Muhammad

from Chapter 15

The First Revelations

It was not long after this outward sign of his authority and his mission that he began to experience powerful inward signs, in addition to those of which he had already been conscious. When asked about these he spoke of “true visions” which came to him in his sleep and he said that they were “like the breaking of the light of dawn.” The immediate result of these visions was that solitude became dear to him, and he would go for spiritual retreats to a cave in Mount Hirā’ not far from the outskirts of Mecca. There was nothing in this that would have struck Quraysh as particularly strange, for retreat had been a traditional practice amongst the descendants of Ishmael, and in each generation there had been one or two who would withdraw to a solitary place from time to time so that they might have a period that was uncontaminated by the world of men. In accordance with this age-old practice, Muhammad would take with him provisions and consecrate a certain number of nights to the worship of God.

Then he would return to his family, and sometimes on his return he took more provisions and went again to the mountain. During these few years it often happened that after he had left the town and was approaching his hermitage he would hear clearly the words “Peace be on thee, O Messenger of God,” and he would turn and look for the speaker but no one was in sight, and it was as if the words had come from a tree or a stone. Ramadan was the traditional month of retreat, and it was one night towards the end of Ramadan, in his fortieth year, when he was alone in the cave, that there came to him an Angel in the form of a man. The Angel said to him: “Recite!” and he said: “I am not a reciter,” whereupon, as he himself told it, “the Angel took me and whelmed me in his embrace until he had reached the limit of mine endurance. Then he released me and said: ‘Recite!’ I said: ‘I am not a reciter,’ and again he took me and whelmed me in his embrace, and again when he had reached the limit of mine endurance he released me and said: ‘Recite!’, and again I said ‘I am not a reciter.’ Then a third time he whelmed me as before, then released me and said:

‘Recite in the name of thy Lord who created!
He createth man from a clot of blood.
Recite; and thy Lord is the Most Bountiful, 
He who hath taught by the pen,
taught man what he knew not.’”

He recited these words after the Angel, who thereupon left him, and he said: “It was as though the words were written on my heart.”’ But he feared that this might mean he had become a jinn-inspired poet or a man possessed. So he fled from the cave, and when he was halfway down the slope of the mountain he heard a voice above him saying: “O Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” He raised his eyes heavenwards and there was his visitant, still recognizable but now clearly an Angel, filling the whole horizon, and again he said: “O Muhammad, thou art the Messenger of God, and I am Gabriel.” The Prophet stood gazing at the Angel; then he turned away from him, but whichever way he looked the Angel was always there, astride the horizon, whether it was to the north, to the south, to the east or to the west. Finally the Angel turned away, and the Prophet descended the slope and went to his house.

“Cover me! Cover me!” he said to Khadījah as with still quaking heart he laid himself on his couch. Alarmed, yet not daring to question him, she quickly brought a cloak and spread it over him. But when the intensity of his awe had abated he told her what he had seen and heard; and having spoken to him words of reassurance, she went to tell her cousin Waraqah, who was now an old man, and blind. “Holy! Holy!,” he said. “By Him in whose hand is the soul of Waraqah, there hath come unto Muhammad the greatest Nāmūs, even he that would come unto Moses. Verily Muhammad is the Prophet of this people. Bid him rest assured.” So Khadījah went home and repeated these words to the Prophet, who now returned in peace of mind to the cave, that he might fulfill the number of days he had dedicated to God for his retreat. When this was completed, he went straight to the Ka’bah, according to his wont, and performed the rite of the rounds, after which he greeted the old and the blind Waraqah whom he had noticed amongst those who were sitting in the Mosque; and Waraqah said to him: “Tell me, O son of my brother, what thou hast seen and heard.” The Prophet told him, and the old man said again what he had said to Khadījah. But this time he added: “Thou wilt be called a liar, and ill-treated, and they will cast thee out and make war upon thee; and if I live to see that day, God knoweth I will help His cause.” Then he leaned towards him and kissed his forehead, and the Prophet returned to his home.

A Note on the Pronunciation of Arabic Names

Map of Arabia

Quraysh of the Hollow (genealogical tree)

Key to References

1   The House of God
2   A Great Loss
3   Quraysh of the Hollow
4   The Recovery of a Loss
5   The Vow to Sacrifice a Son
6   The Need for a Prophet
7   The Year of the Elephant
8   The Desert
9   Two Bereavements
10   Bahīrà the Monk
11   A Pact of Chivalry
12   Questions of Marriage
13   The Household
14   The Rebuilding of the Ka‘bah
15   The First Revelations
16   Worship
17   “Warn Thy Family”
18   Quraysh Take Action
19   Aws and Khazraj
20   Abū Jahl and Hamzah
21   Quraysh Make Offers and Demands
22   Leaders of Quraysh
23   Wonderment and Hope
24   Family Divisions
25   The Hour 
26   Three Questions
27   Abyssinia
28   ‘Umar
29   The Ban and its Annulment
30   Paradise and Eternity
31   The Year of Sadness
32   “The Light of Thy Countenance”
33   After the Year of Sadness
34   Yathrib Responsive
35   Many Emigrations
36   A Conspiracy
37   The Hijrah
38   The Entry into Medina
39   Harmony and Discord
40   The New Household
41   The Threshold of War
42   The March to Badr
43   The Battle of Badr
44   The Return of the Vanquished
45   The Captives
46   Bani Qaynuqā‘
47   Deaths and Marriages
48   The People of the Bench
49   Desultory Warfare
50   Preparations for Battle
51   The March to Uhud
52   The Battle of Uhud
53   Revenge
54   The Burial of the Martyrs
55   After Uhud
56   Victims of Revenge
57   Bani Nadīr
58   Peace and War
59   The Trench
60   The Siege
61   Bani Qurayzah
62   After the Siege
63   The Hypocrites
64   The Necklace
65   The Lie
66   The Dilemma of Quraysh
67   “A Clear Victory”
68   After Hudaybiyah
69   Khaybar
70   “Whom Lovest Thou Most?”
71   After Khaybar
72   The Lesser Pilgrimage and its Aftermath
73   Syria
74   A Breach of the Armistice
75   The Conquest of Mecca
76   The Battle of Hunayn and the Siege of Tā'if
77   Reconciliations
78   After the Victory
79   Tabūk
80   After Tabūk
81   The Degrees
82   The Future
83   The Farewell Pilgrimage
84   The Choice
85   The Succession and the Burial

Index

Martin Lings (1909-2005) was a renowned British scholar with degrees in English and Arabic from London University and Oxford University. At Oxford, he studied English under C. S. Lewis, who later became a close friend. Lings taught at several European universities and the University of Cairo and served as the keeper of Oriental manuscripts for the British Museum and the British Library. His friendship and similar beliefs with philosophers René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon inspired Lings to convert to Islam. He went on to become an influential member of Western Muslim society, participating in several international Islamic councils and conferences, including acting as consultant to the World of Islam Festival Trust. He is the author of twelve books on religion and spirituality.

“This work is widely recognized as the most readable account of the life of the Prophet to date.”
Times of London

"Lings provides a wealth of detail on the life of Muhammad, the time and place of many Koranic revelations, and the foundation of Islam, all based exclusively on 8th- and 9th-century Arabic biographical sources and collections of the sayings attributed to Muhammad. General readers will find a well-written, straightforward chronological narrative; Muslim readers will appreciate the favorable treatment of Muhammad; while specialists will find a faithful and convenient rendering of source material."
Joseph Gardner, California State Univ. Lib., Northridge Library Journal

“For those interested in Islam . . . it is mesmerizing.”
Parabola

RELIGION / ISLAM

“This work is widely recognized as the most readable account of the life of the Prophet to date.”
--Times of London

“For those interested in Islam in one way or another, it is mesmerizing.”
--Parabola

Martin Lings’s biography of Muhammad is an internationally acclaimed, comprehensive, and authoritative account of the life of the Prophet. Based on the sira, the eighth- and ninth-century Arabic biographies that recount numerous events in the Prophet’s life, it contains original English translations of many important passages that reveal the words of men and women who heard Muhammad speak and witnessed the events of his life.

Scrupulous and exhaustive in its fidelity to its sources, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources is presented in a narrative style that is easily comprehensible, yet authentic and inspiring in its use of language, reflecting both the simplicity and grandeur of the story it tells. The book has been published in twelve languages and has received numerous awards, including acknowledgment as best biography of the Prophet in English at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad. This revised edition, which represents the final updates made to the text before the author’s death in 2005, incorporates important additions about the Prophet’s expanding influence and his spreading of the message of Islam into Syria and its neighboring states.

Martin Lings (1909-2005) was a renowned British scholar with degrees in English and Arabic from London University and Oxford University. At Oxford, he studied English under C. S. Lewis, who later became a close friend. Lings taught at several European universities and the University of Cairo and served as the keeper of Oriental manuscripts for the British Museum and the British Library. His friendship and similar beliefs with philosophers René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon inspired Lings to convert to Islam. He went on to become an influential member of Western Muslim society, participating in several international Islamic councils and conferences, including acting as consultant to the World of Islam Festival Trust. He is the author of twelve books on religion and spirituality.