An
Analysis of the Conflicting Reports on Muhammad’s First "Revelations"
Sam
Shamoun
According to the hadith literature Muhammad’s
contemporaries were uncertain and had disagreements regarding the exact
arrangement and sequence of the Quran:
VI: The arrangement of the Qur'an
4707. It is related
that Yusuf ibn Mahik said, "I was with 'A'isha, the Umm al-Mu'minin, when
an Iraqi came and said, 'What kind of shroud is best?' She said, 'Bother you!
How will it harm you?' He said, 'Umm al-Mu'minin, show me your copy of the
Qur'an.' 'Why?' she asked. He said, 'In order that I might arrange the Qur'an
according to it. It is recited out of its proper order.' 'A'isha
said, 'What harm will there be to you whichever part you read first? The first
to be revealed was a sura of the Mufassal in which the Garden and the
Fire is mentioned.* When many people joined Islam, then the halal and haram
were revealed. If the first thing to be revealed had been, 'Do not drink wine,'
people would have said, 'We will never give up wine.' If it
had been revealed. 'Do not fornicate,' they would have said, 'We will
never give up fornication.' When I was still a young girl who played, it was
revealed to Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in Makka, "In
fact the Hour is their promised appointment and the Hour is more disastrous and
bitter!" (54:46)
[*i.e.
Notice the words of the translator within the
brackets … Bewley isn’t sure whether Aisha was referring to Q. 96 or 74 as the
first sura which Muhammad recited. This uncertainty can be more clearly seen in
the following narrative:
CDI: Tafsir of
Ibn 'Abbas said that
"'asir" (74:9) means "severe" and "qaswara"
(74:51) is the faint noises of people and their voices. Abu Hurayra said that
it means lion. Every strong one is called qaswara and qaswar.
"Mustanfira" (74:51) means frightened and bolting away.
4638. It is related
that Yahya ibn Abi Kathir said, "I asked Abu Salama ibn 'Abdu'r-Rahman
about the first part of the Qur'an to be revealed. He answered, 'O you
enveloped in your cloak!' (74:1) I said, 'They say that it is
"Read, in the Name of your Lord who created." (96:1)' …
(Bewley, The Sahih Collection of al-Bukhari,
Chapter 68. Book of Tafsir: http://bewley.virtualave.net/bukhari33.html;
bold emphasis ours)
The Muslims’ uncertainty on whether Q. 74 or
96 was the first part of the Quran composed by Muhammad is directly due to the
fact that their prophet narrated conflicting reports regarding his so-called
"divine" encounter. In one narration he is recorded as saying that
the spirit appeared to him while he was in a cave meditating. After being
tortured by the spirit Muhammad then recited Q. 96:
Narrated Aisha:
(the
wife of the Prophet) The commencement (of the Divine Inspiration) to Allah's
Apostle was in the form of true dreams in his sleep, for he never had a dream
but it turned out to be true and clear as the bright daylight. Then he began to
like seclusions, so he used to go in seclusion in the cave of Hira where he
used to worship Allah continuously for many nights before going back to his
family to take the necessary provision (of food) for the stay. He came back to
(his wife) Khadija again to take his provision (of food) likewise, till one day
he received the Guidance while he was IN the
Then Allah's Apostle
returned with that experience; and the muscles between his neck and shoulders
were trembling till he came upon Khadija (his wife) and said, "Cover
me!" They covered him, and when the state of fear was over, he said to
Khadija, "O Khadija! What is wrong with me? I was afraid that something
bad might happen to me." … (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 60,
Number 478: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/060.sbt.html#006.060.478)
Another version says that Muhammad only saw
something when he came down out of the cave after having completed his time of
seclusion:
4638. It is related
that Yahya ibn Abi Kathir said, "I asked Abu Salama ibn 'Abdu'r-Rahman
about the first part of the Qur'an to be revealed. He answered, 'O you
enveloped in your cloak!' (74:1) I said, 'They say that it is
"Read, in the Name of your Lord who created." (96:1)' Abu Salama
said, 'I asked Jabir ibn 'Abdullah about that and I said to him the like of
what you said to me whereupon Jabir said, 'I only relate to you what the
Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, related to us. He
said, "I was in retreat in Hira'. When I FINISHED my retreat, I
DESCENDED AND WAS CALLED. I looked to my right but did not see anything and I
looked to my left and did not see anything. I looked before me and did not see
anything and looked behind me and did not see anything. THEN I raised my head
and saw something. I went to Khadija and said, 'Wrap me up and pour cold
water on me!' They wrapped me up and poured cold water on me. Then it was
revealed: 'O you enveloped in your cloak, arise and warn! Magnify your
Lord.' (74:1-3)"'" (Bewley: http://bewley.virtualave.net/bukhari33.html;
bold and capital emphasis ours)
Here is an alternate translation of this same
report:
Narrated Yahya bin
Abi Kathir:
I asked Aba Salama
bin 'Abdur-Rahman about the first Sura revealed of the Qur'an. He replied
"O you, wrapped-up (i.e. Al-Muddaththir)." I said, "They say it
was, 'Read, in the Name of your Lord Who created,' (i.e. Surat Al-'Alaq (the
Clot)." On that, Abu Salama said, "I asked Jabir bin 'Abdullah about
that, saying the same as you have said, whereupon he said, ‘I will not tell you
except what Allah's Apostle had told us. Allah's Apostle said, "I was in
seclusion in the
If this version of the events is correct then
this means that Muhammad didn’t see anything when he was in the cave itself.(1)
As if this wasn’t confusing enough the
following narrative places the composition of Q. 74 sometime after a pause had
occurred in the so-called revelation:
Narrated Jabir bin
'Abdullah:
That he heard
Allah's Apostle describing the period of pause of the Divine Inspiration,
and in his description he said, "While I was walking I heard a voice from
the sky. I looked up towards the sky, and behold! I saw the same angel who came
to me in the
"O you,
(Muhammad) wrapped-up! Arise and warn...and desert the idols." (74.1-5)
Abu Salama said… Rujz means idols." After that, the Divine Inspiration
started coming more frequently and regularly. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume
6, Book 60, Number 448: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/060.sbt.html#006.060.448)
The foregoing presupposes that Muhammad had
already begun receiving messages from his spirit guide which indicates that Q.
74 wasn’t the first part of the Quran to be composed.(2)
But there is more. According to other reports
Muhammad’s running to his wife Khadija and asking her to wrap him up actually
occurred right after his experience with the spirit in the cave:
3. 'A'isha, Umm
al-Mu'minin, may Allah be pleased with her, said,
"The beginning of the revelation to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah
bless him and grant him peace, took the form of the true dream. Whenever he had
this kind of dream, it was clear like the break of day [and was true]. Then he
was made to love retreat and used to go into retreat in the cave of Hira' where
he would devote himself to the worship of Allah alone, continuing in this
worship for a number of nights until he felt inclined to return to his family.
He would take provision for his stay. Then he would return to Khadija to
restock with provision to do the same again. This lasted until the Truth
came to him while he was IN the
The angel came to
him and said, 'Read!' He said, 'I cannot read.'"
The Prophet, may
Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "He seized me and squeezed me
until all the strength went out of me and then released me and said, 'Read !' I said, 'I cannot read.' Then he seized me and
squeezed me a second time until all the strength when out of me and then
released me. Then he seized me and squeezed me a third time and then released
me, and then he said, 'Recite: In the Name of your
Lord who created, created man from a blood clot. Recite: And your Lord is the
Most Generous.'"
[She went on,]
"THEN the Messenger of Allah, may Allah
bless him and grant him peace, returned with that and his heart was quaking. He
came to Khadija bint Khuwaylid, may Allah be pleased with her, and said, 'Wrap
me up! Wrap me up!' They wrapped him up until the state of terror had left him
and then he told Khadija what had happened and said, 'I am afraid for myself.'
Khadija said, 'No, by Allah, Allah would never bring disgrace upon you. You
maintain ties of kinship, bear people's burdens, help the destitute, give
hospitality to your guests and help those who have been afflicted by
calamities.' (Bewley, The Sahih Collection of al-Bukhari, Chapter 1: The
Beginning of the Revelation: http://bewley.virtualave.net/bukhari1.html#1;
bold and capital emphasis ours)
The above implies that Q. 74 was only
"revealed" to Muhammad after he had first received Q. 96 since the
event of Muhammad being wrapped up was the occasion which led to the
"revelation" of Q. 74. Talk about confusion!
So now the Muslims are faced with some
contradictions:
Let the reader keep in mind that all of the
above narrations come from al-Bukhari, deemed by Sunni Muslim scholars to be
the most authentic collection of reports and free of any mistakes:
It has been UNANIMOUSLY
AGREED that Imam Bukhari's work is the most authentic of all the
other works in Hadith literature PUT TOGETHER. The authenticity
of Al-Bukhari's work is such that the religious learned scholars of Islam said
concerning him: "The most authentic book after the Book of Allah (i.e.,
Al-Qur'an) is Sahih Al-Bukhari." …
Before he recorded
each Hadith he would make ablution and offer two Rak’at prayer and supplicate his Lord (Allah). Many religious
scholars of Islam tried to find fault in the great remarkable collection- Sahih
Al-Bukhari, BUT WITHOUT SUCCESS. It is for this reason, they UNANIMOUSLY AGREED that the most
authentic book after the Book of Allah IS Sahih Al-Bukhari. (Translation
of the Meanings of Summarized Sahih Al-Bukhari, Arabic-English, translated
by Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali, Islamic University, Al-Madina
Al-Munawwara, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; compilation: Al-Imam Zain-ud-Din Ahmad
bin Abdul-Lateef Az-Zubaidi [Maktaba Dar-us-Salam Publishers &
Distributors, Riyadh-Saudi Arabia, 1994], pp. 18-19; bold and capital emphasis
ours)
Yet here we have the bedrock of Islamic
tradition narrating conflicting versions of Muhammad’s first encounter with the
"divine"! If the most authentic historical reference work for the
Islamic faith is filled with such irreconcilable differences then what does
this say about the veracity of the Muslim religion? With such a shaky
foundation underlying the Muslim faith isn’t it inevitable that Islam will fall
seeing that falsehood by its very nature is destined to be vanquished and
destroyed?
"Jesus
answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes
to the Father except through me.’" John 14:6
"Then the end
will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has
destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must
reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be
destroyed is death. For he ‘has put everything under his
feet.’ Now when it says that ‘everything’ has been put under him, it is
clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.
When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put
everything under him, so that God may be all in all." 1 Corinthians
15:24-28
"if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct
themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the
pillar and foundation of the truth." 1 Timothy
3:15
Endnotes
(1)
The noted historian al-Tabari quoted a similar version, but added a rather
important detail that suggests that the something or someone that Muhammad
initially thought he saw was God (or so he erroneously assumed):
Ibn al-Muthanna –
‘Uthman b. ‘Umar b. Faris – ‘Ali b. al-Mubarak – Yahya, that
is, Ibn Abi Kathir: I asked Abu Salamah which part of the Qur’an had been
revealed first, and he replied:
"O you
enveloped in your cloak, arise and warn!"
I said, "They
say that it was
Recite in the name
of your Lord",
but Abu Salamah replied, "I asked Jabir b. ‘Abdallah
which part of the Qur’an had been revealed first, and he said, ‘O you enveloped
in your cloak.’" I said, "What about ‘Recite
in the name of your Lord?’" but he answered, "What I am telling you
is what the Prophet told me. He said, ‘I was in retreat on Hira’, and when I
had COMPLETED my retreat I came down the mountain and went into the bottom of
the wadi. THEN I heard a voice calling me; I looked right and left, behind
me and in front of me, but could not see anything. Then I looked up, and
there he was sitting on a throne between heaven and earth, and I was afraid
of him (fa-khashitu minhu).’" Ibn al-Muthanna: These were Uthman b.
‘Umar’s words, but the correct version is "I was terror-stricken by
him" (fa-ju’ithu minhu).
"‘Then I went to Khadijah and said, "Envelop me!" So they
enveloped me in a cloak and poured water over me, and then "O you
enveloped in your cloak, arise and warn!" was revealed to me.’" (The
History of al-Tabari – Muhammad at Mecca, translated and annotated by W.
Montgomery Watt & M.V. McDonald [State University of New York Press (SUNY),
Albany 1988], Volume VI, pp. 73-74; bold and capital emphasis ours)
Muhammad’s statement that he saw someone
sitting on a throne suggests that he may have actually believed that God had
appeared to him. More on this in the next footnote.
(2)
Just when we thought that the situation couldn’t get any more confusing…
al-Tabari narrates one particular version of the story where Muhammad first saw
the unnamed entity, runs to Khadija where he asked her to wrap him up, and it
is only sometime after these events have transpired that he then claims
"Gabriel" came and commanded him to recite Q. 96!
Ahmad b. ‘Uthman,
known as Abu al-Jawza – Wahb b. Jarir – his father – al-Nu‘man b. Rashid –
al-Zuhri – ‘Urwah – ‘A’ishah: The first form in which the revelation came to
the Messenger of God was true vision; this used to come to him like the break
of dawn. After that, he grew to love solitude and used to remain in a cave on
Hira’ engaged in acts of devotion for a number of days before returning to his
family. Then he would return to his family and supply himself with provisions
for a similar number of days. This continued until the Truth came to him
unexpectedly,96 and said: "Muhammad, you are the
Messenger of God." [Describing what happened next], the Messenger of God
said, "I had been standing, but fell to my knees; and crawled away, my
shoulders trembling. I went to Khadijah and said, ‘Wrap me up! Wrap me up!’
When the terror had left me, he came to me and said, ‘Muhammad, you are the
Messenger of God.’"
He (Muhammad) said: I
had been thinking of hurling myself down from a mountain crag, but he appeared
to me, as I was thinking about this, and said, "Muhammad, I am Gabriel
and you are the Messenger of God." Then he said, "Recite!"
I said, "What shall I recite?" He took me and pressed me three times
tightly until I was nearly stifled and was utterly exhausted; then he said,
"Recite in the name of your Lord who created," and I recited it. Then
I went to Khadijah and said, "I have been in fear for my life." When
I told her what happened she said, "Rejoice, for God will never put you to
shame, for you treat your kinsfolk well, tell the truth, deliver what is
entrusted to you, endure fatigue, offer hospitality to the guest, and aid
people in misfortunate." (Ibid., pp. 67-68; bold emphasis ours)
The fact that Muhammad
wanted to kill himself when "Gabriel" came reciting Q. 96:1 shows
that the events mentioned in the paragraph right before this must have already
occurred. After all, it wouldn’t
make sense for Muhammad to be contemplating suicide if his spirit messenger had
only showed up right around the moment that he thought of plunging himself from
the mountain.
Moreover, the translators have an interesting
note regarding Aisha’s reference to the Truth coming to Muhammad unexpectedly:
96. In this usage,
the Truth (al-haqq) is God, and the apparent declaration of Muhammad’s
messengership by God supports the view that he originally took the visions to
be of God. (Ibid., p. 67)
This supports what we stated in the above
note that Muhammad may have initially told people that he saw God which either
he or later Muslim transcribers changed to Gabriel.