The First Revelation

Āʾisha رضي الله عنها narrates this story in the fifth hadīth of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, in vivid detail, even though she was not yet born when it happened. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had told her everything, as a husband does with his wife.

❧The cave of Ḥirāʾ

As the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم approached his fortieth year, he began to withdraw from society and go to the cave of Ḥirāʾ on what is now called Jabal al-Nūr, the Mountain of Light, at the edge of Makkah. The cave is not a wide open cavern but a narrow crevice in the rock, large enough for one person. When you sit inside it, the rock forces you to face in one direction, and from that exact angle, across the rooftops of Makkah below, you can see the Kaʻbah. The cave created a natural solitude and a natural orientation toward the House of Allah. It is said that ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib had discovered this place and used to sit there himself to think and to worship. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would take food and water up the mountain and remain there for days, descend when the provisions ran out, replenish them at home with Khadijah, and return.

❧Six months of true dreams

Before the revelation arrived, something else began. In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Āʾisha narrates that the beginning of revelation to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was through true dreams: every night he would see what the next day held, and it would come to pass exactly as he had seen it, like the sun rising, certain and undeniable. And in a hadīth in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told his companions that before the revelation began, rocks and stones on his path in Makkah would greet him with salām: he would hear the greeting, look around, and find no one, until he realized it was a stone. He said: "There is one rock in Makkah that always gave me salām, and I know it to this day."

The true dreams lasted six months. The revelation began in Ramaḍān. Six months before Ramaḍān is Rabīʿ al-Awwal. So from Rabīʿ al-Awwal he was seeing every night what the next day held. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم later said (Tirmidhī): "Nothing remains of prophethood except the true dream. And the true dream is one forty-sixth of prophethood." The scholars calculated: his prophethood lasted twenty-three years. Six months is exactly one forty-sixth of twenty-three years. To the exact fraction.

❧The night of the first revelation

It was in the last ten days of Ramaḍān, on a Monday, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم confirmed this when asked why he fasted on Mondays (Muslim): "I was born on a Monday, and the revelation began on a Monday." He was alone in the cave when the angel Jibrīl came to him and commanded:

اقْرَأْ

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم replied: مَا أَنَا بِقَارِئٍ, "I am not one who reads." He understood the word iqraʾ as "read from a text," and he was unlettered: he had never been taught to read. So Jibrīl took him and squeezed him, حَتَّى بَلَغَ مِنِّي الْجَهْدَ, until the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said he reached the very limit of what he could bear, and thought he might lose consciousness. Then Jibrīl released him and said again: اقْرَأْ. Again the Prophet replied: مَا أَنَا بِقَارِئٍ. Again Jibrīl squeezed him to the same degree and released him. A third time: اقْرَأْ. A third time: مَا أَنَا بِقَارِئٍ. A third time the squeeze. And then on the third release, Jibrīl revealed:

اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ ۝ خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ ۝ اقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ الْأَكْرَمُ ۝ الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ ۝ عَلَّمَ الْإِنسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ

"Read in the name of your Lord who created, created man from that which clings, Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know." (al-ʿAlaq 96:1–5)

Jibrīl was not asking him to read from a parchment. The word iqraʾ in Arabic carries both "read" and "recite." He was saying: your recitation will come from Allah directly, بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ, in the name of your Lord, by your Lord, through your Lord. You do not need a text. The knowledge will come from the One who created you. And the same Lord who taught mankind the pen, every skill of writing and knowing, will now teach through you.

❧Running home to Khadijah

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم descended from the mountain with his heart pounding, تَرْجُفُ فُؤَادُهُ, and rushed to Khadijah. He said to her:

زَمِّلُونِي زَمِّلُونِي

"Cover me up, cover me up." She wrapped him until he calmed down. Then he told her everything, and said: لَقَدْ خَشِيتُ عَلَى نَفْسِي, "I feared for myself." He was not expecting this. It was unexpected, overwhelming, and terrifying.

Khadijah replied with the words that have become among the most famous in the Seerah:

كَلَّا وَاللَّهِ مَا يُخْزِيكَ اللَّهُ أَبَدًا، إِنَّكَ لَتَصِلُ الرَّحِمَ، وَتَحْمِلُ الْكَلَّ، وَتَكْسِبُ الْمَعْدُومَ، وَتَقْرِي الضَّيْفَ، وَتُعِينُ عَلَى نَوَائِبِ الْحَقِّ

"Never, by Allah. Allah will never humiliate you. You uphold the ties of kinship, you carry the burdens of others, you give to those who have nothing, you are generous to the guest, and you aid every righteous cause."

Without any revelation, without any book, Khadijah gave the clearest formulation of the principle that runs through all of Islam: when you do good, Allah will do good to you. Her certainty, كَلَّا وَاللَّهِ, is unshakeable.

❧Waraqah ibn Nawfal

According to one version of the story, Khadijah first went to ʿAddās, a Christian slave of one of the Prophet's uncles, a man of the book who was the only pure, practising Christian living in Makkah, and described what had happened. ʿAddās said, with astonishment: "What? The angel of Allah has appeared here, in this land of idols?" He identified what had occurred as the visitation of an angel. With this confirmation, Khadijah took the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal.

Waraqah was one of the four Ḥunafāʾ, the seekers of the religion of Ibrāhīm who had rejected idolatry before Islam. He had studied the scriptures of the Jews and the Christians and was, effectively, a man of pure monotheism. At this point he was very old and had gone blind. When the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم described the visitation, Waraqah became agitated with excitement and said:

هَذَا النَّامُوسُ الَّذِي أُنزِلَ عَلَى مُوسَى

"This is the Keeper of Secrets, the same one that was sent down upon Mūsā. How I wish I were a young man! How I wish I could be alive when your people drive you out."

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was startled and said: أَوَمُخْرِجِيَّ هُمْ؟, "My people will drive me out?!", because ridicule was one thing, persecution another, but to be expelled from one's homeland, from Makkah, from the Kaʻbah, this struck deep.

Waraqah said: "Yes. Never has any prophet been sent except that his people ridiculed him, persecuted him, and expelled him. And you will be no different. How I wish I could live to see that day and help you."

Waraqah died not long after. Later some of his relatives asked the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم about his fate. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said he had seen him in a vision wearing white garments, in Jannah.

❧The cessation of revelation (al-Fatra)

After the revelation of those five verses, Jibrīl did not come again. Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما says this period lasted forty days; Ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī says 'many days.' During this time, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would wander the mountains and valleys of Makkah, going every day back to the cave of Ḥirāʾ hoping to see Jibrīl again, and every day finding nothing.

Then one day, while walking about Makkah, he heard a sound from the sky. He looked up, and there was Jibrīl, in his original full form, seated on a throne (kursī) between the heavens and the earth, his form blocking the entire horizon. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was seized with trembling and fell to his knees. Then he got up and, still overwhelmed with fear, rushed home again calling: زَمِّلُونِي, دَثِّرُونِي, "Wrap me up, cover me." And that was when Jibrīl descended and revealed:

يَا أَيُّهَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ ۝ قُمْ فَأَنذِرْ ۝ وَرَبَّكَ فَكَبِّرْ ۝ وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ ۝ وَالرُّجْزَ فَاهْجُرْ ۝ وَلَا تَمْنُن تَسْتَكْثِرُ ۝ وَلِرَبِّكَ فَاصْبِرْ

"O you who is wrapped in a mantle! Stand up and warn. And exalt your Lord. And purify your garments. And abandon all filth. And do not give in order to gain more. And be patient for the sake of your Lord." (al-Muddaththir 74:1–7)

With iqraʾ he had become a Nabī, a prophet receiving revelation. With qum fa-andhir, "stand up and warn", he became a Rasūl: a messenger sent to warn humanity. From this moment, the mission was public and active. The years of quiet preparation were over.