The First Revelation

In the months before the revelation, Muhammad ﷺ was given a love of solitude. He would climb to the Cave of Hira on the mountain now called Jabal al-Nur, a crevice with room for one man that faces the Ka'bah, with food and water for several nights, and worship there until his provisions ran out, then come down to Khadija to replenish them and go back up. In those months he began to see dreams that came true as surely as the dawn, for six months by one report, and he told Khadija, who said it was a good sign; and he heard stones and rocks greet him with salam as he walked, one rock in particular that he said he could still recognise. He was being prepared. On a Saturday in Ramadan, some reports say, he saw a light and heard a sound and found nothing; on Sunday the same; and on a Monday, in the last ten nights of Ramadan, the night of Qadr, Jibril came to him in the cave and said: read. I cannot read, he answered, and the angel seized him and pressed him until he could bear no more, released him, and said it again; a second time, and a third; and then recited to him the first five verses of Surah al-Alaq: read, in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clinging clot; read, and your Lord is the most generous, who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know. Why the angel squeezed him no one knows; some say to show him this was no dream, some that it was the weight of what was coming, some that it foretold three great trials. And why read, twice, to an unlettered man among an unlettered people: because from that night there would be a Book, to be recited from memory and read from the page, and preserved in both. He came down the mountain with his heart pounding and went in to Khadija: cover me, cover me. She wrapped him until the fear passed, and he told her what had happened and that he feared for himself, for his life or his mind. Never, she said, by Allah; Allah would never disgrace him: he kept the ties of kinship, spoke the truth, carried the burdens of others, earned for the destitute, honoured the guest, and helped in every good cause. Then she took him to her cousin Waraqa ibn Nawfal, an old blind man who had left idols long before, read the scriptures and written the Gospel in Hebrew letters. Listen to your nephew, she said. Waraqa heard him and said: this is the Namus, the keeper of secrets, who came to Musa. Would that I were young, would that I were alive when your people drive you out. Will they drive me out? Yes: no man ever brought what you bring but was met with enmity; and if I live to that day I will help you with all my strength. He died a few days later, and the revelation paused. Khadija later asked the Prophet ﷺ what had become of Waraqa, who had believed in him and died before his mission began, and he said he had seen him in a dream in white garments, which no one of the Fire would wear; on the strength of this report, which al-Tirmidhi himself calls weak, Waraqa, who never said a shahada because there was none yet to say, is counted by some as the first to believe and the first to die a believer. Around this time, though no fully authentic report fixes the moment, Jibril came down and taught him to make wudu and to pray, two rak'ahs at each prayer, as Aisha reports; prayer was not yet obligatory, and when the five prayers were made so he did not need to be taught again. Of the dreams that had come first he said in later years that nothing of prophethood remained after him but true dreams, one part in forty-six; and some have noticed that six months of dreams set against twenty-three years of prophethood is exactly that fraction.

Placed here because: Ep. 10: "the revelation began in the last 10 days of Ramadan on a Monday."

After the first revelation, the revelation paused for a while. Muhammad ﷺ's life resumed as normal until, while walking, he again heard a sound and looked up to see the same angel he had seen in the Cave of Hira, seated on a throne between the heavens and the earth. Trembling again, he rushed back to Khadija RA asking to be wrapped up. It was only once he was in her house (Jibril having followed him home rather than speaking to him on the mountain itself) that Jibril revealed the opening verses of Surah al-Muddaththir [74:1-7]. Accounts differ on how long this pause (fatrat al-wahy) lasted: some say two or three years, though this is considered far too long; a narration from Ibn Abbas puts it at 40 days, and Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri described it as around a month, together suggesting roughly a month and ten days. Throughout this period Muhammad ﷺ was troubled and afraid he was hallucinating (he later said, "I was worried for myself") and he would go every day to Jabal al-Nour hoping to see Jibril again, only to find nothing there. Scholars have suggested the pause served to prepare Muhammad ﷺ for what was coming, to let him recover and feel ready for the mission, yet even so, he still trembled with fear when Jibril finally appeared to him again. This very human reaction, rather than any grandiose account of himself as a hero, is held up as evidence against the idea that he was inventing his prophethood: a fraud inventing such a claim would not portray himself this way.

Placed here because: Ep. 10: "after a few days, Waraqa died and the Divine Inspiration was also paused for a while"; the second revelation follows the pause.

When Surah al-Muddaththir told the Prophet ﷺ to rise and warn, he began with the people nearest him, quietly, in Makkah. Khadija had believed before there was anything to believe in, on the strength of the man she knew, and Waraqa ibn Nawfal had affirmed his prophethood and died within days. After them the sources name three, and argue over their order, and the simplest resolution is that Ali, a boy of about ten raised in the Prophet ﷺ's own house, was the first child; Abu Bakr, the first free man; and Zayd ibn Harithah, the first freed slave. Of Abu Bakr's conversion no story survives, only its manner: he accepted the moment it was put to him. Years later in Madinah, in a moment of frustration with Umar, the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah had sent him with the truth and all of them had called him a liar, and only Abu Bakr had said, you speak the truth; and in another hadith, that he had never invited anyone to Islam who did not hesitate, except Abu Bakr. Were he to take an intimate friend, he said, it would be Abu Bakr; and the Qur'an calls him the second of the two in the cave. The next four came through Abu Bakr: Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, about sixteen, whose mother starved herself to force him back to the idols until he swore that were he to have a hundred souls and lose every one of them watching her die he would not leave his religion, whereupon she ate, and the verse came down not to obey parents who press you to associate partners with Allah, but to keep good company with them; Uthman ibn Affan; Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, the Prophet ﷺ's cousin through his aunt Safiyyah, whom he later called his hawari, his disciple, as every prophet had one; and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, about thirty and the eldest of them, a trader who would arrive in Madinah with nothing and ask only to be shown the market. All four were noblemen of the Quraysh and every one of them became a mountain in Islam. Then came Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, neither noble nor slave, a Yemeni hired to herd the sheep of Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt. Two men came to him in the pasture asking for milk, and he told them the sheep were not his to give from. Show us a ewe past milking, one said, and he did, and the man prayed and stroked its udder until it filled, and they milked it and drank; and when he asked who they were, he was told, this is Abu Bakr and this is the Prophet ﷺ, and became a Muslim there. He would learn seventy surahs from the Prophet ﷺ's own mouth, and be named the man to read the Qur'an as it was sent down. After him came the servants and slaves: Bilal, Khabbab ibn al-Aratt, Yasir and his wife Sumayyah and their son Ammar. And a Yemeni, Amr ibn Abasah, who had rejected idols on his own and heard of a man in Makkah saying the same, came and found the Prophet ﷺ in hiding and asked what he was; a prophet, sent to join the ties of kinship, break the idols and have Allah worshipped alone; and who followed him? A free man and a slave. Amr asked to follow too and was sent home: did he not see how the Prophet ﷺ had to hide from his own people? Go back, and when you hear that I have prevailed, come to me. He came to the mosque in Madinah years later and asked whether he was remembered, and he was. The dawah in those first years was private, and deliberately so.

Placed here because: Ep. 11: "in this early time when Surah al-Muddaththir was revealed ... he preached to his immediate friends and family."

After Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas left idol worship for Islam, his mother tried to force him back through emotional blackmail, vowing to stop eating and drinking until he returned to worshiping idols, and to let herself die in front of him. Sa'd refused to give up his religion no matter what happened to her, and when she saw his determination, she broke her fast and resumed eating.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 11 tells it within the account of the four who came through Abu Bakr; no date is given.

While shepherding a flock for Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud was approached by Muhammad ﷺ and Abu Bakr, who were thirsty and asked him for milk. Ibn Mas'ud explained the flock was not his to give from. Muhammad ﷺ then asked to be shown an old she-goat that had stopped producing milk, made du'a, and rubbed its udder, and it produced milk in front of Ibn Mas'ud's eyes. Astonished at the miracle, Ibn Mas'ud asked who they were, and upon learning it was Muhammad ﷺ and Abu Bakr, he converted to Islam on the spot, becoming the sixth convert.

Placed here because: Ep. 11: "The next Companion to convert was Abdullah ibn Mas'ud ... and became the 6th convert to Islam."

Amr ibn Abasah al-Sulami, a Yemeni who had already rejected idol worship before Islam, heard that someone in Makkah was preaching against idolatry and traveled there to find him. He found Muhammad ﷺ hiding from his own people, and asked him what he was; Muhammad ﷺ told him he was a prophet, sent to fulfill the ties of kinship, break idols, and worship only Allah, and that so far only one free man (Abu Bakr) and one slave (Bilal) had followed him. Amr asked to join, but Muhammad ﷺ told him this was not yet possible given his situation of hiding from his own people, and told him to return to Yemen and come back once he heard Muhammad ﷺ had prevailed. Years later, after the Hijrah, Amr heard Muhammad ﷺ had emigrated to Madinah, traveled there, and was recognized by Muhammad ﷺ; at which point he accepted Islam and became one of the Muhajirun.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 11 tells it last among the early stories, while the Prophet ﷺ was still "hiding / not being public"; no date is given.

As the number of Muslims reached around 20-30, the Prophet ﷺ chose the house of al-Arqam ibn Abi al-Arqam, behind Mount Safa in the center of Makkah, as a secret place to congregate, since many Muslims (especially slaves) had not disclosed their Islam. Al-Arqam was a nobleman of Banu Makhzum, Abu Jahal's own tribe, so no one suspected a Makhzumi of sheltering the Muslims. Dar al-Arqam became the central gathering place of the early Muslims.

Placed here because: ~ Dated to the middle of the third or start of the fourth year of the dawah in the sources.

After roughly three years of private dawah, Allah revealed verses commanding the Prophet ﷺ to preach openly. He first went public to his own immediate tribe, the Banu Hashim, inviting over 40 of his uncles and aunts to his own house, where Ali ibn Abi Talib prepared food and soup. The Prophet ﷺ ate first and blessed the food, and the narrator reports all 40 ate and drank their fill as if from a single plate and cup. Sensing that the Prophet ﷺ was about to make something public, Abu Lahab left with an excuse before the meal ended, and others left with him, dispersing the gathering. A few days later the Prophet ﷺ repeated the invitation; this time, before they could finish, he stood and addressed them directly.

Placed here because: About three years after the start of revelation; the first open call, to his own clan.

A few days or weeks after the private feast to Banu Hashim, the Prophet ﷺ climbed the mountain of Safa, the closest mountain to the Ka'bah, and began calling out to the people. Makkah had only around 1,000 people, so his voice from atop Safa drew all the tribes to gather. He asked them, "What do you know from me: how do you trust me?" They answered that they knew nothing but good from him, and that he was al-Amin, the Trusted One, who had never lied to them. He asked if they would believe him if he warned them an army was about to attack; they said yes, since they had never heard him lie.

Placed here because: A few days or weeks after the feast, in the sources.