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uterine relations; you bear the burden of the weak; you help the poor and the needy, you entertain
the guests and endure hardships in the path of truthfulness.”
She set out with the Prophet (Peace be upon him) to her cousin Waraqa bin Nawfal bin Asad bin
‘Abd Al-‘Uzza, 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!” Waraqa
said: “O my nephew! What did you see?” The Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) told him what
had happened to him. Waraqa replied: “This is ‘
Namus’
i.e. (the angel who is entrusted with Divine
Secrets) that Allâh 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 (Peace be upon him) asked: “Will they drive me out?”
Waraqa 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.” A few days later Waraqa died and the revelation also subsided.
At-Tabari and Ibn Hisham reported that the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) left the cave of
Hira’ after being surprised by the Revelation, but later on, returned to the cave and continued his
solitude. Afterwards, he came back to Makkah. At-Tabari reported on this incident, saying:
After mentioning the coming of the Revelation, the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) 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 Allâh (Peace be upon him) 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 Allâh (Peace be upon him) 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 Makkah 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 Makkah and returned
to me.’ I told her of what I had seen. She replied: ‘It is a propitious sign, O my husband. Pull
yourself together, I swear by Allâh that you are a Messenger for this nation.’ Then she stood up and
went to Waraqa and informed him. Waraqa said: ‘I swear by Allâh that he has received the same
Namus
, i.e. 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 Allâh (Peace be
upon him) 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 Allâh that you have received the same angel that was
sent to Moses.’”
INTERRUPION OF REVELATION:
Ibn Sa‘d reported on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas that the Revelation paused for a few days.After
careful study, this seems to be the most possible. To say that it lasted for three and a half years, as
some scholars allege, is not correct, but here there is no room to go into more details.
Meanwhile, the Prophet (Peace be upon him), was caught in a sort of depression coupled with
astonishment and perplexity. Al-Bukhari reported:
The Divine inspiration paused for a while and the Prophet (Peace be upon him) became so sad, as
we have heard, that he intended several times to throw himself from the tops of high mountains,
and every time he went up the top of a mountain in order to throw himself down, Gabriel would
appear before him and say: “O Muhammad! You are indeed Allâh’s Messenger in truth,” whereupon
his heart would become quiet and he would calm down and return home. Whenever the period of
the coming of the Revelation used to become long, he would do as before, but Gabriel would appear
again before him and say to him what he had said before.
ONCE, GABRIEL BRINGS ALLAH'S REVELATION:
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