The Makkan Years · 610 CE

غار حراء

The Cave of Ḥirāʾ

In the fortieth year of his life, in the month of Ramadan, the word of God breaks upon a man alone in a mountain cave: “Read.”

Chapter 06 · 2 min read · 6 sources

Read, in the name of your Lord who created — created man from a clinging clot. Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen — taught man what he did not know.

— Qur'an 96:1–5, Sūrat al-ʿAlaq — the first revelation

The Retreat

As he approached forty, solitude was made beloved to him. Each year, in the manner of the ḥanīfs, he would withdraw for a month of devotion — taḥannuth — to a small cave on Jabal al-Nūr, the Mount of Light, an hour's hard climb above Makkah. From its opening the Kaʿbah was just visible in the valley below. ʿĀ'ishah's narration in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī records that in the months before the call, true dreams came to him, so that he saw nothing in sleep “but it came like the breaking of dawn.”12

“Read”

Then, on a night in Ramadan of the year 610 — the night the Qur'an calls Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Decree, “better than a thousand months”3 — the angel Jibrīl came to him in the cave and said: “Read.” He answered: “I am not a reader.” The angel seized him and pressed him until his strength was spent, released him, and said again: “Read.” Three times the command and the crushing embrace were repeated; then the angel recited the first verses of Sūrat al-ʿAlaq — and the words remained in his heart.14

He descended the mountain trembling, and came to Khadījah crying, “Cover me, cover me!” — zammilūnī. When the terror had left him, he told her what he had seen, and said, “I feared for myself.” Her reply is among the most celebrated testimonies of character in all literature: “Never, by God! God will never disgrace you. You keep the ties of kinship, you bear the burden of the weak, you earn for the destitute, you honour the guest, and you help against the blows of fate.”1

Waraqah's Testimony

Khadījah took him to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal — an old man, blind, a ḥanīf turned Christian who had studied the scriptures. Waraqah listened and said: “This is the Nāmūs — the angel of revelation — that God sent down upon Mūsā. Would that I were young now; would that I might live when your people drive you out.” The Prophet ﷺ asked, startled: “Will they drive me out?” Waraqah answered: “Never has a man brought the like of what you bring but he was met with enmity. If your day finds me living, I will help you with all my strength.” Waraqah died soon after.14

Arise and Warn

Revelation then paused — the fatrah — for a period the reports variously measure, long enough that grief pressed upon him. Then, as he walked, he heard a voice from the sky and saw the angel of Ḥirāʾ seated on a throne between heaven and earth; he hurried home saying again, “Wrap me up” — and there descended the verses that turned a private visionary into a public messenger: “O you wrapped in your cloak: arise and warn. And magnify your Lord.”56 Revelation now came in strength and did not cease for twenty-three years, until the religion was complete.12

Sources & Further Reading

  1. 1

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb Badʾ al-Waḥy (Book of the Beginning of Revelation), ḥadīth 3 — the narration of ʿĀ'ishah on the first revelation, Khadījah's words, and Waraqah.

    Ḥadīth
  2. 2

    Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb al-Īmān — the parallel narrations of the beginning of revelation.

    Ḥadīth
  3. 3

    Qur'an 97:1–5, Sūrat al-Qadr; and 2:185 on the Qur'an's descent in Ramadan.

    Qur'an
  4. 4

    Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah — the account of the first revelation from Ibn Isḥāq; tr. Guillaume, pp. 104–107.

    Classical sīrah
  5. 5

    Qur'an 74:1–7, Sūrat al-Muddaththir.

    Qur'an
  6. 6

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb Badʾ al-Waḥy and Kitāb al-Tafsīr — the narration of Jābir ibn ʿAbdillāh on the fatrah and the descent of Sūrat al-Muddaththir.

    Ḥadīth

See the full bibliography for the works cited across this sīrah.