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Seerah 01 · 609–611 · before the move to Madinah · Makkah
The Cave of Ḥirāʾ — the first revelation
The Prophet ﷺ was alone in a cave outside Makkah when the angel Jibrīl brought him the first words of the Qur'an.
15 events · the Prophet ﷺ aged 40–42
What happened
From ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm
Standard — the chapter told properly, in paragraphs
This chapter covers about two years, from his ﷺ fortieth year to the return of revelation. It begins with one man worshipping alone in a cave and ends with a small group of believers learning in secret. Nothing public has happened yet: what is being built here is certainty.
Born in Makkah, in the Year of the ElephantHe ﷺ is born to Āminah, his father already dead, in the year Abrahah's army came against the Kaʿbah.
The desert years with ḤalīmahHe ﷺ is nursed among Banū Saʿd, and there the chest of the young boy is opened.
Āminah, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, and the care of Abū ṬālibHis mother dies when he ﷺ is six, his grandfather when he is eight, and his uncle takes him in.
The journey to Shām and the monk BaḥīrāAt about twelve he ﷺ travels with Abū Ṭālib's caravan, and a monk recognises the signs.
Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl — the pact of justiceThe young men of Quraysh swear to stand with anyone wronged in Makkah, and he ﷺ is among them.
Trading for Khadījah رضي الله عنها, and their marriageHe ﷺ takes her caravan to Shām, and she proposes; he is twenty-five, she is forty.
Rebuilding the Kaʿbah and lifting the Black StoneQuraysh nearly fight over who replaces the stone; he ﷺ settles it with a cloak.
The nights of ḤirāʾIn the years before revelation he ﷺ withdraws to a cave above Makkah to worship alone.
Iqraʾ in the cave of ḤirāʾHe ﷺ was forty, and for years he had been going up to a cave outside Makkah to worship alone. In Ramaḍān the angel Jibrīl عليه السلام came to him there and told him to read. He said he could not read. The angel held him hard, three times, and then gave him the first five āyāt of Sūrat al-ʿAlaq. He went home shaking and asked to be covered.
Khadījah رضي الله عنها and Waraqah ibn NawfalKhadījah رضي الله عنها did not tell him to calm down. She told him what his life had been — that he kept family ties, carried the weak and honoured guests — and said Allah would never disgrace such a man. She took him to her cousin Waraqah, an old Christian who read scripture, and Waraqah said this was the same angel who came to Mūsā عليه السلام, and that his own people would drive him out.
The pause in revelation (fatrat al-waḥy)After that first meeting the revelation stopped for a while. People mocked him, saying his Lord had left him. Then Sūrat aḍ-Ḍuḥā came: your Lord has not left you and does not hate you. Its proof is his own past — orphaned and sheltered, lost and guided, poor and provided for.
'O you who is wrapped up — arise and warn'Revelation returned. He saw the same angel filling the sky, came home frightened and asked to be wrapped up, and Sūrat al-Muddaththir was given: arise and warn. What had been a private experience was now a public job.
The first believersThe first people to believe were the ones closest to him: his wife Khadījah رضي الله عنها, the boy ʿAlī رضي الله عنه in his house, his freedman Zayd, and his friend Abū Bakr رضي الله عنهم. Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه began bringing others in at once — ʿUthmān رضي الله عنه, az-Zubayr, ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Saʿd and Ṭalḥah رضي الله عنه.
The house of al-ArqamFor about three years the call stayed quiet. The believers met in the house of a young man called al-Arqam, at the foot of Ṣafā, and there they learned the newly revealed sūrahs and prayed. They were taught before they were exposed.
Warn your nearest kinThen came the order to warn his own relatives first. He called the clans of Quraysh by name and told them plainly that he could not save them from Allah — naming even his aunt and his daughter. Family gave nobody an exemption.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3, 4950; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 160; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Age at first revelation
- 40
- Month
- Ramaḍān
- First revealed
- Sūrat al-ʿAlaq 96:1–5
- First to believe
- Khadījah رضي الله عنها, then ʿAlī رضي الله عنه (child), Zayd (freedman), Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه (free man) رضي الله عنهم
- The quiet years
- About three, taught in the house of al-Arqam
Narration by narration (15)
- EstablishedYear of the Elephant · 569 · Makkah
He ﷺ is born to Āminah, his father already dead, in the year Abrahah's army came against the Kaʿbah.
ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib died while Āminah was carrying him, so he ﷺ was born an orphan, in Makkah, on a Monday in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the Year of the Elephant — the year Abrahah marched on the Kaʿbah from Yemen and his army was destroyed before it. His grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib took him to the Kaʿbah, thanked Allah, and named him Muḥammad, a name the Arabs of Makkah did not use. He ﷺ later said of himself: 'I am the supplication of my father Ibrāhīm and the glad tidings of ʿĪsā.'
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1162; Musnad Aḥmad 17150; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Established569–573 · the desert of Banū Saʿd
He ﷺ is nursed among Banū Saʿd, and there the chest of the young boy is opened.
As Makkan custom required, the infant was given to a wet-nurse from the desert, Ḥalīmah as-Saʿdiyyah, so that he would grow in clean air and learn pure Arabic. He stayed with Banū Saʿd about four years. Anas ibn Mālik رضي الله عنه narrates that while he was playing with other boys, Jibrīl عليه السلام came to him, opened his chest, took out his heart, removed a clot from it and said: 'This was the share of Shayṭān in you.' He washed it in a golden basin of Zamzam and returned it. The other boys ran to Ḥalīmah saying Muḥammad had been killed, and they found him pale.
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 162; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Established575–577 · Makkah
His mother dies when he ﷺ is six, his grandfather when he is eight, and his uncle takes him in.
Āminah took him to visit his father's grave and her relatives in Yathrib, and died on the way back at al-Abwāʾ; he was six. His grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, chief of Hāshim, kept him at his side and would seat him on his own mat, and died two years later. Care then passed to Abū Ṭālib, his father's full brother, who was poor but loved him and protected him until the year Abū Ṭālib himself died. As a boy he ﷺ herded sheep for the people of Makkah for a few qirāṭs, and later said that every prophet had herded sheep.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2262; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Strong report581 · Buṣrā, Shām
At about twelve he ﷺ travels with Abū Ṭālib's caravan, and a monk recognises the signs.
Abū Ṭālib took him on a trading journey to Syria when he was around twelve. At Buṣrā a monk called Baḥīrā came out to the caravan, spoke with the boy, and told Abū Ṭālib to take him home, for this was the one the earlier scriptures described and the Jews of Shām would harm him if they knew.
Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī 3620 (disputed); Ibn Hishām; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Strong report589 · Makkah · age 20
The young men of Quraysh swear to stand with anyone wronged in Makkah, and he ﷺ is among them.
A man from Zabīd sold goods to al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil, who took them and refused to pay. The man stood at the Kaʿbah and called out his complaint in verse. Clans of Quraysh gathered in the house of ʿAbdullāh ibn Judʿān and swore that they would stand with any oppressed person in Makkah, local or stranger, until his right was returned. The Prophet ﷺ was about twenty, and said long after prophethood: 'I witnessed a pact in the house of Ibn Judʿān that I would not exchange for red camels, and if I were called to it in Islam I would answer.'
Musnad Aḥmad 1655; al-Bayhaqī, as-Sunan al-Kubrā; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Traditional ordering594 · Makkah · age 25
He ﷺ takes her caravan to Shām, and she proposes; he is twenty-five, she is forty.
Khadījah bint Khuwaylid رضي الله عنها was a merchant of standing who hired men to trade with her wealth. She heard of his honesty and sent him to Shām with her servant Maysarah, and the return was better than usual. Maysarah's account of his conduct decided her, and she sent a proposal through a friend. Abū Ṭālib gave the address at the marriage. She was the only wife he had until she died, and she bore all his children except Ibrāhīm: al-Qāsim, Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthūm, Fāṭimah رضي الله عنها and ʿAbdullāh.
Ibn Hishām; Ibn Saʿd, aṭ-Ṭabaqāt; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Strong report604 · Makkah · age 35
Quraysh nearly fight over who replaces the stone; he ﷺ settles it with a cloak.
A flood damaged the Kaʿbah and Quraysh rebuilt it, running short of lawful funds so that the Ḥijr was left outside the walls. When the building reached the place of the Black Stone the clans quarrelled over the honour of setting it, and some swore to fight. Abū Umayyah suggested they accept the judgement of the next man to enter the sanctuary; it was Muḥammad ﷺ, and they said, 'Al-Amīn — we accept.' He spread a cloak, placed the stone in the middle, told each clan to take an edge, and when it reached the height he set it in place with his own hands. He was about thirty-five.
Musnad Aḥmad 15502; Ibn Hishām; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Established606–609 · Ḥirāʾ
In the years before revelation he ﷺ withdraws to a cave above Makkah to worship alone.
ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها said that the first thing he was given was true dreams: he would see a dream and it would come like the breaking of dawn. Then solitude was made beloved to him, and he would go to the cave of Ḥirāʾ and worship there for nights at a time before returning to Khadījah رضي الله عنها for more provisions. Nothing of idolatry had ever touched him, and there was no teacher in the cave — only a man in his late thirties, alone, looking for the truth of the matter.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 160
- Established609 · Ramaḍān · age 40
Jibrīl عليه السلام comes with the first five āyāt of al-ʿAlaq.
He ﷺ was forty, and for years he had been going up to a cave outside Makkah to worship alone. In Ramaḍān the angel Jibrīl عليه السلام came to him there and told him to read. He said he could not read. The angel held him hard, three times, and then gave him the first five āyāt of Sūrat al-ʿAlaq. He went home shaking and asked to be covered.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 160
- Established609 · Makkah
Khadījah رضي الله عنها steadies him and takes him to her cousin Waraqah, who names what has come.
Khadījah رضي الله عنها did not tell him to calm down. She told him what his life had been — that he kept family ties, carried the weak and honoured guests — and said Allah would never disgrace such a man. She took him to her cousin Waraqah, an old Christian who read scripture, and Waraqah said this was the same angel who came to Mūsā عليه السلام, and that his own people would drive him out.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3
- Established609–610 · Makkah
Revelation stops for a period; the Quraysh mock, and aḍ-Ḍuḥā answers.
After that first meeting the revelation stopped for a while. People mocked him, saying his Lord had left him. Then Sūrat aḍ-Ḍuḥā came: your Lord has not left you and does not hate you. Its proof is his own past — orphaned and sheltered, lost and guided, poor and provided for.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4950; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1797
- Established610 · Makkah
Revelation returns with al-Muddaththir and the mission becomes public duty.
Revelation returned. He saw the same angel filling the sky, came home frightened and asked to be wrapped up, and Sūrat al-Muddaththir was given: arise and warn. What had been a private experience was now a public job.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4922; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 161
- Strong report609–610 · Makkah
Khadījah رضي الله عنها, Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه, ʿAlī رضي الله عنه and Zayd accept Islam.
The first people to believe were the ones closest to him: his wife Khadījah رضي الله عنها, the boy ʿAlī رضي الله عنه in his house, his freedman Zayd, and his friend Abū Bakr رضي الله عنهم. Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه began bringing others in at once — ʿUthmān رضي الله عنه, az-Zubayr, ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Saʿd and Ṭalḥah رضي الله عنه.
Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah (via Ibn Isḥāq); Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa-n-Nihāyah
- Traditional ordering610–612 · Makkah
For about three years the daʿwah is quiet, taught in one house at the foot of Ṣafā.
For about three years the call stayed quiet. The believers met in the house of a young man called al-Arqam, at the foot of Ṣafā, and there they learned the newly revealed sūrahs and prayed. They were taught before they were exposed.
Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah; Ibn Saʿd, aṭ-Ṭabaqāt
- Established612 · Makkah
Allah commands him ﷺ to begin with his own family.
Then came the order to warn his own relatives first. He called the clans of Quraysh by name and told them plainly that he could not save them from Allah — naming even his aunt and his daughter. Family gave nobody an exemption.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4771; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 206