658 ISLAMIC MYSTICAL LITERATURE
Muhammad was a reflective, brooding person of around forty, it is said,
when he wandered off to a cave near Mt. Hira, just north of Mecca, fell into
meditation, and received a revelation from Allah. The vision is described in
sura 96 of the Qur'an: "In the name of god, the merciful, the compassionate.
Recite: in the name of your lord who created, created man of a blood clot. Re-
cite: and your lord is the most generous, who taught by the pen, taught man
what he knew not."l Later Muhammad reflected upon the circumstances of
his vision at Mount Hira: "One night," the prophet says, "Gabriel came to me
with a cloth as I slept and said, Recite! I answered, I cannot recite. So he
choked me with the cloth until I believed that I should die I awoke from
my sleep, and it was as if they had written a message in my heart."^2 Muham-
mad went out of the cave and saw a vision of Gabriel, who appeared every-
where on the horizon.
Such visions, which recurred over a period of time, could take different
forms. Once, thinking about his visions, Muhammad observed, "I hear loud
noises, and then it seems as if I am struck by a blow. I never receive a revela-
tion without the consciousness that my soul is being taken away from me."
Again, "The revelation comes to me in two ways. Sometimes Gabriel visits me
and tells it to me as though one man were speaking to another, but then what
he speaks is lost to me. But sometimes it comes to me as with the noise of a
bell, so that my heart is confused. But what is revealed to me in this way never
leaves me."^3
Gradually Muhammad came to the realization that he was a prophet (nabi)
and messenger (rasul, apostle) of Allah, and his visions became the basis for the
Qur'an. So Muhammad proclaimed Islam, submission to Allah, who is ac-
claimed the one and only god, the god of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
According to Islam, Muhammad is a prophet and the seal of the prophets,
the prophet whose distinction is that the Qur'an was revealed through him.
Yet the Qur'an insists that Muhammad is the last in a long series of prophets.
The prophetic line is said to include such venerable people of god as Adam,
Noah, Abraham, Moses, John the baptizer, Jesus—and, of course, Muhammad.
This concept of the prophetic line recalls similar emphases on a series of
prophets in other traditions, particularly in Manichaeism. Manichaeism pro-
fessed that a series of people in the past functioned as messengers (apostles)
- Adapted from Arberry, ed., The Koran Interpreted.
- Adapted from Andrae, Muhammad: The Man and His Faith, 43-44.
- From ibid., 49-50.