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Muhammad's first revelation

Muhammad's first revelation denotes the foundational event in Islamic tradition circa 610 CE, when Muhammad ibn Abdullah, a 40-year-old Meccan merchant engaged in meditative seclusion, encountered the angel Jibril (Gabriel) in the Cave of Hira on Jabal al-Nour, receiving the inaugural verses of the Quran that launched his role as prophet.^[1]^[2] According to accounts in early hadith compilations like Sahih al-Bukhari, the angel seized Muhammad, demanding "Iqra' (Recite!)," and upon his protest of illiteracy, conveyed the words: "Recite in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clinging substance. Recite, and your Lord is the most Generous—who taught by the pen, taught man that which he knew not" (Quran 96:1-5), establishing monotheistic themes of creation, knowledge, and divine instruction.^[3] Distressed and trembling, Muhammad fled the cave, convinced of madness or demonic influence, but his wife Khadijah bint Khuwaylid reassured him, and her Christian relative Waraqah ibn Nawfal interpreted the experience as genuine prophecy comparable to Moses', urging perseverance amid ensuing revelations over 23 years that formed the Quran.^[3] This episode, documented in 8th-century sira literature and hadith rather than contemporary records, underpins Islam's origin narrative, though modern scholarship notes variances in early transmissions and questions precise historicity due to the oral tradition's evolution.^[4]

Background and Pre-Revelation Context

Muhammad's Early Life and Spiritual Seeking

Muhammad ibn Abdullah was born circa 570 CE in Mecca to the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe, which held custodianship over the Kaaba and profited from regional trade.^[5] His father, Abdullah, died before his birth, and his mother, Amina bint Wahb, died when he was about six years old, leaving him an orphan in a tribal society where such status often meant vulnerability.^[6] Thereafter, he was raised by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib until age eight, then by his uncle Abu Talib, under whose protection he entered commerce as a shepherd and later a merchant, accompanying caravans to Syria and gaining a reputation for honesty that earned him the title al-Amin (the trustworthy).^[7] At around age 25, Muhammad married Khadija bint Khuwaylid, a wealthy widow approximately 15 years his senior who had employed him in trade; their union produced several children, including daughter Fatima, and lasted until her death.^[5] Traditional accounts, drawn from sira literature like Ibn Ishaq's biography compiled over a century later, portray his early adulthood as marked by introspection amid Mecca's polytheistic practices, economic disparities, and social customs such as female infanticide, fostering a disposition toward moral critique.^[8] These sources, while devotional in nature, align with scholarly consensus on a historical core of his life as a merchant navigating Arabian tribal dynamics.^[9] In his late 30s, Muhammad began periodic retreats to Mount Hira outside Mecca, engaging in tahannuth—a form of pre-Islamic Arabian seclusion involving fasting, prayer, and contemplation of the divine—to escape societal corruption and seek existential answers beyond idol worship.^[10] This practice, described in hadith collections and early biographies, reflected a monotheistic yearning amid pervasive paganism, preparing the ground for his reported prophetic experiences around age 40, though non-Muslim contemporary records for this phase remain absent, relying instead on later Muslim testimonies subject to hagiographic tendencies.^[11]

Retreats to Mount Hira and Pre-Islamic Practices

Prior to the onset of revelations around 610 CE, Muhammad ibn Abdullah, then in his late thirties or early forties, adopted the practice of taḥannuth, involving periodic retreats to the Cave of Hira on Jabal al-Nur, a mountain about 3 kilometers northeast of Mecca.^[12] This seclusion entailed remaining in the cave for several consecutive nights engaged in worship and reflection, descending only when provisions ran low, which were supplied by his wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid.^[10] Traditional Islamic sources, including narrations attributed to Aisha bint Abi Bakr in Sahih al-Bukhari, describe Muhammad worshipping Allah alone during these retreats, emphasizing monotheistic devotion amid Mecca's polytheistic milieu.^[13] Taḥannuth represented a form of ascetic isolation known in pre-Islamic Hijaz, where individuals withdrew to remote sites for spiritual devotion, often rejecting idolatrous practices prevalent among Quraysh tribes.^[14] Scholarly analysis of early sources like Ibn Ishaq's Sira Rasul Allah (compiled circa 767 CE) indicates this custom involved turning towards the high God Allah, paralleling hanif tendencies of figures like Zayd ibn Amr who eschewed polytheism.^[14] While primarily documented in later Islamic traditions, the practice's roots in Arabian spirituality suggest it as a response to societal moral decay and tribal idol worship, with Muhammad's retreats serving for contemplation of creation and divine unity.^[10] These pre-revelation sojourns, lasting days to weeks, underscore Muhammad's inclination towards solitude and introspection, habits that early biographers link to his reputation for trustworthiness (al-Amin) and dissatisfaction with Meccan commercialism and paganism.^[15] Accounts consistently portray the cave's austere environment—narrow, about 3.7 meters long and 2.5 meters wide—as conducive to such withdrawal, though archaeological or non-Islamic corroboration remains absent due to the era's oral tradition and lack of contemporary records.^[12] The practice's emphasis on exclusive devotion to Allah prefigures Quranic monotheism, distinguishing it from broader pre-Islamic rituals tied to pilgrimage or divination.^[14]

Traditional Islamic Account of the Event

The Encounter with Gabriel in Cave Hira

According to the traditional Islamic accounts preserved in major hadith collections, Muhammad ibn Abdullah, then approximately 40 years old, was in seclusion for devotional purposes in the Cave of Hira on Jabal al-Nur, a mountain approximately 2 miles from Mecca.^[16] This practice involved retreating for several nights with provisions before returning home.^[16] Narrated by Aisha, his wife, the encounter began when the angel Jibril (Gabriel) suddenly appeared and commanded Muhammad, "Iqra'" ("Read" or "Recite").^[16] Muhammad responded that he was unlettered and did not know how to read.^[16] The angel then embraced him firmly, squeezing him with such force that he felt overwhelmed and repeated his inability to recite.^[16] This pressing occurred three times, each instance prompting the same command and response, until on the third embrace, the angel released him and conveyed the initial verses: "Read in the name of your Lord who created—created man from a clinging substance. Read, and your Lord is the most Generous—who taught by the pen—taught man that which he knew not." (Quran 96:1-5).^[16] The same core narrative appears in Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, the earliest extant biography of Muhammad, compiled in the 8th century CE from earlier oral reports, describing the angelic visitation and physical intensity of the encounter similarly, though with minor variations in phrasing.^[17] Parallel accounts in Sahih Muslim and other collections corroborate the sequence of the command, Muhammad's denial of literacy, the triple embrace, and the revelation of Surah al-Alaq's opening verses as the first Quranic disclosure. These traditions emphasize the event's abrupt and physically demanding nature, marking the inception of Muhammad's prophetic mission.

Specific Verses Revealed and Their Content

According to traditional Islamic sources, the first revelation to Muhammad consisted of the opening five verses of Surah Al-Alaq (Quran 96:1-5), delivered by the angel Gabriel during the encounter in the Cave of Hira.^[18] ^[19] These verses commence with the imperative iqra' ("recite" or "read"), directed at Muhammad, emphasizing divine creation and instruction as foundational themes.^[20] The verses state: "Recite in the name of your Lord who created—created man from a clinging substance. Recite, and your Lord is the most Generous—who taught by the pen—taught man that which he knew not." In Arabic, the text reads: Iqra' bismi rabbika alladhi khalaq. Khalaqa al-insana min 'alaq. Iqra' wa rabbuka al-akram. Alladhi 'allama bil-qalam. 'Allama al-insana ma lam ya'lam. Traditional exegeses interpret these as initiating the Quranic message with monotheistic affirmation: invoking Allah as the creator who formed humanity from a rudimentary clot ('alaq, denoting a leech-like or congealed blood form), underscoring human origins from humble biological matter.^[20] The repetition of iqra' highlights the command for proclamation or literacy through divine aid, contrasting Muhammad's reported illiteracy and attributing knowledge to God's generosity via the pen as a symbol of recorded wisdom.^[21] This content establishes core Islamic tenets of tawhid (divine unity), human dependency on revelation, and the value of learning, with no explicit prophetic commission in these initial lines but an implicit call to disseminate the message.^[20] Scholarly consensus in Sunni and Shia traditions upholds these as the inaugural revelation, predating other surahs in chronological order.^[19] ^[21]

Immediate Aftermath and Initial Reactions

Muhammad's Personal Distress and Return Home

Following the angelic encounter in the Cave of Hira, Muhammad experienced intense physical and emotional turmoil, characterized by a severely pounding heart and overwhelming fear.^[16] He descended from the mountain in haste and returned directly to his home in Mecca, where he sought immediate refuge from his wife Khadija bint Khuwailid.^[16] Upon arriving, he exclaimed, "Cover me! Cover me!"—a plea reflecting acute terror and disorientation, prompting Khadija and her household to envelop him in garments until his agitation subsided.^[16] ^[22] In this state of distress, Muhammad conveyed the details of the revelation to Khadija, recounting how the figure had commanded him to "read" or "recite" despite his illiteracy, physically squeezing him thrice before imparting the initial verses of Surah al-Alaq (Quran 96:1-5).^[16] He expressed profound apprehension about his mental state, stating, "I fear for myself," amid concerns that the experience might indicate possession by jinn, poetic madness, or demonic influence—fears rooted in pre-Islamic Arabian cultural understandings of supernatural visitations.^[16] These accounts, preserved in early hadith collections like Sahih al-Bukhari (narrated via Aisha bint Abi Bakr), depict Muhammad's reaction as one of uncharacteristic vulnerability for a man of his reputed composure, underscoring the event's disruptive impact on his psyche.^[16] Traditional sources emphasize that this initial terror persisted briefly, with Muhammad's return home marking the immediate transition from solitary retreat to communal reassurance, though no precise duration for the distress is specified beyond the covering episode.^[16] Later biographical traditions, such as those in Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah (as transmitted by Ibn Hisham), similarly portray him trembling and collapsing into Khadija's lap upon entry, reinforcing the narrative of raw, unmediated panic without embellishment of heroic resolve at this juncture.

Role of Khadija and Consultation with Waraqa ibn Nawfal

Upon returning home from the Cave of Hira in a state of intense fear and trembling, Muhammad sought refuge with his wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid, exclaiming "Cover me, cover me!" as he lay down.^[16] Khadija, aged approximately 45 at the time and married to Muhammad for about 15 years, immediately covered him with a blanket and reassured him by citing his honorable character—known for truthfulness, kindness to kin, and aid to the needy—as evidence that God would not disgrace or harm him.^[16]^[23] Her prompt affirmation positioned her as the first person to accept Muhammad's prophetic claim, providing emotional stability amid his initial doubt and physical exhaustion.^[16] Recognizing the gravity of the experience, Khadija then escorted Muhammad to her paternal cousin Waraqa ibn Nawfal ibn Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza, a elderly Meccan who had embraced Christianity during the Jahiliyyah period and possessed knowledge of scriptures in Hebrew and Arabic scripts.^[16]^[23] Waraqa, by then blind and frail, urged Khadija to have Muhammad recount the event, after which he declared the visitor to be al-Namus (the trustworthy angel, identified as Gabriel), the same entity sent to Moses with revelation.^[16]^[23] He affirmed Muhammad's prophethood for the Quraysh people, warning of impending rejection and persecution akin to that faced by earlier prophets.^[16] Waraqa expressed regret at his advanced age, wishing he could remain alive to support Muhammad against his kin's opposition, but he died shortly afterward, within days or weeks of the consultation.^[16] This encounter with Waraqa, drawing on his familiarity with Judeo-Christian traditions, lent early external validation to Muhammad's experience in the traditional narrative, bridging pre-Islamic Meccan monotheistic inclinations with the emerging Islamic message.^[23] Khadija's initiative in seeking Waraqa's counsel underscored her pivotal supportive role, sustaining Muhammad through the revelation's immediate psychological aftermath.^[16]

Dating and Chronological Issues

Traditional Islamic Dating and Calendar Considerations

The first revelation to Muhammad is traditionally dated by Sunni scholars to the month of Ramadan, approximately 13 lunar years before the Hijra (migration to Medina in 622 CE), aligning with the solar year 610 CE. This timing is linked to the "Night of Power" (Laylat al-Qadr), described in Quran 97:1–5 as occurring in Ramadan and surpassing a thousand months in value, with the 27th night of Ramadan being the most widely accepted date based on hadith narrations attributing the event to an odd-numbered night in the last ten days of the month.^[24]^[25]^[26] Shi'i traditions diverge, often placing the revelation on the 27th of Rajab (the seventh lunar month), reflecting interpretive differences in prophetic hadith chains and biographical accounts (sira).^[27]^[28] These variations stem from reliance on oral transmissions compiled centuries later, such as in Ibn Ishaq's Sira (d. 767 CE) and Bukhari's hadith collections (d. 870 CE), without contemporaneous documentary evidence. The Hijri calendar, formalized under Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab around 637 CE, provides the framework for these dates but introduces retrospective challenges, as it anchors events to the Hijra rather than Muhammad's birth or revelation, omitting fixed numbering for pre-Hijri years (denoted as "before Hijra" or BH).^[29]^[30] Pre-Islamic Arabs employed a lunisolar system influenced by Quraysh customs, with intercalation (nasi') occasionally added to align with seasons, but this was discontinued post-revelation per Quran 9:37, enforcing a strictly lunar reckoning of 354–355 days per year.^[31] This results in the Hijri calendar drifting about 11 days annually relative to the Gregorian solar calendar, complicating precise conversions; for instance, Ramadan 610 CE likely spanned late July to late August by Julian reckoning, though exact moon-sighting determinations remain approximate absent archaeological corroboration.^[32] Such dating relies on prophetic biography (seerah) traditions, which prioritize Muhammad's reported age of 40 lunar years (roughly 38–39 solar years from his ~570 CE birth in the "Year of the Elephant") over astronomical back-calculation, potentially introducing minor discrepancies due to variable month lengths (29 or 30 days) and the absence of standardized epoch before Umar's reforms.^[32]^[33]

Scholarly Debates on Precision and Evidence

The precise dating of Muhammad's first revelation remains contested among scholars, primarily due to the reliance on later Islamic biographical and exegetical traditions rather than contemporaneous documentation. Traditional accounts, drawn from works like Ibn Ishaq's Sīrat Rasūl Allāh (compiled circa 767 CE), position the event in 610 CE, approximately 13 lunar years before the Hijra in 622 CE, during the month of Ramadan when Muhammad was said to be 40 years old.^[34] This chronology hinges on retrospective Islamic calendrical reconstructions and hadith transmissions, which lack external verification from 7th-century non-Muslim sources.^[35] Critical scholarship emphasizes the evidentiary gaps, noting that the earliest datable references to Muhammad appear in inscriptions from 1-2 AH (622-624 CE), postdating the purported revelation by over a decade and offering no direct insight into the event itself.^[35] Historians such as Patricia Crone have argued that early Islamic historiography blends tribal, religious, and secular narratives compiled generations later, potentially introducing anachronisms or idealizations that obscure precise timelines.^[36] Similarly, archaeological analyses reveal a scarcity of material evidence for nascent Islam in the first seven decades post-Hijra, complicating claims of a firmly established 610 CE origin.^[37] Alternative datings, such as 608 or 612 CE, emerge from discrepancies in Muhammad's reported age at prophethood (ranging 40-43 in variant traditions) and cross-references with Meccan surah stylistics, as systematized by Theodor Nöldeke's chronological framework.^[38]^[39] Revisionist approaches, including those by Stephen Shoemaker, question the uniformity of early Quranic transmission and suggest that fuller narratives of the revelation may reflect 8th-century consolidations rather than 7th-century events, though they do not outright reject a late-6th to early-7th-century inception.^[40] These debates underscore a broader tension: while internal Islamic sources provide a coherent sequence, their chains of transmission (isnads) are deemed unreliable by skeptics for lacking empirical anchors, favoring probabilistic estimates over definitive precision.^[41]

Critical and Alternative Perspectives

Historicity Questions and Hadith Reliability

The detailed narrative of Muhammad's encounter with the angel Gabriel in Cave Hira, including the physical squeezing and command to "read," originates from hadith reports rather than the Quran itself, which references the initial revelation of Surah 96 (Al-Alaq) without describing the circumstances. These hadiths were compiled in collections like Sahih al-Bukhari around 846 CE, over two centuries after the event traditionally dated to circa 610 CE, relying on oral chains of transmission (isnad) spanning multiple generations.^[42] No archaeological or epigraphic evidence from the early 7th century confirms the specific incident, and contemporary non-Muslim sources, such as Syriac chronicles, mention Muhammad's prophetic claims by the 630s CE but omit details of the Hira cave experience.^[43] The primary hadith on the first revelation is narrated through Aisha bint Abi Bakr in Sahih al-Bukhari (Volume 1, Book 1, Hadith 3), where she recounts Muhammad's distress and return home, but Aisha, born approximately 613–614 CE, could not have been an eyewitness, rendering the account second- or third-hand at best. Other early transmissions, such as those attributed to Urwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 712 CE), appear in 8th-century biographical works like Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah (d. 767 CE), yet these too depend on unbroken oral isnads vulnerable to memory distortion or intentional shaping to emphasize prophetic drama. Islamic hadith scholars developed rigorous criteria for evaluating narrator reliability, including piety and memory, but critics highlight inconsistencies, such as variant reports of the revelation's onset (e.g., some describing a dream-like state rather than a physical visitation), and the absence of cross-verification from companions present in Mecca at the time.^[44] Western and revisionist scholarship questions the overall reliability of hadith for reconstructing early events, citing the medium's explosive proliferation— from a few hundred in the 7th century to hundreds of thousands by the 9th—suggesting fabrication for doctrinal reinforcement or political legitimacy under Abbasid rule. Historians like those in the tradition of Ignaz Goldziher and Joseph Schacht argue that isnad back-projection, where chains were retroactively constructed to lend antiquity, undermines authenticity, particularly for foundational narratives like the Hira revelation lacking Quranic attestation. While traditional Muslim apologetics, as in works by al-Dhahabi, defend sahih-grade hadiths through matn (content) analysis excluding contradictions with established Sunnah, empirical historians prioritize the lack of contemporaneous documentation, viewing the story as potentially evolving from Muhammad's own retrospective interpretations of visionary experiences into a canonical miracle.^[45]^[42]

Psychological, Medical, and Neurological Explanations

Some researchers have hypothesized that Muhammad's encounter in Cave Hira, involving sensations of physical compression and auditory commands, may reflect symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), a neurological condition associated with vivid hallucinations, religious visions, and ecstatic experiences.^[46] In TLE, abnormal electrical activity in the temporal lobes can produce complex partial seizures featuring auditory or visual phenomena, a sense of presence, and hyper-religiosity, which proponents like Frank R. Freemon (1976) applied to Muhammad's "inspirational spells" based on later biographical accounts of sweating, trembling, and trance-like states during revelations.^[46] Historical figures such as 19th-century orientalist William Muir and physician Aloys Sprenger similarly attributed the event to epileptic fits or "cataleptic insanity," interpreting the physical distress and illiteracy denial as seizure-induced disorientation.^[47] However, neurological evaluations of hadith descriptions—such as Muhammad's retained awareness, coherent recitation of verses immediately after the squeezing, absence of convulsions, post-event lucidity without confusion, and the structured progression of revelations over 23 years—contradict typical TLE patterns, which often involve amnesia, stereotyped automatisms, and declining cognitive function over time.^[48] A 2019 neurological review concluded that no epileptic diagnosis fits, as peri-revelation episodes lack ictal loss of consciousness, olfactory auras, or progressive deterioration, instead aligning more with volitional meditative states than pathological seizures.^[48] Critics of the epilepsy theory, including modern psychiatric analyses, note its origins in potentially biased 19th-century Western scholarship influenced by theological polemics, which overstated seizure resemblances while ignoring contextual factors like prolonged fasting and isolation.^[47] Psychologically, the cave seclusion—entailing days of solitude, minimal sustenance, and intense reflection—could induce hypnagogic hallucinations or altered states of consciousness akin to those in sensory deprivation, where sleep-wake transitions produce vivid sensory intrusions without underlying pathology.^[49] Such experiences, documented in experimental psychology, involve pressure sensations and imperative voices from REM-like intrusions during wakefulness, potentially exacerbated by pre-Islamic Arabian stressors like tribal idolatry and personal introspection reported in early sources.^[49] Muhammad's initial fear of madness or possession, as recounted to Khadija, mirrors acute stress responses or transient dissociative episodes rather than chronic psychosis, though no evidence supports schizophrenia, given the absence of disorganized thought or paranoia in subsequent productive output.^[50] These explanations remain speculative, reliant on retrospective interpretation of 7th-8th century oral traditions compiled decades or centuries later, with no contemporaneous medical records or autopsies to verify neurological substrates.^[51] Empirical challenges include the event's singularity for the first revelation versus ongoing verbal clarity in later ones, underscoring that causal attribution favors naturalistic hypotheses only insofar as they account for all attested details without ad hoc adjustments.^[48]

Theological Critiques from Christian and Jewish Viewpoints

Christian theologians, drawing on Islamic sources such as Sahih al-Bukhari and Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, critique the physical and emotional character of Muhammad's encounter in the Cave of Hira around 610 CE as indicative of demonic rather than divine origin. Muhammad described being seized and squeezed repeatedly by a spirit until breathless, responding with terror and fleeing to his wife Khadijah, convinced he was possessed by a jinn or poetry demon—a fear rooted in pre-Islamic Arabian beliefs about poetic inspiration from evil spirits.^[52] ^[53] This initial impression of possession, coupled with subsequent suicidal impulses where Muhammad contemplated throwing himself from cliffs, contrasts sharply with biblical prophetic encounters, such as Moses' commissioning at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-6) or Paul's vision on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1-19), which involved awe but not self-destructive despair or doubt of demonic agency.^[52] Further Christian analysis points to the revelation's content and Muhammad's career as incompatible with scriptural orthodoxy, invoking New Testament warnings against angels preaching contrary doctrines (Galatians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 11:14). The being's self-identification as Gabriel is questioned, given the Quran's denial of Christ's crucifixion (Surah 4:157), divinity (Surah 5:116), and sonship—core Christian tenets affirmed in the Gospels—suggesting a masquerading entity promoting an "antichrist" message (1 John 2:22).^[54] Incidents like the "Satanic Verses," where Muhammad briefly recited verses honoring pagan goddesses before retracting them as satanic interpolation (as reported in al-Tabari and Ibn Sa'd), reinforce claims of occult interference, absent in verified biblical prophecy.^[52] Early Church Fathers like John of Damascus (c. 675–749 CE) labeled Muhammad a false prophet influenced by an Arian monk, whose teachings deviated from apostolic faith.^[55] Jewish theological critiques emphasize that Muhammad's claimed revelation fails the Torah's explicit criteria for authentic prophecy outlined in Deuteronomy 18:15-22, which mandates a prophet arise "from among your brothers"—interpreted by rabbinic tradition as fellow Israelites, excluding an Ishmaelite Arab descendant.^[56] ^[57] Maimonides (1138–1204 CE), in works like the Mishneh Torah and Guide for the Perplexed, undermines claims of post-biblical prophecy outside the Mosaic line, portraying figures like Muhammad as promoters of monotheism yet erroneous innovators whose messages contradict Torah imperatives, such as unaltered law observance, rendering them non-prophetic.^[58] The Hira experience lacks the confirmatory miracles or signs demanded by Deuteronomy 13:1-5, and the Quran's abrogation of biblical covenants (e.g., Surah 2:106) and alteration of narratives (e.g., Ishmael's near-sacrifice in Surah 37:100-107 versus Isaac in Genesis 22) violates the test of consistency with prior revelation, a standard unfulfilled by non-Israelite claimants.^[59] Rabbinic sources maintain that prophecy ceased after Malachi (c. 420 BCE), with no mechanism for foreign validation absent Jewish endorsement or alignment with halakha; Muhammad's lack of such corroboration, combined with Islam's supersessionist stance toward Judaism, positions the revelation as human invention rather than divine.^[60] Traditional views, echoed in medieval polemics, reject the event's authenticity due to its divergence from prophetic norms like public theophanies or ethical universality without ethnic exclusivity, as seen in Moses' Sinai revelation (Exodus 19-20).^[61]

Influences, Parallels, and Broader Context

Connections to Hanifism and Pre-Islamic Monotheism

Hanifism refers to a pre-Islamic Arabian movement of monotheists who rejected idolatry and sought to follow the primordial religion of Abraham, distinct from Judaism and Christianity yet influenced by Abrahamic ideas.^[62] Adherents, known as hanifs (from Arabic ḥanīf, meaning "one who turns away" from polytheism), practiced asceticism and emphasized devotion to a single supreme deity, Allah, recognized in Arabia as the high god even amid polytheistic practices.^[63] Scholarly analyses posit that hunafāʾ formed loose communities of seekers after truth, predating Muhammad by generations, with figures like Zayd ibn ʿAmr exemplifying rejection of Meccan idols in favor of ethical monotheism.^[62] ^[64] Muhammad's pre-prophetic life aligned closely with hanif practices, as he engaged in taḥannuth—periodic retreats for meditation and worship—in the Cave of Hira near Mecca, a custom associated with hanif ascetics seeking divine guidance away from urban idolatry.^[65] ^[66] Traditional accounts describe Muhammad as inherently inclined toward monotheism, avoiding pagan rituals and pilgrimages to idols, behaviors consistent with hanif inclinations documented among Quraysh elites.^[63] This background framed his first revelation around 610 CE, where the angel Gabriel commanded iqraʾ ("recite") in the name of the Lord who created man from a clot, underscoring creation by one God—a motif echoing hanif affirmation of Allah as sole creator without associates.^[66] The Qurʾān explicitly links hanifism to Abrahamic monotheism, portraying Abraham as the archetype ḥanīf who submitted purely to God (millat al-islām), a model Muhammad's revelation invoked to critique contemporary polytheism.^[62] Early Islamic sources and some historians suggest Muhammad's nascent movement was initially perceived or self-described as a revival of hanifiyya, bridging pre-Islamic monotheistic undercurrents with the prophetic call to exclusive worship of Allah.^[67] Pre-Islamic Arabia exhibited vestiges of monotheism, such as invocations of Allah in inscriptions and oaths, alongside subordinate deities, which hanifs and later Muhammad's message sought to purify by eliminating intercessors.^[63] This continuity indicates the revelation in Hira as a culminating divine affirmation of latent monotheistic impulses rather than an isolated innovation, though debates persist on the extent of organized hanif groups versus individual seekers.^[62] ^[67]

Potential Borrowings from Judeo-Christian Traditions

Scholars have proposed that the narrative and thematic elements of Muhammad's first revelation, as recorded in Surah Al-Alaq (Quran 96:1-5), may reflect indirect influences from Judeo-Christian prophetic traditions circulating in pre-Islamic Arabia through oral transmission and commercial contacts. Muhammad's annual trade caravans to Syria exposed him to Syriac Christian communities and Nestorian monks, while Jewish tribes in Yathrib (later Medina) and Christian settlements in Najran contributed to a shared monotheistic milieu among the Hanifs, pre-Islamic seekers of Abrahamic faith. These interactions likely familiarized him with motifs of divine commissioning, as evidenced by parallels between the Quranic command "Recite in the name of your Lord who created" and biblical prophetic calls emphasizing God's creative sovereignty, such as in Isaiah 40:26-28 or Jeremiah 1:4-5.^[68] The structure of the encounter— an angelic figure (Gabriel) commanding recitation amid Muhammad's protest of illiteracy, followed by physical empowerment through squeezing—mirrors reluctance and divine enablement in Mosaic and other biblical narratives. In Exodus 4:10-12, Moses demurs due to faltering speech, prompting God's assurance: "Who has made man's mouth? ... Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth." Similar patterns appear in Jeremiah 1:6-9, where the prophet claims youth and inadequacy, and God touches his mouth to impart words. While direct textual borrowing is unproven, these formal similarities suggest adaptation of oral prophetic archetypes known in the region, rather than novel invention, as argued by analyses of Quranic engagement with earlier traditions.^[68]^[69] Thematically, the revelation's focus on creation from a "clot" (alaq) evokes biblical descriptions of human formation in the womb, such as Psalm 139:13-16 ("You knit me together in my mother's womb") or Job 10:8-12, which detail God's molding from base matter. This embryological imagery, emphasizing humble origins to underscore divine authorship, aligns with Jewish midrashic expansions on Genesis but diverges in phrasing, potentially indicating selective incorporation via ambient storytelling rather than plagiarism. Critics of borrowing theories, often from Islamic scholarly perspectives, counter that such parallels stem from shared Abrahamic revelation or coincidental archetypes, correcting prior distortions rather than deriving from them; however, the historical proximity of unorthodox Christian and Jewish informants, including Waraqa ibn Nawfal's identification of the event as akin to Moses' "namus" (law/revelation), supports causal influence over pure independence.^[69]^[68] Western orientalist scholarship, such as that referencing Richard Bell's work, posits that Muhammad adapted these elements to affirm continuity with prior prophets while asserting a final corrective message, though empirical evidence remains circumstantial, reliant on hadith reports compiled decades later. No verbatim lifts occur, and the revelation's brevity prioritizes monotheistic proclamation over narrative detail, but the convergence in form and content—divine initiative, human frailty, creative fiat—implies borrowings shaped by Arabia's eclectic religious landscape, where Judaism and Christianity had permeated via migration and trade since the 4th century CE.^[68]

Significance and Long-Term Impact

Role in Forming Islamic Theology of Revelation

The first revelation to Muhammad in the Cave of Hira around 610 CE initiated the Islamic doctrine of wahy (revelation), establishing it as a direct, verbal transmission from God via the angel Jibril, distinct from mere inspiration granted to earlier prophets. This event, detailed in traditional accounts as the descent of the opening verses of Surah al-Alaq ("Recite in the name of your Lord who created"), underscored revelation as an imperative command to proclaim divine knowledge, despite Muhammad's illiteracy, thereby authenticating the miraculous nature of the Quran as uncreated speech of God.^[70]^[71] In Islamic theology, this inaugural wahy paradigmatically defined Muhammad's role as the seal of the prophets, with subsequent revelations over 23 years forming the complete Quran as the final, abrogating scripture superseding prior Abrahamic texts. The suddenness and physical intensity of the experience—described as Jibril squeezing Muhammad and demanding recitation—shaped the understanding of revelation as an overwhelming divine initiative, not human composition, central to doctrines of prophetic infallibility (isma) and the Quran's inimitability (i'jaz).^[72]^[73] The Hira event's emphasis on "reading" or reciting God's words formalized revelation as linguistic and book-form (kitab), differentiating Islamic wahy from symbolic or intuitive forms in Judaism and Christianity, and laying the groundwork for theological assertions that the Quran's preservation in Arabic verbatim preserves divine intent without alteration. This foundation influenced later scholastic developments, such as al-Ghazali's classifications of wahy modes, yet remained anchored in the primordial encounter's testimony to God's active intervention in history.^[74]^[75]

Early Challenges in Propagation and Reception

Following the first revelation in 610 CE, Muhammad experienced profound personal doubt and fear, interpreting the encounter with the angel Jibril as possible possession by a jinn or indication of madness, which led him to seek reassurance from his wife Khadijah bint Khuwaylid.^[5] Khadijah affirmed his experience by taking him to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal, a Christian scholar familiar with biblical scriptures, who declared it akin to the prophethood of Moses and predicted opposition from his people.^[76] This initial validation enabled Muhammad to begin propagating the message of monotheism, but propagation remained limited to a secretive phase lasting approximately three years, confined to trusted family and close associates to evade scrutiny.^[77] Early reception was mixed but predominantly hostile among the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, whose polytheistic practices and economic reliance on pilgrimage to the Kaaba's idols were directly challenged by the revelation's emphasis on a singular God and rejection of idolatry.^[78] Muhammad's first public preaching around 613 CE provoked ridicule and accusations of sorcery, poetry, or insanity from tribal leaders, including his uncle Abu Lahab, who actively campaigned against him.^[79] Despite this, a small core of converts emerged, including Khadijah as the first, followed by Muhammad's cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib (aged about 10), adopted son Zayd ibn Harithah, and friend Abu Bakr ibn Abi Quhafah, who in turn brought in five others, totaling around 40 believers by the end of the secret period.^[80] These early adherents faced social ostracism and physical harassment, particularly vulnerable slaves like Bilal ibn Rabah, who endured torture for renouncing idols.^[79] The Quraysh's opposition stemmed from fears that Muhammad's message undermined their custodianship of the Kaaba, disrupted trade networks tied to pagan rituals, and eroded tribal hierarchies by equating all believers regardless of lineage.^[81] Leaders like Abu Jahl ibn Musharif dismissed the revelations as fabrications or demonic influence, urging Muhammad to produce miracles or worldly proof beyond oral recitation, while rejecting the Quran's linguistic challenge to produce a comparable surah.^[82] Propagation difficulties intensified as public conversion attempts yielded few gains, with most Meccans prioritizing ancestral traditions over the abstract monotheism, leading Muhammad to focus on moral critiques of infanticide, usury, and idolatry to appeal to hanifs and the marginalized.^[83] Traditional accounts, primarily from Ibn Ishaq's Sirah (compiled circa 767 CE from oral reports), document these dynamics but rely on chains of transmission vulnerable to hagiographic embellishment, underscoring the challenges in verifying granular details absent contemporary non-Muslim corroboration.^[76]

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