“Guide Thou us on the straight path,
“The path of those to whom Thou hast been gracious;—with whom thou art not angry, and who go not astray.”
The latter Sūrah is the Fātiḥah, or initial prayer, &c., often recited in public worship, and it appears to contain, if not the very words, at all events the gist of the daily prayer of an anxious and inquiring soul.
These Sūrahs were most probably followed by others of a similar character, being poetical effusions rather than express enunciations of any definite teaching. For example, [Sūrahs ci]., [xcv]., [civ]., [xcii]., [xci]., [cvi].
Muḥammad seems to have employed himself in such meditations as find expression in these Sūrahs, some years before he assumed the office of a divine teacher, for it was but slowly and by degrees that he was led on to believe that he was really called of God, to preach a reformation both to his own people and to all mankind.
Bewildered by his own speculations amidst uncertain flickerings of spiritual light, Muḥammad spent some time in retirement, and in the agonies of distress repeatedly meditated suicide. Perplexed with the mysterious destiny of man and the failure of repeated revelations, he would fall into ecstatic reveries, and it was during one of these seasons of retirement, in the cave of Ḥirāʾ, that he believed an angel appeared to him in a dream, and that the first revelation came. According to the traditions collected by al-Buk͟hārī and Muslim (see Arabic edition, as Matthew’s translation in the Mishkāt is defective in several very important particulars), the first communication was made to Muḥammad in a dream.
ʿĀyishah relates: “The first revelations which the Prophet of God received were in true dreams. He never dreamed but it came to pass as regularly as the dawn of day. After this the Prophet went into retirement, and he used to seclude himself in a cave in Mount Ḥirāʾ, and worship there day and night. He would, whenever he wished, return to his family at Makkah, and then go back again, taking with him the necessaries of life. Thus he continued to return to K͟hadījah from time to time, until one day the revelation came down to him, and the angel (Malak) came to him and said, ‘Read’ (iqraʾ); but the Prophet said, ‘I am not a reader.’ And the Prophet related that the angel took hold of him, and squeezed him as much as he could bear, and then said again, ‘Read’; and the Prophet said, ‘I am not a reader.’ Then the angel took hold of him a second time, and squeezed him as much as he could bear, and then let him go, and said, ‘Read’; then the Prophet said, ‘I am not a reader.’ Then the angel again seized the Prophet, and squeezed him, and said:—
‘Read thou, in the name of thy Lord who created;—
‘Created man out of clots of blood:—
‘Read thou! For thy Lord is the most Beneficent,
‘Who hath taught the use of the pen;—
‘Hath taught man that which he knoweth not.’
(See Qurʾān, Sūratu ʾl-ʿAlaq [(xcvi.), the first five verses].)
“Then the Prophet repeated the words with a trembling heart. And he returned (i.e. from Ḥirāʾ to Makkah) to K͟hadījah, and said, ‘Wrap me up, wrap me up.’ And they wrapped him up in a garment until his fear was dispelled; and he told K͟hadījah what had occurred, and he said to K͟hadījah, ‘I was afraid I should die.’ Then K͟hadījah said, ‘No, it will not be so, I swear by God. He will never make thee melancholy or sad. For you are kind to your relatives, you speak the truth, you are faithful in trust, you bear the afflictions of the people, you spend in good works what you gain in trade, you are hospitable, and you assist your fellow men.’ After this K͟hadījah took the Prophet to Waraqah, who was the son of her uncle, and said to him, ‘O son of my uncle, hear what your brother’s son says to you.’ Then Waraqah said to the Prophet, ‘O son of my uncle, what do you see?’ Then the Prophet told Waraqah what he had seen; and Waraqah said, ‘This is the Nāmūs [[NAMUS]] which God sent to Moses. O would to God I were young in this time! and would to God I were living at the time of your people turning you out!’ The Prophet said, ‘Will my people turn me out?’ And Waraqah said, ‘Yes. No man has ever come as you have come, and not been held in enmity; but if I should live to that day, I will give you great help.’ Waraqah soon died, and after that the revelation ceased (i.e. for a time).”