Home > Sira > Khadija tells Waraqa ibn Nawfal what happened to the Prophet
When Khadija told Waraqa ibn Nawfal the monk’s testimony and the two angels: “Muhammad is the prophet of this community”, and Waraqa’s poems on the awaiting of the promised prophet, from Ibn Ishaq, as-Suhayli and Ibn Kathir.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
Ibn Ishaq said: Khadija bint Khuwaylid told Waraqa ibn Nawfal ibn Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza ibn Qusayy, her cousin, a Christian man who had studied the Scriptures and possessed the knowledge of men, what her servant had related to her of the monk’s words and of what was seen: the two angels shading him. Waraqa said: “If this is true, O Khadija, Muhammad is indeed the prophet of this community: I know that there shall be raised for this community a prophet whose time is awaited.” Waraqa grew impatient and would ask: “Until when?” And he said in verse:
“I burned with remembrance, ardently, … over a sorrow that long has stirred the longing ;”
“And of Khadija’s accounts, one after another, … my waiting has grown long, O Khadija.”
“Within the two Meccas, in my hope, … I await your word: when shall I see its coming ?”
“By what a hermit’s word confided to us … among the monks, and I hate that it should be crooked :”
“That Muhammad shall reign over us, … and refute whoever lays claims against him ;”
“And shall make shine over the lands a radiance of light … by which mankind shall stand, and shall not tremble ;”
“Whoever wars against him shall meet loss, … and whoever makes peace with him shall meet safety ;”
“Ah, when that day comes, would that I witness it, … and be the first of men to join him ;”
“To join him in what Quraysh hates, … though they fill Mecca with their clamor ;”
“I hope, despite the disdain they all hold, … before the Possessor of the Throne, for a rising, should they abase themselves ;”
“Is lowliness anything but disbelief … toward Him who chose the One who raised the constellations on high ?”
“If they remain and I remain, it will be a matter … over which the disbelievers pour out their clamor ;”
“And if I perish, every young man shall meet … from the decrees a scorching, consuming end.”
Waraqa also said, in what Younous ibn Bukayr related, from Ibn Ishaq:
“Do you go at morning, or at evening depart, … and in your breast a biting sorrow you conceal ;”
“For the parting of a people whose parting I dislike, … as if you were leaving them after two days ;”
“And true tidings that reported Muhammad, … which a sincere adviser conveys of him in his absence ;”
“So then, O best of free women, you have faced … the abyss and the Najd, where the plains lie spread ;”
“Toward the market of Bosra, on mounts grown … weak of back, exhausted under their burdens ;”
“He tells us of every good by his knowledge, … and the doors of truth have their keys ;”
“That the son of Abdallah is a warner sent … to all whom the vast expanses embrace ;”
“And my thought of him: he shall be sent truthful, … as Hud and Salih were sent to the servants ;”
“And Moussa and Ibrahim, until he has … a splendor, a manifest fame of mention ;”
“Those shall follow him, the living of Lu’ayy and Ghalib, … their youths and their white-haired elders of steady stride ;”
“If he remains until his time overtakes the people, … I am, concerning him, of good cheer and glad ;”
“Otherwise, O Khadija, know that I shall wander … far from your land, across the wide earth.”
And al-Umawi added:
“Following the religion of Him who laid the edifice’s foundation, … and who held over the people a surpassing favor ;”
“He founded in Mecca a firm edifice, … wherein, through the darkness, lamps gleam ;”
“The destination of return of all the tribes without exception, … toward which the flourishing caravans make their way ;”
“Travelers like the tips of arrows shot by night, … whose departures fasten to their ankles.”
And among its verses, what Abu al-Qasim as-Suhayli inserted in his Rawd:
“I have sincerely counseled a people and said to them: … I am the warner, let no one beguile you with illusion ;”
“Worship no deity other than your Creator, … if they call upon you, say: between us an arbiter ;”
“Glory to the Possessor of the Throne, glory that endures to Him forever, … before us exalted the Ghawr and the Jumud ;”
“Made subservient, all that is beneath the sky belongs to Him, … none may aspire to His kingdom ;”
“Nothing we see keeps its brightness: … the Eternal remains, and wealth and child pass away ;”
“Hormuz’s treasures never sufficed Hormuz, … and ‘Ad sought eternity: they did not remain ;”
“Nor Souleyman, when the winds blew beneath him, … and jinn and men journeyed between the two ;”
“Where are the kings whose glory made … visitors from every horizon come flocking ?”
“There is a pool there for drinking, without falsehood: … one day all must drink of it, as they drank.”
He said: thus Abu al-Faraj attributed it to Waraqa, and some of these verses are attributed to Umayya ibn Abi as-Salt. Ibn Kathir concludes: it was related to us that ’Oumar ibn al-Khattab would sometimes cite some of these verses as testimony. Allah is most knowing.