— Performing Salah requires preparation – a warm-up. You don’t just dive into prayer

1. Be sure you’re clean & you have wudu2. Face the Qiblah3. Place a sutra in front of you4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutrah— Even the divine revelation experienced by the Prophet (saw) had a warm-up – the rediscovery of the well of Zamzam, Year of the Elephant, the gradual decrease of interaction between the jinn & the soothsayers, etc.

— Shayatin would bring bits of info to the soothsayers.

• There was a time period when shayatin were delayed in bringing news to the soothsayers. Soothsayers getting nervous because their business is going down the drain.

• Soothsayer: “What’s up? Where you been? I’ve been sitting here waiting for you.”

• Shayatin: “A prophet is about to come from these Arabs, and you will call towards Allah, and you will call towards the worship of Allah.”

— This one soothsayer says, “I’m very shocked by what’s going on with these jinn. They’ve lost control of their situation – how all their information has been cut off from them.”

— A lot of these jinn were even leaving for Makkah

• “We’re going to receive guidance. We’re going there to meet this Prophet.”

• “We’re going to Safwa bin Hashim to kiss the eyes and head of this Prophet.”

• Bad jinn are trying to keep their business going. Good jinn are going to Makkah to receive Prophet’s message

— A narration states that a Prophet was approached by a man who came to accept Islam

• The man is so excited to meet the Prophet. “I was a soothsayer, and I used to be visited by the jinn. For quite some time, I took advantage of this situation, until one day they came to me and told me to go to Makkah and find the final Prophet and accept Islam. Now that I’ve found you, it’s so overwhelming to see you with my own eyes.”

• Prophet asks him, “Do these jinn still come to talk to you now?”• Man says, “Ever since I first recited a line from the Qur’an, the

shayatin don’t come to me anymore.”— From the age of 25-35, we don’t have a lot of narrations of the Muhammad’s life

• Being the ultimate role model, his main achievement at this time was establishing a home & a family

• It’s not an empty part in the seerah – we can’t say “nothing happened” during this time just because it wasn’t documented

• He invested time into his family & building a home at that time

— Muhammad ventures a bit outside of Makkah to clear his head from daily life

• While walking around, he goes up into the mountains & the hills (like a hike)

He goes to the hills to the Jabbal Noor• He climbs on one mountain (treacherous) and climbs off the other

side• He sees a cave with a small opening, & it has barely enough room

for 2 peopleThe cave has two openings: one of the openings is big enough

for a person to enter, and the other opening is very small, just big enough to let in a breeze

On the side of the small opening, there are some big rocks, so it gives a feel of being in a private room

• When Muhammad sits at the opening of the cave and he looks out, he can see Baytullah in the distance. He had very sharp vision

— The first occasion when Muhammad meditated in the Hannuth (isolation) was during the month of Ramadan – 2 years before the first revelation

He packed some food & went to the Cave of Hira. Some scholars say that Muhammad stayed in the cave for the entire month, & some say that he stayed part of the month, until his supplies were exhausted

— For 600+ years, the doors of revelation were closed

— Up until the point Muhammad received Prophethood, he lived a full life, buidling a home & working

5. He matured into a very intelligent & successful businessman. He married a great woman & was raising their kids

6. At this point his attention turned towards his society. This

caused him to seek out isolation for periods of time to meditate & reflect on life at the Cave of Hira

— His habit of going & isolating himself in the cave was during the month of Ramadan

• The established Sunnah of isolating oneself in the masjid during Ramadan began here

• He found peace & tranquility in the cave. This was all preparing him to be able to receive divine revelation

— Badlul Wahi (The Beginning of Revelation)

• Imam Bukhari mentions a narration, that Aisha narrated, “The very first thing that began with Prophet receiving revelation, was that he started to receive true dreams – dreams that would materialize & come true in the morning.”

• These dreams happened frequently. He saw both big & little things come true

• He had also seen in a dream that an angel came & recited the word of Allah to him

— What’s the purpose of dreams?

• Dreams are a form of divine revelation (e.g. Ibrahim being ordered to sacrifice his most precious possession)

• Allah wanted the Prophet to learn to trust his heart , to not be frightened, to not doubt at any level the visions that were occurring to him

• So that the Prophet would become internally focused, & that he would trust what is in his heart

• After a while, Muhammad learned to trust• In sleep, he would see dreams that would come to fruition. As true

as the morning is, so were the dreams— Muhammad would seek out isolation in the Cave of Hira

• At-tahannut comes from al-hanathu, which means to “break or violate an oath”

• At-tahannuth means to depart from something, to pull/draw away from something

• Muhammad was drawing away from the corruption, the shirk, the idol-worshipping

• This is how Muhammad (unknowingly) prepared himself physically, spiritually, & emotionally to receive divine revelation. To be able to receive divine revelation, take yourself out of the bad surroundings

• He would spend many nights in the Cave of Hira before returning to his family

— Haqq means “stable”, something has a stable foundation

• When Allah refers to the Qur’an and Islam as “haqq”, He means that it has a stable foundation

• Prophet came with foundation of Islam— The angel Jibril came to Muhammad with the divine revelation, and said, “Iqra. Read.”

• The Prophet said, “I am not a reader.” This is explained in 2 ways• He was unlettered, meaning he did not know how to read &

write• The Prophet was expressing his sentiment, “What do you

mean, read? What are you talking about?”• Jibril completely smothered/embraced tightly Muhammad. The angel

held on to the Prophet until “I had lost all my energy from trying to resist.”

• Jibril released the Prophet• Jibril again said, “Read.” The Prophet replied, “I don’t read.”• Jibril then again embraced the Prophet tightly, until the Prophet

could not resist anymore and Jibril released him again.• The angel said, “Read.” The Prophet replied for the 3rd time,

“I don’t read.”• Again, the angel embraced the Prophet tightly for a long time

before releasing him again— This whole physical interaction was part of the preparation of receiving divine revelation

• Hajj is as much a spiritual activity as it is a physical activity. Both the spiritual & physical interact in a person’s imaan

— The Prophet would sometimes pray at the Haram. He couldn’t openly preach yet, but because of his uncle Abu Talib’s protection, the Prophet could at least pray at the Haram

• Umar bin al-Khattab, who had not accepted Islam yet, once saw the Prophet praying, so he got close enough to the Prophet to hear what he was saying

• The Prophet was reciting Surat Al-Haqqah. Umar heard the Prophet recite ayah, “Indeed, the Qur’an is the word of a noble Messenger” (Surat Al-Haqqah, 69:40)

•  When Umar heard that ayah, he thought to himself, “No, it’s not! Get out of here. It’s just a bunch of poetry.”

• Then the Prophet recited the next ayah, “And it is not the word of a poet; little do you believe” (Surat Al-Haqqah, 69:41)

• That was like a slap in the face for Umar, who did not expect that. He thought to himself, “How did he know what I was thinking?! Oh, I know what’s up. He’s a soothsayer. He’s a magician. He’s spooky.”

• Then the Prophet recited the next ayah, “Nor [is it] the word of a

soothsayer; little do you remember” (Surat Al-Haqqah, 69:42)• Then Umar was even more surprised. He thought to himself,

“This is not poetry. And it’s not magic stuff. So what could it be?”

• Then the Prophet recited the next ayah, “It is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds.”

• At this point, Umar just turned around & walked away, thinking, “You best forget about this.”

— This is the second time that Umar was faced with the truth of Islam, but he walked away from it

• The first time was when Umar stumbled into a monastery in his drunken stupor & fell asleep there. He woke up when he heard a bunch of idol-worshippers sacrifice a goat. They were about to take the innards out of the goat to offer to the idol, when a voice from within the dead goat started reciting the Shahadah

• Umar thought he was seeing things, so he turned around & fell back to sleep again

— Umar finally accepts Islam when faced with the Truth the 3rd time

• He barges into his sister’s home to assassinate the Prophet. He picks up the Qur’an, & he reads the ayah of Surah Ta’ha, when that finally got to him. Umar needed to be broken into spiritually before he could accept Islam, which is the same thing that happened to the Prophet when Jibril embraced the Prophet tightly before he could receive divine revelation

— The scholars say that you need to experience pressure & then be broken into. The third thing is to allow yourself some breathing room (which is why Jibril would release the Prophet momentarily before telling the Messenger to read again)

• Now the Prophet is at the peak of his spiritual condition• It is at this point Jibril gives the Prophet his first revelation, Surat

Al-Alaq• “Recite, in the name of your Lord who created. Created man

out of a clot of congealed blood. Recite and your Lord is the most Generous. Who taught by the pen. Taught man that which he knew not” (Surat Al-Alaq, 96:1-5)

— Prior to Prophethood, every Prophet would receive dreams & those dreams would come true (usually in a time period of 6 months)

7. This was so that the Prophet would trust his heart. This is so

that when people would say to them, “No, no, what you think you have seen is not true at all. It’s just your mind playing tricks on you.”

8. So when Muhammad (saw) met Jibril (as) & spoke with the angel, he knew it was for real

— Majority of scholars say that Muhammad was 40 years old when he received his first revelation

• However, there is a minority who say that he was 36-37 years old or 42-43 years old

• The reason that there is this minor debate over the Prophet’s age is that immediately following his first revelation, there were 2-3 years of a time period where it was very silent

There was not a lot of active preaching/dawah or even any revelations, because the Prophet was given this time to completely embrace his role & this experience of Prophethood

— The Prophet’s first revelation occurred on a Monday

• The Prophet was very particular about fasting on Mondays. He said, “That’s the day I was born on, & that’s the day I received revelation”

• Most scholars say that the first revelation was in the 21st night of Ramadan, though others say it was the 14th or 27th night

• Ibn Ishaq & most scholars heavily lean toward 21st night of Ramadan

— The Prophet was meditating in the Cave of Hira when Jibril suddenly appeared before him, commanding the Prophet to “Read.”

• The Prophet replied that he did not know how to read, whereupon the angel squeezed the Prophet, completely engulfing Muhammad in his embrace until the Prophet just gave up resisting

• Then the angel let the Prophet catch his breath for a little bit, before again telling him, “Read.” The Prophet gave the same reply as before, & again the angel embraced him tightly.

• The angel again let go of the Prophet & told him to read. The Prophet, for the 3rd time, said that he didn’t know how to read. Jibril again hugged the Prophet tightly, leaving him completely breathless before releasing the Prophet again

• Jibril then said, “Read, with the help of the name of your Lord. The One who Created. Created the human being from a clot of blood. Read, and your Lord is the Most Dignified. The One who taught using the pen. He taught the human being that which he did not know.”

— From the beginning, Muhammad felt a huge burden of

responsibility – “Can I serve this cause properly? Can I live up to this expectation? I would rather kill myself than abuse what responsibility has been given to me.”

• As soon as he left the cave of Hira, the Prophet started having these doubts. As he was climbing a mountain & thinking these thoughts, he heard a voice from above him

• “Ya Muhammad, anta Rasulillah. Innaka Rasulillah, wa ana Jibril.”

• “O Muhammad, you are the Messenger of God. And I am Jibril.”

• Prophet looks up to see where the sound is coming from• This was one of the two occasions when Prophet got to see

Jibril (as) in his true form• Jibril’s feet were slightly above the ground and his head was

all the way up in the clouds. He had 600 wings; when he opened 2 of his wings, it covered the entire horizon from the east to the west

• The Prophet recalls, “I looked to the left, and all I could see is Jibril. I looked to the right, and all I could see is Jibril. I felt so overwhelmed that I wanted to see the open sky; everywhere I looked, all I saw is Jibril – he covered everything.”

• Jibril said, “You are the Messenger of Allah. Don’t have any doubts about yourself. I was there when you received the message.”

• This was Jibril comforting & reassuring the Prophet. As overwhelming as that experience was for Muhammad, Jibril’s words had a calming effect on him

— Muhammad then returned home to Khadijah, but still, he was shaken up from the experience

• He told his wife, “Zammiluni, zammiluni” – “Cover me up, cover me up.”

Khadijah immediately covered up the Prophet in a blanket & sat down next to him, holding his hand. “What happened?”

• After a few deep breaths, Muhammad tells Khadijah what transpiredThe Prophet said, “I feared for my life”

• Khadijah comforts her husband, “Under no circumstances should you fear for your life. Wallahi. Allah will not ruin you. Allah will not disgrace you, because you maintain very good relationships with your family. You honor your guests. You carry the weight & burdens of the people. You take care of people who are less fortunate. You are always looking for any good cause to aid in.”

These amazing words had a very calming effect on Muhammad. Khadijah strengthen the Prophet through her words

— Khadijah went to see her cousin Waraqah bin Nawfal

• Waraqah was among the Hunafa, the handful of people worshipped as purely as possible & stuck closely  to the teachings of the Prophets of the Past

• Waraqah had traveled to ash-Shaam (modern-day Syria) & learned Christianity. He spent a good part of his life translating the Tawrat & Injeel to Arabic

• Khadijah knew that Waraqah always spoke of these types of things – the prophecies, so she went to him

• Some narrations that Khadijah went to Waraqah by herself & told him what happened. Other narrations say that both Muhammad & Khadijah went together to see Waraqah

— At this time, Waraqah was a very old man. He had gone blind in his old age

• When told of what had happened to Muhammad, Waraqah jumped up in excitement. He said, “This is the truth! This is the truth! This is the same namoos (a carrier of the message/truth – referring to Jibril) that used to come to Musa.”

• Waraqah is just so overwhelmed by what he hears that he says, “I wish that I have life to witness this all comes to fruition. I want to be around. I want to take a part in the establishment of this truth. I pray that I am alive when your own people will kick you out.”

• When the Prophet hears this, he is shocked. “They are going to kick me out?! This is my family, these are my neighbors! These people love me; they have nothing against me. They would really kick me out of my city?”

• Waraqah confirms, “Yes, they will. Whenever anyone came with the type of message that you’ve come with, that person was always opposed. Never did a person ever bring what you are bringing, except that they were opposed. They were made an enemy of their people. If I am still around that day, I will help you with everything I got.”

• Waraqah didn’t live long after that meeting— This wasn’t Waraqah’s only meeting with Muhammad

• Shortly after receiving Prophethood, Muhammad had a daily practice of sitting in Ka’bah in deep reflection

• One day, Waraqah is there at the Haram, worshipping. He saw the Prophet & went up to him. Waraqah tells the Prophet, “I believe in what you’re saying & I hope I have the opportunity to stand by & help you.” Then he kissed the forehead of Prophet.

• Shortly after that, Waraqah passed away

— The Prophet saw Waraqah (the Priest) in a dream few times

• “I saw the Priest wearing silk garments in Paradise because he believed in me.”

— When Prophet returned from Cave of Hira, he felt like the revelation was written onto his heart. He remembered every word, every sound, every instance of that moment

• There was a brief pause after that first revelation— al-wahi, divine revelation, is in 5 forms

• The 1st form is when Jibril presents himself in his true physical form to inform Muhammad of his Prophethood. This was very overwhelming for Muhammad – he had seen Jibril in true form twice

• The 2nd form of divine revelation was when Jibril would bring the divine message to Prophet for the rest of his life, he’d come in the form of a human being to make it easier for Prophet

• The form of human being Jibril would take was of a real Sahabiya named Dihya from tribe of Al-Kalbi. Dihya was an actual human being, and an actual Sahabiya who would visit the Prophet rarely. This is why Jibril would take Dihya’s form, who was a very handsome man

• The 3rd form was when Muhammad would receive his message in a dream

• The 4th from is that Allah’s words would be directly inspired in Muhammad’s heart – from behind the curtain/screen/barrier.

• The 5th & the harshest form of divine revelation was this long continuous ringing of a bell, which would pierce Prophet’s mind. It would weigh down on him heavily, so much so that if he was riding a camel at the time, the camel would be forced to sit.

• One time, the Prophet was resting his head on Aisha’s lap, and divine revelation came. Aisha recalls that she felt as though her leg would be crushed

• The Prophet would be exhausted after he was done receiving the divine revelation. He would sweat profusely. Even if it was a very cold day, the Sahaba could see that the perspiration would be so hot, that it would be steaming