A Concise History of the Middle East

Muhammad's Early Life ••• 31

toward monotheism, known as Hanifs. But Mecca's merchants, profoundly

practical, scoffed at such notions as the bodily resurrection or the Day

of Judgment and at holy laws that might interfere with their pursuit of

money. To Muhammad, though, the Jews, Christians, and Hanifs just

might have answers to the problems that were gnawing at the core of Mec-

can society. On many evenings he went to a nearby cave to meditate.

First Revelation

One night in 610, during the Arabic month of Ramadan, Muhammad was

visited by an angel, who exhorted him to read aloud. In awe and terror, he

cried out, "I cannot read" (for Muhammad, Muslims believe, was illiter¬

ate). Hugging him until he almost choked, the angel again ordered:

Read: in the name of thy Lord who created,

created mankind from a blood-clot.

Read: for thy Lord the most generous;

He has taught by the pen

taught man what he knew not. (QURAN, 96:1-5)

Wherever he looked, he saw the same angel looking back at him and

saying, "O Muhammad, thou art the messenger of God, and I am Gabriel."

Fearing that he had gone mad, Muhammad hurried home and asked

Khadija to cover him with a warm coat. His quaking subsided, but then he

saw Gabriel again, and the angel said:

O thou who art shrouded in thy mantle,

rise and warn!

Thy Lord magnify,

Thy robes purify,

And from iniquity flee! (QURAN, 74:1-5)

Khadija, as it happened, had a cousin who was a Hanif (or, some say, a
Christian). She went to see him, and he assured her that Muhammad, far
from being mad, was God's long-awaited messenger to the Arabs. She re¬
turned to her husband and gave him the backing that he needed. Hesi¬
tantly, Muhammad realized that what he had heard was God's exhortation
to make the divine presence known to the Arabs. Also, he had to warn
them (just as God had sent earlier prophets to warn the Jews and the
Christians) of a Judgment Day when all would be called to account: