IN THE SHADE OF THE MESSAGE AND PROPHETHOOD - IN THE CAVE HIRA:

1] When Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was nearly forty, he had
been wont to pass long hours in retirement meditating and speculating
over all aspects of creation around him. This meditative temperament
helped to widen the mental gap between him andhis compatriots. He used
to provide himself with Sawiq (barley porridge) and water and then
directly head for the hills and ravines in the neighbourhood of
Makkah. One of these in particular was his favourite resort — a cave
named Hira', in the Mount An-Nour. It was only two miles from Makkah,a
small cave 4 yards long and 1.75 yard wide. He would always go there
and invite wayfarers to share him his modest provision. He used to
devote most of his time, and Ramadan in particular, to worship and
meditation on the universe around him. His heart was restless about
the moral evils and idolatry that wererampant among his people; he was
as yet helpless because no definite course, or specific approach had
been available for him to follow and rectify the ill practices around
him. This solitude attended with this sort of contemplative approach
must be understood in its Divine perspective. It was a preliminary
stage to the period of grave responsibilities that he was to shoulder
very soon.
Privacy and detachment from theimpurities of life were two
indispensable prerequisites for the Prophet's soul to come into close
communion with the Unseen Power that lies behind allaspects of
existence in this infinite universe. It was a rich period of privacy
which lasted for three years and ushered in a new era, of indissoluble
contact with that Power.
GAGRIEL BRINGS DOWN THE REVELATION:
When he was forty, the age of complete perfection at which Prophets
were always ordered todisclose their Message, signs of his Prophethood
started to appear and twinkle on the horizons of life; they were the
true visions he used to experience for six months. The period of
Prophethood was 23 years; so the period of these six months of true
visions constituted an integral part of the forty-six parts of
Prophethood. In Ramadan, in his third year of solitude in the cave of
Hira', Allâh's Will desired His mercy to flow on earth and Muhammad
(Peace be upon him) was honoured with Prophethood, and the light of
Revelation burst upon him with some verses of the Noble Qur'ân.
As for the exact date, careful investigation into circumstantial
evidence and relevant clues pointdirectly to Monday, 21st. Ramadan at
night, i.e. Au, 10, 610A.D. with Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)
exactly 40 years, 6 months and 12 days of age, i.e. 39 Gregorian
years, 3 months and 22 days.
'Aishah, the veracious, gave the following narration of that most
significant event that brought the Divine light which would dispel the
darkness of disbelief and ignorance. It led life down a new course and
brought about the most serious amendment to the line of the history of
mankind:
Forerunners of the Revelation assumed the form of true visionsthat
would strikingly come true all the time. After that, solitude became
dear to him and he would go to the cave, Hira', to engage in Tahannuth
(devotion) there for a certain number of nights before returning to
his family, and then he would return for provisions for a similar
stay. At length, unexpectedly, the Truth(the angel) came to him and
said,"Recite." "I cannot recite," he [Muhammad (Peace be upon him)]
said. The Prophet (Peace beupon him) described: "Then he took me and
squeezed me vehemently and then let me go and repeated the order
'Recite.' 'Icannot recite' said I, and once again he squeezed me and
let metill I was exhausted. Then he said: 'Recite.' I said 'I cannot
recite.' He squeezed me for a third time and then let me go and said:
*.
*. "Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists),
has created man from a clot (a piece of thick coagulatedblood). Read!
and your Lord is the Most Generous.'" [96:1-3]
The Prophet (Peace be upon him)repeated these verses. He was trembling
with fear. At this stage,he came back to his wife Khadijah, and said,
"Cover me, ... cover me." They covered him until he restored security.
He apprised Khadijah of the incidentof the cave and added that he was
horrified. His wife tried to soothe him and reassured him saying,
"Allâh will never disgrace you. You unite 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