Let us now move forward in time to the blessed days of the revealment of Risalah…

When our Master turned 39 a significant advancement started to take place in his spiritual state… He had been spending much of his time in solitude in a cave in Mount Hira, three miles away from Mecca. The receptivity of his hearing and vision had become very acute… He literally started to hear the trees and stones greet him as he walked past them…

After completing his meditations and contemplations in his cave in Mount Hira, our Master would return to Mecca and circumambulate the Kaaba seven times…

Eventually, six months to his 40^th birthday, a supernatural trait started to disclose itself whereby the dreams our Master saw during the night would explicitly manifest the next day with precision… Whoever he saw doing whatever in his dream, he would see the same people doing exactly the same thing during the day… 

This went on for six months… Finally, one powerful night during the month of Ramadan, most probably the Night of Power, (corresponding to the month of February of the year 611) while our Master was once again in deep meditation in his cave in Mount Hira something extraordinary took place…

Let us now leave it to Aisha (ra), the mother of the faithful believers, to narrate the rest:[1]

“The commencement of the Divine Inspiration to Allah’s Rasul was in the form of auspicious dreams which came true like bright day light, and then the love of seclusion was bestowed upon him. He used to go in seclusion in the cave of Hira where he used to worship (Allah alone) continuously for many days before his desire to see his family. He used to take food with him for the stay and then come back to (his wife) Khadija and then again take food for his retreat till suddenly the Truth descended upon him while he was in the cave of Hira. 

The angel came to him and asked him to read. The Rasul of Allah replied, “I do not know how to read.” 

The Rasul added, “The angel caught me (forcefully) and squeezed me so hard that I could not bear it anymore. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, ‘I do not know how to read.’ Thereupon he caught me again and squeezed me a second time till I could not bear it anymore. He then released me and again asked me to read but again I replied, ‘I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?’ Thereupon he caught me for the third time and squeezed me, and then released me and said:

READ IN THE NAME OF YOUR RABB WHO CREATED… CREATED MAN FROM A CLOT… READ! FOR YOUR RABB IS MOST GENEROUS, WHO TAUGHT BY THE PEN, TAUGHT MAN THAT WHICH HE KNEW NOT…[2]

Then Allah’s Rasul returned with the Inspiration and with his heart beating severely. He went to Khadija bint Khuwailid and said, “Cover me! Cover me!” She covered him till his fear was over and then he told her everything that had happened and said, “I fear that something may happen to me.” Khadija replied, “Never! By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your Kith and kin, help the poor and the destitute, serve your guests generously and assist the deserving calamity-afflicted ones.” Khadija then accompanied him to her cousin Waraqa bin Nawfal bin Asad bin ‘Abdul ‘Uzza, who, during the Pre-Islamic Period became a Christian and knew the writing with Hebrew letters. He would write from the Gospel in Hebrew as much as Allah wished him to write. He was an old man and had lost his eyesight. Khadija said to Waraqa, “Listen to the story of your nephew, O my cousin!” Waraqa asked, “O my nephew! What have you seen?” Allah’s Rasul described what he had seen. Waraqa said, “This is the same one who keeps the secrets (angel Gabriel) whom Allah had sent to Moses. I wish I were young and could live up to the time when your people would turn you out.” Allah’s Rasul asked, “Will they drive me out?” Waraqa replied in the affirmative and said, “Any man who came with something similar to what you have brought was treated with hostility; and if I should remain alive till the day when you will be turned out then I would support you strongly.” 

But after a few days Waraqa died…

At this stage our Master was 40 and Khadija was 55 years old. One day while they were at home, the angel appeared to Muhammad again… He immediately called out to Khadija, “Khadija that angel is here again!”

Upon this Khadija came and sat next to him. 

‘Get up, O son of my uncle,’ she said, ‘and sit by my left thigh.’

Muhammad did so, she asked, ‘Can you still see him?’

‘Yes,’ he said.

She said, ‘Then turn around and sit on my right thigh.’

He did so, and she asked, ‘Can you still see him?’

When he said that he could she asked him to move and sit on her lap. Once he had done this she again asked if he could see him, and when he said yes, she disclosed her form and cast aside her veil while the Rasul was sitting in her lap.

Then she asked, ‘Now can you still see him?’

He replied, ‘No.’

She said, ‘O son of my uncle, rejoice and be of good heart, by Allah he is an angel and not a Satan. Had he been of the jinn he would not have left when I disclosed my private parts…’

Khadija (ra) was probably advised to apply this test by her cousin Waraqa so that they may be totally convinced… 

After the first revelation brought by the angel Gabriel the Divine Inspiration was paused for a period. There are differing narrations as to the duration of this period of ‘pause’ (fatrat), according to some it was fifteen days, according to others it was a month, three months, a year, or three years…

Our Master was deeply saddened by this… So much so that on a few occasions he thought of throwing himself off of the mountains, but each time the angel Israfil suddenly appeared and prevented him…

Finally, one day the long-awaited revelation took place…

Narrated Jabir bin ‘Abdullah Al-Ansari while talking about the period of pause in revelation reporting the speech of the Rasul: 

“While I was walking, all of a sudden, I heard a voice from the sky. I looked up and saw the same angel who had visited me at the cave of Hira sitting on a chair between the sky and the earth. I got afraid of him and came back home and said, ‘Wrap me (in blankets).’ And then Allah revealed the following verses:

O WRAPPED ONE (Muddathir); ARISE AND WARN! REALIZE THE MAGNIFICENCE OF YOUR RABB! PURIFY YOUR GARMENTS (consciousness – brain)! REFRAIN FROM UNCLEANLINESS (duality, misevaluation)![3]

After this the revelation started coming strongly, frequently and regularly.”