Revelation
He was forty years old, and it was the fifth consecutive year since his annual retreats, when one night towards the end of the month of Ramadan, an angel came to visit him, and announced that God had chosen him as His Messenger to all mankind. The angel taught him the mode of ablutions, the way of worshipping God and the conduct of prayer. He communicated to him the following Divine message:
“With the name of God, the Most Merciful, the All-Merciful. Read: with the name of thy Lord Who created! Created man from what clings! Read: and thy Lord is the Most Bounteous; Who taught by the pen, Taught man what he knew not.” [Qur’an: 96:01-05]
Deeply affected, he returned home and related to his wife what had happened, expressing his fears that it might have been something diabolic or the action of evil spirits. She consoled him, saying that he had always been a man of charity and generosity, helping the poor, the orphans, the widows and the needy, and assured him that God would protect him against all evil.
Then came a pause in revelation, extending over three years. The Prophet must have felt at first a shock, then a calm, an ardent desire, and after a period of waiting, a growing impatience or nostalgia. The news of the first vision had spread and at the pause the sceptics in the city had begun to mock at him and cut bitter jokes. They went so far as to say that God had forsaken him.
During the three years of waiting the Prophet had given himself up more and more to prayers and to spiritual practices. The revelations were then resumed and God assured him that He had not at all forsaken him: on the contrary it was He Who had guided him to the right path: therefore he should take care of the orphans and the destitute, and proclaim the bounty of God on him [Qur’an: 93:03-11]. This was in reality an order to preach. Another revelation directed him to warn people against evil practices, to exhort them to worship none but the One God, and to abandon everything that would displease God [Qur’an: 74:02-07]. Yet another revelation commanded him to warn his own near relatives [Qur’an: 26:214]; and: “Proclaim openly that which thou art commanded, and withdraw from the Associators (idolaters). Lo! we defend thee from the scoffers” [Qur’an: 15:94-5]. According to Ibn Ishaq, the first revelation had come to the Prophet during his sleep, evidently to reduce the shock. Later revelations came in full wakefulness.
