al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2: 185
• ⁴ Muhammad ibn Ismail Al-Bukhari (1999), Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith: 3, Darus Salam, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Pg. 1.
• ⁵ Holy Quran, Al-Alaq (The Clot) 96: 1-5
• ⁶ Abd Al-Malik ibn Hisham (1955), Al-Seerat Al-Nabawiyah le-ibn Hisham, Shirkah Maktaba wa Matba’a Mustafa Al-Babi, Cairo, Egypt, Pg. 237.
• ⁷ Abul Fida Ismael ibn Kathir Al-Damishqi (2011), Al-Seerat Al-Nabawiyah le-ibn Kathir, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, Beirut, Lebanon, Pg. 83.
• ⁸ Husein Haykal (1996), The Life of Muhammad (Translated by Ismail Razi Al-Faruqi), Islamic Book Trust, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, Pg. 78.
• ⁹ Muhammad ibn Ismail Al-Bukhari (1999), Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith: 3, Darus Salam, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Pg. 1.
• ¹⁰ Abu Jaffar Ahmed bin Muhammad Al-Tahavi (1994), Sharah Mushkil Al-Athaar, Hadith: 5976, Muassasah Al-Risala, Beirut, Lebanon, Vol. 15, Pg. 231.