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Ibn Hijr said: “Definitely the Prophet (Peace be upon him) used to pray before ‘The Night Journey’
but it still remains a matter of controversy whether or not the prayer was established as an
obligatory ritual before imposing the rules of the usual five prayers a day. It is related that
obligatory prayer was established twice a day, in the morning before sunrise and after sunset. It is
reported through a chain of narrators that when the Prophet (Peace be upon him) received the first
Revelation, Gabriel - the angel, proceeded and taught him how to observe
Wudu
(ablution). When
the Prophet (Peace be upon him) had finished, he took a handful of water and sprinkled it on his
loins.
Ibn Hisham reported that when it was time for prayers, the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him)
and his Companions went into a mountain valley to pray secretly. Abu Talib once saw the Messenger
of Allâh (Peace be upon him) and Ali praying, he asked them what they were up to. When he got
to know that it was obligatory prayer, he told them to stay constant in their practice.
THE QURAISHITES LEARN ABOUT THE CALL:
This stage of the Call, even though conducted in a clandestine manner and on an individual basis, its
news leaked out and assumed a public interest all over Makkah. In the beginning, the Makkan
leaders did not care much about Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and took no heed of his
teachings. At first, they thought that Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was merely a religious
philosophist like Omaiyah bin Abi As-Salt, Quss bin Sa‘idah, ‘Amr bin Nufail and their ilk who used to
philosophize on godship and religious obligations. But this attitude of indifference soon changed into
real apprehension. The polytheists of Quraish began to watch Muhammad’s movements closely and
anxiously for fear of spreading his Call and producing a change in the prevalent mentality.
For three underground years of activism, a group of believers emerged stamped by a spirit of
fraternity and cooperation with one definite objective in their mind: propagating and deeply
establishing the call unto Islam. For full three years Muhammad (Peace be upon him) had been
content to teach within a rather narrow circle. The time had, however, come to preach the faith of
the Lord openly. The angel Gabriel had brought him down a further Revelation of Allâh’s Will to
confront his people, invalidate their falsehood and crush down their idolatrous practices.
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