The life Of The Apostle Muhammad before prophethood

[ابوالوليد المسلم]

The life Of The Apostle Muhammad before prophethood (5)

Khaled Fahmy

THE LIFE OF THE APOSTLE

MUHAMMAD BEFORE PROPHETHOOD

The confusion which Muhammad experienced by this wonderful double phenomenon, auditory and visual, probably gave him, for a moment, some doubt concerning the identity of the revealer voice or some fear of becoming the victim of a diabolic hallucination. He detested nothing more than magicians and fortune-tellers. With this moral and physical trouble, he returned home shaken by a sort of cold fever and asked to be covered by fit covering. When he narrated that incident later on to Khadija, that devoted companion, she did her best to tranquillize him with the most wise and consoling words: “Verily”, she said to him, “by God, God will never disgrace you because you never do harm; you always say the truth; you keep up good relations with relatives; you aid the weak; you enrich the needy; you show hospitality to your guests, you help all those who suffer for a just cause”.

However, as she was not able to give a positive and certain explanation about the nature of this phenomenon, she decided to go with him to her cousin Waraqa Bin Noufal, an old blind man, who converted to Christianity after he had spent his life in Hebrew readings and had become familiar with the Holy Books. “This is the Namou[1] which God had revealed to Moses”, said Waraqa to them, “and Muhammad will be the Messenger of God to this nation. How I wish I could be alive until the day when your compatriots will expel you from your country”, added Waraqa. “How come? Are they going to expel me?” Cried, Muhammad. “Certainly”, asserted Waraqa, “Never has a man brought what you bring without having been the ****** of hostility and persecution.” However, if God extends my days until that moment”, added Waraqa, “I will solidly support you in that struggle.”

Waraqa's life did not last long. Yet his calming words could throw a gleam of hope in this anxious self, we shall see that this hope did not continue for a long duration. So Muhammad used to return frequently seeking a second lesson, to place himself in the original conditions, to cross the mountain and to turn his sight round in all directions. Days passed, weeks followed, months succeeded months, a year finished, a second one commenced and, as Asha’bi says, a third year, while he was still waiting for the Angel's coming. Every time he was on the verge of despair, he saw and heard. “O Muhammad, you are the Apostle of Allâh and I am Gabriel.” These words used to tranquillize him for a short time, but he was always waiting for the substantial revelation. So, he fell again into the same grief and anguish. Some people said: “This was nothing but a fit of madness.” Later, others supposed that it had really been an invaluable celestial offer, but the fragile resistance which Muhammad had shown made him seem unworthy of that divine solicitude. However, two short the Qur’anic verses:

“You (O Muhammad), by the Grace of your Lord, are not mad. (LXVIII, 2); “Your Lord (O Muhammad) has neither forsaken you nor hates you.” (XCIII, 3), were revealed to reassure him against this double apprehension, but without providing him the instructions so long expected.


[1] The “Namous” means the Great Celestial Secretary or the Law.

[ابوالوليد المسلم]

The life Of The Apostle Muhammad before prophethood (6)

Khaled Fahmy




THE LIFE OF THE APOSTLE

MUHAMMAD BEFORE PROPHETHOOD

Muhammad was now approaching his forty-third lunar year. He always spent a grand part of the night awake waiting for that “Weighty Word”.


“Verily, We shall send down to you a weighty Word (i.e. obligations, laws).” (LXXIII, 1-5). Even, since the first revelation, he used to retire alone to Mount Hirâ in the month of Ramadan. At last, when he just had ended his seclusion and had begun to get down the mountain, he heard a voice calling him. He turned right, left and back, but saw nothing. Then, he looked to the sky and recognized the Angel whom he had seen before on Mount Hirâ. However, the suddenness of the appearance of the Celestial Creature and his majestic immensity struck him so hard that his legs could not carry him. He shook with fear and hastened back to Khadija asking her for the same prior care. Nevertheless, the honourable visitor rejoined him at home carrying the decree which was entrusted to him the second attribution:
“O you (Muhammad) enveloped in garments! Arise and warn”. (LXXIV, 1-2). From that time on, the role of the apostleship had been added to that of his prophethood. From Muhammad apostolate forth, he received the revelation, I do not say, regularly nor frequently, but with a certain continuity and without undergoing such long ruptures.


The year 612 A.D. is the true point of departure for the career of the Islamic message. The date of the Hejira [1] divided this career into two nearly equal periods: ten years at Makkah and another ten at Medina. Where the Prophet died on the 12th or the 13th of Rabi’I in year 11 H. (7th or 8th June, 632 A.D.) aged exactly sixty-three lunar years or a little bit more than sixty-one solar years.


No doubt, it will be most interesting to follow up the Apostle in his indefatigable preaching activity during those twenty years which had produced one of the most glorious and civilized revolutions which humanity has ever known, but as the principal ****** of this book is the analysis of the Qur’anic system itself, we will now consider the work which he had left to us. In the following chapter, we shall explain how this Holy Book was composed, organized, preserved and transmitted through history

[1] Hejira means rupture of relations and voluntary remoteness. It is known that Muhammad had to leave Makkah on the point of a conspiracy against his life, and to settle down at Medina where he arrived at the beginning of Rabi’I, (2nd, 8th, or 12th according to historians). The Egyptian astronomer, mentioned before, considered Monday 8th, Rabi’I, the day, of the Hejira correspondent to September, 20, 622 A.D. We should not forget that the Islamic Era started with the beginning of the lunar year in which the Hejira took place (the first of Muharram correspondent to 15th or 16th July, 622 A.D.). So long as the lunar leap-year is 355 days only and that the total of 33 lunar years equals 32 solar years nearly, the Hejirian date (H) can be converted into Christian date (C) or vice versa, by the use of one of the two following formulas: