Beit-Allah el-Haremain, Mecca
The Meccans claimed descent from Abraham through Ishmael, and tradition stated that their temple, the Ka'abah, had been build by ABraham for the worship of the One God. It was still call the House of Allah, but the chief objects of worship there were a number of idols which were call daughters of Allah and intercessors. The few who felt disgust at the idolatry, which had prevailed for centuries, longed for the religion of Abraham and tried to find out what had been its teaching.
Such seekers of the truth were known as 'Hunafa' (sing. Hanif), a word originally meaning 'those who turn away' (from the existing idol-worship), but coming in the end to have the sense of 'upright' or 'by nature upright', because such persons held the way of truth to be right conduct. These Hunafa did not form a community. They were the agnostics of their day, each seeking truth by the light of his own inner consciousness.
Muhammad son of Abdullah became one of these. It was his practice to retire with his family for amonth of every year to a cave in the desert for meditation. His place of retreat was Hira, a desert hill not far from Mecca, and his chosen month was Ramadan, the month of heat. It was there one night toward the end of his quiet month that the first revelation came to him when he was forty years old.
He was asleep or in a trance when he heard a voice say, "Read!". He said, "I cannot read." The voice again said, "Read!" He said, "I cannot read."
A third time the voice, more terrible, commanded, "Read!" He said, "What can I read?"
The voice said, "Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth.
"Createth man from a clot.
"Read, And it is thy Lord the Most Bountiful
"Who teacheth by the pen,
"Teacheth man that which he knew not."
When he awoke the words remained 'as if inscribed upon his heart.' He went out of the cave on to the hillside and heard the same awe-inspiring voice say, "O Muhammad! Thou art Allah's messenger, and I am Gabriel." Then he raised his eyes and saw the angel, in the likeness of a man, standing in the sky above the horizon. And again the dreadful voice said, "O Muhammad! Thou art Allah's messenger, and I am Gabriel."
Muhammad (God bless and keep him!) stood quite still, turning away his face from the brightness of the vision, but withersoever he might turn his face, there always stood the angel confronting him. He remained thus along while till at length the angel vanished, when he returned in great distress of mind to his wife Khadijah.
She did her best to reassure him, saying that his conduct had been such that Allah would not let a harmful spirit come to him and that it was her hope that he was to become the Prophet of his people. On their return to Mecca she took him to her cousin Waraqa ibn Naufal, a very old man, 'who knew the Scriptures of the Jews and Christians,' who declared his belief that the heavenly messenger who came to Moses of old had come to Muhammad, and that he was chosen as the Prophet of his people.
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