finally, God could speak to him directly from behind a screen, either when he was awake, as on his night journey, or during his sleep as the Prophet has once reported: “My Lord appeared to me in the most splendid form, and said: ‘Over what do the Supreme Society dispute?’ I said I do not know. He put his palm on my chest and I felt its coolness and knowledge of everything became clear to me. He said: ‘Muhammad, over what do the Supreme Society dispute?’ I said: ‘Over atonements.’ He said: ‘What are they?’ I said: ‘Ablution after what is disliked, moving forward to do what is good and watching for the time of prayer, one after the other. If a person does this, he is praised during his life and at his death. His sins will be wiped out and he will be like a newborn child.’” (Related by al-Tirmidhī.)
ʿĀ’ishah reported that when the Prophet received revelations, he always sweated, even on the coldest of days.
All this meant that the Prophet had to go through a transitional period during which he would taste part of the complete transformation that was going to take place in his life. During this transitional period, there was no need for new revelations. Only reassurance was needed that what he had seen and heard was true and real. He was a Prophet chosen by God for a great task.
When the transitional period was over, revelations resumed. Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh quotes the Prophet as saying: “As I was walking, I heard a voice from heaven. I lifted my eyes to the sky and I saw the angel who had come to me in Ḥirā’ sitting on a chair raised between heaven and earth. I sat down in terror and fell. I then rushed home and said to my wife: ‘Wrap me! Wrap me!’ God revealed to me: ‘O you enfolded [in your coverings] arise and warn … etc.’” (74: 1-7) From now on, Muhammad was not only a Prophet, he was also a Messenger. From now on, he was to receive revelations without worrying interruptions.
NOTES
1. Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah, Dār al-Qalam, Beirut, Vol. 1, pp. 252-254. Also, Amīn Duwaydār, Ṣuwar Min Ḥayāt al-Rasūl, Dār al-Maʿārif, 4th edition, Cairo, p. 119.
2. Amīn Duwaydār, op.cit., pp. 118-119.
3. Ibn Hishām, op.cit., pp. 249-254.
4. Al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulūk, Dār al-Maʿārif, 4th edition, Vol. 2, pp. 300-301.
5. Sayyid Quṭb, Fī Ẓilal al-Qur’ān, Dār al-Shurūq, Beirut, Vol. 6, pp. 3396-3398. English edition, In the Shade of the Qur’ān, Vol. 30, MWH London Publishers, London, 1979, pp. 220-222.
6. Ibn Hishām, op.cit., pp. 249-254. Also, Amīn Duwaydār, op.cit., pp. 121-122.
7. Ibn Hishām, op.cit., p. 255.
8. Ibid., p. 257. Also, Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, ʿUyūn al-Athar, Dār al-Turāth, Madinah, 1996, p. 170 and p. 176.
AS ESTABLISHED IN the preceding chapter, Muhammad was now a Prophet receiving revelations from God, through the Angel Gabriel, and a messenger required to convey God’s message to mankind. He was fully aware of the magnitude of the change which this message would bring about in the life of Arabian society at the time, and human life in general. He was also aware that when he had to make his message known to people, he was bound to meet opposition. He himself, however, accepted the new faith and declared his belief in God’s oneness, fully reassured that his was the true Divine Faith.
The enormous difficulty of the task ahead did not deter him from attempting it. The fact that opposition was bound to be fierce was not to stop him from dedicating all his energy and efforts to calling on people to abandon their erroneous beliefs in favour of the new message God was addressing to mankind through him. He was, however, directed by God to keep his message secret for the time being, and only to approach those whom he thought would give a favourable response. The first to accept the new faith was his wife, Khadījah. She already knew him to be a man of noble heart and upright nature. She trusted that her husband, who had never said something which he knew to be untrue, would have never contemplated making a claim to prophethood if it was not absolutely true. Knowing her husband to be exemplary in his honesty and truthfulness, she realized that he was the man God would have chosen as His Messenger to mankind. She willingly and assuredly declared that she believed in God’s oneness, and that Muhammad was God’s Messenger.
It was indeed a blessing that Khadījah should readily accept the new faith. She was to give the Prophet her unwavering support, and comfort him in the years to come when opposition to his message was to increase in ferocity and wickedness. When he went out to discharge his duty as a messenger, he might receive insults, ridicule and physical assault. He would return home sad and downhearted, but she would always be ready with her encouragement and support. She did her best to comfort him and he would soon regain his cheerful, optimistic attitude. For this unwavering support, Gabriel once came to the Prophet telling him to convey God’s greeting to Khadījah and give her the happy news that she had a special home in heaven where she would enjoy total bliss and happiness. An authentic ḥadīth related by Muslim quotes the Prophet as saying: “The best woman in it [meaning heaven] is Mary, daughter of ʿImrān, and the best woman on it [meaning the earth] is Khadījah.”1
The first male to accept Islam was a ten-year-old boy named ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. He was the Prophet’s cousin, reared in the Prophet’s home. Some years earlier, the Quraysh had been through hard times. Although Abū Ṭālib, the Prophet’s uncle, was the chief of his clan which also enjoyed a position of honour in Makkah, he was a man of limited means and large family. In those hard times, Muhammad wanted to do something to help his uncle. He therefore went to speak to another uncle of his, al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, saying: “You know that your brother Abū Ṭālib has a large family, and everyone is going through very difficult times. I suggest that you and I go to him with a proposal of help: you take one of his sons and I take one to rear in order to reduce his burden.” Al-ʿAbbās agreed and they went and spoke to Abū Ṭālib, proposing that they should have two of his children for as long as the difficult period continued. Abū Ṭālib agreed, provided that they left his eldest son, Ṭālib, with him. The Prophet took ʿAlī to his home and al-ʿAbbās took Jaʿfar. ʿAlī continued to be with the Prophet until he received his message, and he was in the fortunate position of accepting Islam in its very early days. Jaʿfar was also to become one of the early Muslims.2
The First Muslim Man
The first man to accept Islam after the Prophet was his servant, Zayd ibn Ḥārithah. The fact that Zayd should not have a moment’s hesitation before accepting Islam comes as no surprise when one remembers his history with the Prophet. When Zayd was eight years old, his mother, Suʿdā bint Thaʿlabah, took him on a journey to visit her people. On the way, a group of horsemen attacked them and kidnapped Zayd, and subsequently sold him as a slave child in one of the Arabian bazaars called Ḥubbāshah. Apparently Zayd was sold once or twice before he ended up in Syria. Some time later, a man from the Quraysh called Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām bought him and took him to Makkah. Ḥakīm, who was a nephew of Khadījah, brought with him several young slaves. His aunt went to visit him after his return. He said to her: “Aunt, look at these slaves and choose whoever you like.” She chose Zayd and took him home. This happened when she was already married to the Prophet, but long before he started to receive his revelations. When the Prophet saw Zayd, he liked him and asked Khadījah to give him Zayd as a present. She willingly complied.
Zayd’s father felt his loss very painfully. He could not forget his son because
