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How the revelation began to Prophet Muhammad: the true visions, the cave of Hira, the first verses of sura al-Alaq, Waraqa ibn Nawfal and the pause of the revelation, according to al-Bukhari's Sahih and Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wa Nihaya.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
The revelation began for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) when he was forty years old. Ibn Jarir (at-Tabari) reported, from Ibn Abbas and Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, that he was then forty-four years of age. Such is the chapter "How the revelation began for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)", with the mention of the first part of the great Quran that was sent down upon him.
Related by al-Bukhari, from Aisha, who said: the first form in which the revelation came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was the true visions in sleep. He would see no vision except that it came as clear as the break of dawn. Then seclusion became dear to his heart: he would withdraw alone into the cave of Hira and practice therein the tahannuth, that is, worship for many consecutive nights, before returning to his family.
He would take provision for that, then return to Khadija and take provision likewise, until the truth came to him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came to him and said: "Read!" He replied: "I cannot read."
"Then he seized me and pressed me until hardship reached me, then he released me and said: Read! I answered: I cannot read. He seized me a second time and pressed me until hardship reached me, then he released me and said: Read! I answered: I cannot read. He seized me a third time and pressed me until hardship reached me, then he released me and said:"
"Read, in the name of your Lord who created, who 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."
Sura al-Alaq, 1-5
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) then returned, his heart trembling. He entered upon Khadija bint Khuwaylid and said: "Cover me, cover me!" They covered him until the fear left him. He then told Khadija what had happened and said: "I feared for myself."
Khadija said: "Never, by Allah! Allah will never humiliate you: you maintain the ties of kinship, you honor the guest, you bear the burdens of people, you help the deprived, and you support the truth against adversity."
Khadija then set out with him until they came to Waraqa ibn Nawfal ibn Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza, the cousin of Khadija. He was a man who had embraced Christianity in the time of jahiliya: he would write in Hebrew script and write from the Gospel, in Hebrew, what Allah wished him to write. He was an old man who had become blind.
Khadija said to him: "O cousin, listen to the son of your brother." Waraqa asked: "O son of my brother, what do you see?" The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) told him what he had seen. Waraqa said: "This is the Namous whom Allah sent down upon Moussa! Oh, would that I were then in the prime of life; oh, would that I might be alive when your people drive you out!"
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) asked: "Will they drive me out then?" Waraqa replied: "Yes: never did anyone come with what you bring except that he was treated with enmity. And if I live to see your day, I will support you with resolved help."
Waraqa, however, did not linger: he died. The revelation then knew a pause, until the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) felt, as has reached us, such grief that he would go, day after day, to cast himself from the summits of steep mountains.
Every time he reached the top of a mountain to cast himself down, Jibril would appear to him and say: "O Muhammad, you are truly the Messenger of Allah." His heart would then be appeased, his soul reassured, and he would return. Then, when the pause grew long upon him, he would go back for the same purpose; and every time he reached the top of a mountain, Jibril would appear to him and say the same to him. This is how the account was reported in detail in the chapter of dream interpretation of al-Bukhari's Sahih.
Ibn Shihab said: Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman informed me that Jabir ibn Abdallah al-Ansari, while narrating the pause of the revelation, used to say: "As I was walking, I heard a voice from the sky. I raised my eyes: there was the angel who had come to me at Hira, seated on a throne between the sky and the earth. I was frightened, I returned and said: Cover me, cover me! Then Allah sent down:"
"O you who covers himself! Arise and warn. And your Lord glorify. And your garments purify. And uncleanliness avoid."
Sura al-Muddaththir, 1-5
The revelation then intensified and followed one after another without interruption.
Then al-Bukhari said: Abdallah ibn Yousouf and Abu Salih related the continuation of the chain from al-Layth, as did Hilal ibn Raddad, from az-Zuhri. Younous and Ma'mar said: "its beginnings" (bawadiruhu).
This hadith was related by the imam al-Bukhari in several places of his book. We have treated it at length, isnad and matn, at the beginning of our commentary on al-Bukhari's Sahih, in the book of the beginning of the revelation. To Allah belong praise and grace.
Mouslim also related it in his Sahih, through the chain of al-Layth, as well as through the chains of Younous and Ma'mar, from az-Zuhri, as al-Bukhari related it from these two chains in suspended form (mu'allaq). We have pointed out in the notes the additions of Mouslim and his variants. Mouslim's text ends at the word of Waraqa: "I will support you with resolved help".
The word of the mother of the believers Aisha supports the following account. Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar reported, from Ubayd ibn Umayr al-Laythi, that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Jibril came to me while I was asleep, carrying a cloth of brocade on which there was writing. He said: Read! I answered: I cannot read. He then pressed me until I thought it was death, then he released me", the rest being similar to the hadith of Aisha.
This dream was like a prelude to what came afterward in the waking state. This was established expressly in the Maghazi of Moussa ibn Uqba, from az-Zuhri: he saw it in a dream, then the angel came to him in the waking state.
The hafiz Abu Nu'aym al-Isbahani relates in his book Dala'il an-Nubuwwa, from Alqama ibn Qays: "The first thing granted to the prophets is the dream, until their hearts are appeased; the revelation then descends." This statement belongs to Alqama ibn Qays himself: it is a fine saying, supported by what precedes it and by what follows it.