🌸 Hazrat Muhammad’s Biography : The First Revelations (2)

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Prophet Muhammad was forty years old and he had reached an age of maturity. The impact of this tremendous encounter was great, and the man who descended from the mountain and sought refuge in the arms of his wife Khadeeja was not the same man who had ascended it.

For the moment, however, he was as if a man pursued. As he descended, he heard a great voice : ‘Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God and I am Gabriel.’ He looked upwards, and the angel filled the horizon. Wherever he turned, the figure was there, inescapably present. He hastened home and cried to Khadija: ‘Cover me! Cover me!’ She laid him down, placing a cloak over him, and as soon as he had recovered himself a little he told her what had happened. The Prophet was in fear for himself. She held him close and solaced him:

“Never! By God, God will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your relatives, help the poor, serve your guests generously, and assist those hit with calamities.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

She saw in her husband a man God would not humiliate because of his virtues of honesty, justice, and helping the poor. The first person on the face of earth to believe in him was his own wife, Khadija. At once, she went to see her uncle Waraqa, a biblical scholar. After listening to the account of her husband’s experience, Waraqa recognized him from the prophecies of the Bible to be the awaited prophet, and he confirmed that what had appeared to him in the cave was the indeed the angel Gabriel, the Angel of Revelation:

“This is the Keeper of Secrets (Gabriel) who came to Moses.” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari)

The Prophet continued to receive revelations for the remainder of his life, memorized and written down by his companions on pieces of sheepskin and whatever else was at hand.
The Quran or “Recitation”

The words brought to him from Gabriel are held sacred by the Muslims and are never confused with those which he uttered himself. The former are the Sacred Book, the Quran; the latter the Hadith or Sunna of the Prophet. Because the angel Gabriel would recite the Quran orally to the Prophet, the Sacred Book is known as Al-Quran, “The Recitation,” the recitation of the man who knew not how to read.

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