Muhammad reported that while in a trance-like state, the Angel Gabriel appeared to him and said "Proclaim!" But like Moses, Muhammed was a reluctant prophet. He replied, "I am not a proclaimer." The angel persisted, and the Prophet repeatedly resisted, until the angel finally overwhelmed Muhammad and commanded him:
After receiving Khadija's support, and additional angelic visits, Muhammad became confident he had indeed been chosen as the messenger of God and began to proclaim as he had been commanded.
- Proclaim in the name of your Lord who created!
- Created man from a clot of blood.
- Proclaim: Your Lord is the Most Generous,
- Teaches man what he knew not. (Qur'an 96:1-3)
Muhammad's message to his countrymen was to convert from pagan polytheism, immorality and materialism, repent from evil and worship Allah, the only true God. He was always careful to clarify his role in God's work - he was only a prophet. He was not an angel, he did not know the mind of God, he did not work miracles. He simply preached what he had received.
In the first three years of his ministry, Muhammad gained only 40 followers. And as his teachings threatened the Meccan way of life, both moral and economic, he and his followers experienced heavy persecution. It first took the form of mockery, but soon turned into open violence. Members of the small movement were stoned, covered in dirt as they prayed, beat with sticks, thrown into prison and refused service by merchants.
The Revelation the Prophet
Muhammad received from God is called the Quran, which means the
Reading or the Recitation. God sent down the Quran on the heart
and soul of the Prophet Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel. The Revelation began
in the month of Ramadan of the year 610c.e. in the cave of Hira`, in the mountains surrounding Mecca,
where the Prophet used to retreat for meditation. It continued for 22 years,
until the death of the Prophet, at the age of 62, in Medina.
The
Revelation was brought in clear and distinct Arabic verses “Ayaat”. They came
in an intermittent manner, whenever God found it necessary to reveal how the
problems, the circumstances, the needs, the important issues related to the new
faith should be dealt with, or to reveal the ways of worshipping, of salvation,
of preparation for death and resurrection on the Day of Judgment.
The
Prophet was transmitting faithfully the Words of God to the believers, as those
Words were engraved forever in his heart and memory. The companions of the
Prophet were memorizing and writing down all the Revelations dictated by the
Prophet. All the verses constituting the Quran were put in the
order they exist now, under the instructions of the Angel Gabriel who had
transmitted to the Prophet the Will and the Words of God as embodied today in
the Quran.
The
Quran with the extraordinary beautiful meanings it contains,
expressed in an extraordinary beautiful Arabic language is presented by God as
being the miracle He has given to the Prophet. The Arabic word “Ayaat”,
translated by verse, means in fact a Miracle. So the Quran is
made out of miracles. When the idolaters were mocking at that kind of
intellectual and linguistic miracle, and wanted more physical and material
ones, God challenged them, through the verses of the Quran to
make just one verse as great and as divine as those contained in the Quran.
Up to this present time nobody could emulate the divine book. The diverse
dimensions and meanings of the Quran testify to its divine origin.
The
Quran is the first and most authentic source of Islam. The Quran
is the only Scripture in human history that has been preserved in its complete
and original version without the slightest change in style or even
punctuation. The history of recording the Quran, compiling its
chapters and conserving its text is beyond doubt, not only in the minds of
Muslims: It is a historical fact that no scholar of good faith has questioned.
The
Quran is the Word of God whereas the traditions, the Sunnah,
of the Prophet Muhammad are the practical interpretations of the Quran.
The role of the Prophet was to convey the Quran as he received
it, to interpret it and to practice it fully. These interpretations and
practices produced what is known as the Sunnah, the Traditions of
the Prophet. They are considered to be the second source of Islam and must be
in complete harmony with the first source, the Quran. If there is
any contradiction or inconsistency between any of the Traditions and the Quran
that means that this Tradition is not authentic. No genuine Tradition of the
Prophet can ever disagree with the Quran or be opposed to it.
At-Tabari and Ibn Hisham reported that Muhammad left the cave of Hira after being surprised by the revelation, but later on, returned to the cave and continued his solitude, though subsequently he returned to Mecca. At-Tabari reported this incident, saying:
- After mentioning the coming of the revelation, the messenger of Allah said: I have never abhorred anyone more than a poet or a mad man. I can not stand looking at either of them. I will never tell anyone of Quraish of my Revelation. I will climb a mountain and throw myself down and die. That will relieve me. I went to do that but halfway up the mountain, I heard a voice from the sky saying "O Muhammad! You are the messenger of Allah and I am Gabriel." I looked upwards and saw Gabriel in the form of a man putting his legs on the horizon. He said: "O Muhammad you are the messenger of Allah and I am Gabriel." I stopped and looked at him. His sight distracted my attention from what I had intended to do. I stood in my place transfixed. I tried to shift my eyes away from him. He was in every direction I looked at. I stopped in my place without any movement until Khadijah sent someone to look for me. He went down to Mecca and came back while I was standing in the same place. Gabriel then left, and I went back home. I found Khadijah at home, so I sat very close to her. She asked: ‘Father of Al-Qasim! Where have you been? I sent someone to look for you. He went to Mecca and returned to me.’ I told her of what I had seen. She replied: ‘It is an auspicious sign, O my husband. Pull yourself together, I swear by Allah that you are a Messenger for this nation.’ Then she stood up and went to Waraqa and informed him. Waraqa said: ‘I swear by Allah that he has received the same Namus, the angel that was sent to Moses. He is the Prophet of this nation. Tell him to be patient.’ She came back to him and told him of Waraqa’s words. When the messenger of Allah finished his solitary stay and went down to Makkah, he went to Waraqa, who told him: ‘You are the prophet of this nation. I swear by Allah that you have received the same angel that was sent to Moses
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