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When Prophet Muhammad (peace
and blessings be upon him) was nearly 40, he
had been wont to pass long hours in retirement
meditating and speculating over all aspects of
creation around him.
This meditative temperament
helped to widen the mental gap between him and
his compatriots. He used to provide himself
with simple food and water and then directly
head for a cave named Hira', in the Mount
An-Nur. It was only 2 miles from Makkah, a
small cave 4 yards long and 1.75 yard wide. He
would always go there and invite wayfarers to
share his modest provision. He used to devote
most of his time, and Ramadan in particular,
to worship and meditation on the universe
around him. His heart was restless about the
moral evils and idolatry that were rampant
among his people; he was as yet helpless
because no definite course, or specific
approach had been available for him to follow
and rectify the ill practices around him. This
solitude attended with this sort of
contemplative approach must be understood in
its divine perspective. It was a preliminary
stage to the period of grave responsibilities
that he was to shoulder very soon.
Privacy and detachment from
the impurities of life were two indispensable
prerequisites for the Prophet's soul to come
into close communion with the Unseen Power
that lies behind all aspects of existence in
this infinite universe. It was a rich period
of privacy which lasted for three years and
ushered in a new era, of indissoluble contact
with that Power.
When he was 40, the age of
complete perfection at which prophets were
always ordered to disclose their message,
signs of his prophethood started to appear and
twinkle on the horizons of life; they were the
true visions he used to experience for 6
months. In Ramadan, in his third year of
solitude in the cave of Hira', Allah desired
His mercy to flow on earth and Muhammad was
honored with prophethood, and the light of
revelation burst upon him with some verses of
the Qur'an.
As for the exact date, careful
investigation into circumstantial evidence and
relevant clues point directly to Monday,
Ramadan 21 at night, that is, August 10, 610
CE, with Prophet Muhammad exactly 40 years, 6
months and 12 days of age, that is, 39
Gregorian years, 3 months and 22 days.
`A'ishah, later the Prophet's
wife, gave the following narration of that
most significant event in the Prophet's life:
Forerunners of the Revelation
assumed the form of true visions that would
strikingly come true all the time. After that,
solitude became dear to him and he would go to
the cave, Hira', to engage in devotion there
for a certain number of nights before
returning to his family, and then he would
return for provisions for a similar stay. At
length, unexpectedly, the Truth (the angel)
came to him and said, "Recite."
"I cannot recite," he (Muhammad)
said. The Prophet described: "Then he
took me and squeezed me vehemently and then
let me go and repeated the order 'Recite.' 'I
cannot recite' said I, and once again he
squeezed me and let me till I was exhausted.
Then he said, 'Recite.' I said, 'I cannot
recite.' He squeezed me for a third time and
then let me go and said [the first
revelation]:
(Read!
In the name of your Lord, Who has created (all
that exists), has created man from a clot (a
piece of thick coagulated blood). Read! and
your Lord is the Most Generous.)
(Al-`Alaq
96:1-3)
The Prophet repeated these
verses. He was trembling with fear. At this
stage, he came back to his wife, Khadijah, and
said, "Cover me, cover me." They
covered him until he restored security. He
apprised Khadijah of the incident of the cave
and added that he was horrified. His wife
tried to soothe him and reassured him saying,
"Allah will never disgrace you. You keep
good relations with your kith and kin; you
bear the burden of the weak; you help the poor
and the needy, you serve your guests
generously and assist the deserving
calamity-afflicted ones."
She set out with the Prophet
to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal, who had
embraced Christianity in the pre-Islamic
period, and used to write the Bible in Hebrew.
He was a blind old man.
Khadijah said, "My
cousin! Listen to your nephew!"
Waraqah said, "O my
nephew! What did you see?"
The Prophet told him what had
happened to him. Waraqah replied, "This
is the angel who is entrusted with Divine
Secrets that Allah sent to Moses. I wish I
were younger. I wish I could live up to the
time when your people would turn you
out."
Muhammad asked, "Will
they drive me out?"
Waraqah answered in the
affirmative and said, "Anyone who came
with something similar to what you have
brought was treated with hostility; and if I
should be alive till that day, then I would
support you strongly." But after a few
days Waraqah died.
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