In his fortieth year, it is said, Muḥammad began to dream dreams and see visions, and desire solitude above all things else. He withdrew to a cave on Mount Ḥirá, near Muḥammad's vision. Mecca, and engaged in religious austerities ( taḥannuth). One night in the month of Ramaḍán289 the Angel290 appeared to him and said, "Read!" ( iqra’). He answered, "I am no reader" ( má ana bi-qári’ ⁱⁿ).291 Then the Angel seized him with a strong grasp, saying, "Read!" and, as Muḥammad still refused to obey, gripped him once more and spoke as follows:—

THE SÚRA OF COAGULATED BLOOD (XCVI). (1) Read in the name of thy Lord292 who created,(2) Who created Man of blood coagulated.(3) Read! Thy Lord is the most beneficent,(4) Who taught by the Pen,293(5) Taught that which they knew not unto men.

On hearing these words Muḥammad returned, trembling, to Khadíja and cried, "Wrap me up! wrap me up!" and remained covered until the terror passed away from him.294 Another tradition relating to the same event makes it clear that the revelation occurred in a dream.295 "I awoke," said the Prophet, "and methought it was written in my heart." If we take into account the notions prevalent among the Arabs of that time on the subject of inspiration,296 it will not appear surprising that Muḥammad at first believed himself to be possessed, like a poet or soothsayer, by one of the spirits called collectively Jinn. Such was his anguish of mind that he even meditated suicide, but Khadíja comforted and reassured him, and finally he gained the unalterable conviction that he was not a prey to demoniacal influences, but a prophet divinely inspired. For some time he received no further revelation.297 Then suddenly, as he afterwards related, he saw the Angel seated on a throne between earth and heaven. Awe-stricken, he ran into his house and bade them wrap his limbs in a warm garment ( dithár). While he lay thus the following verses were revealed:—

THE SÚRA OF THE ENWRAPPED (LXXIV). (1) O thou who enwrapped dost lie!(2) Arise and prophesy,298(3) And thy Lord magnify,(4) And thy raiment purify,(5) And the abomination fly!299

Muḥammad no longer doubted that he had a divinely ordained mission to preach in public. His feelings of relief and thankfulness are expressed in several Súras of this period, e.g.—

THE SÚRA OF THE MORNING (XCIII). (1) By the Morning bright(2) And the softly falling Night,(3) Thy Lord hath not forsaken thee, neither art thou hateful in His sight. (4) Verily, the Beginning is hard unto thee, but the End shall be light.300(5) Thou shalt be satisfied, the Lord shall thee requite.(6) Did not He shelter thee when He found thee in orphan's plight?(7) Did not He find thee astray and lead thee aright?(8) Did not He find thee poor and make thee rich by His might?(9) Wherefore, the orphan betray not,(10) And the beggar turn away not,(11) And tell of the bounty of thy Lord.

According to his biographers, an interval of three years elapsed between the sending of Muḥammad and his appearance as a public preacher of the faith that was in him. Naturally, he would first turn to his own family and friends, but it is difficult to accept the statement that he made no proselytes openly during so long a period. The contrary is asserted in an ancient tradition related by al-Zuhrí (õ 742 a.d.), where we read that the Prophet summoned the people to embrace Islam301 both in private and public; and that those who responded to his appeal were, for the most part, young men belonging to the poorer class.302 He found, however, some influential adherents. Besides Khadíja, who was The first Moslems. the first to believe, there were his cousin ‘Alí, his adopted son, Zayd b. Ḥáritha, and, most important of all, Abú Bakr b. Abí Quháfa, a leading merchant of the Quraysh, universally respected and beloved for his integrity, wisdom, and kindly disposition. At the outset Muḥammad seems to have avoided everything calculated to offend the heathens, confining himself to moral and religious generalities, so that many believed, and the Meccan aristocrats themselves regarded him with good-humoured toleration as a harmless oracle-monger. "Look!" they said as he passed by, "there goes the man of the Banú ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib who tells of heaven." But no sooner did he begin to emphasise the Unity of God, to fulminate against idolatry, and to preach Hostility of the Quraysh. the Resurrection of the dead, than his followers melted away in face of the bitter antagonism which these doctrines excited amongst the Quraysh, who saw in the Ka‘ba and its venerable cult the mainspring of their commercial prosperity, and were irritated by the Prophet's declaration that their ancestors were burning in hell-fire. The authority of Abú Ṭálib secured the personal safety of Muḥammad; of the little band who remained faithful some were protected by the strong family feeling characteristic of old Arabian society, but many were poor and friendless; and these, especially the slaves, whom the levelling ideas of Islam had attracted in large numbers, were subjected to cruel persecution.303 Nevertheless Muḥammad continued to preach. "I will not forsake this cause" (thus he is said to have answered Abú Ṭálib, who informed him of the threatening attitude of the Quraysh and begged him not to lay on him a greater burden than he could bear) "until God shall make it prevail or until I shall perish therein—not though they should set the sun on my right hand and the moon on my left!"304 But progress was slow and painful: the Meccans stood obstinately aloof, deriding both his prophetic authority and the Divine chastisement with which he sought to terrify them. Moreover, they used every kind of pressure short of actual violence in order to seduce his followers, so that many recanted, and in the fifth year of his mission he saw himself driven to the necessity of commanding a general emigration to the Christian Emigration to Abyssinia. kingdom of Abyssinia, where the Moslems would be received with open arms305 and would be withdrawn from temptation.306 About a hundred men and women went into exile, leaving their Prophet with a small party of staunch and devoted comrades to persevere in a struggle that was daily becoming more difficult. In a moment of weakness Muḥammad resolved to attempt a compromise Temporary reconciliation with the Quraysh. with his countrymen. One day, it is said, the chief men of Mecca, assembled in a group beside the Ka‘ba, discussed as was their wont the affairs of the city, when Muḥammad appeared and, seating himself by them in a friendly manner, began to recite in their hearing the 53rd Súra of the Koran. When he came to the verses (19-20)—

"Do ye see Al-Lát and Al-‘Uzzá, and Manát, the third and last?"

Satan prompted him to add:—

"These are the most exalted Cranes (or Swans),And verily their intercession is to be hoped for."

The Quraysh were surprised and delighted with this acknowledgment of their deities; and as Muḥammad wound up the Súra with the closing words—

"Wherefore bow down before God and serve Him,"

the whole assembly prostrated themselves with one accord on the ground and worshipped.307 But scarcely had Muḥammad returned to his house when he repented of the sin into which he had fallen. He cancelled the idolatrous verses and revealed in their place those which now stand in the Koran—

"Shall yours be the male and his the female?308This were then an unjust division!They are naught but names which ye and your fathers have named."

We can easily comprehend why Ibn Hishám omits all mention of this episode from his Biography, and why the fact Muḥammad's concession to the idolaters. itself is denied by many Moslem theologians.309 The Prophet's friends were scandalised, his enemies laughed him to scorn. It was probably no sudden lapse, as tradition represents, but a calculated endeavour to come to terms with the Quraysh; and so far from being immediately annulled, the reconciliation seems to have lasted long enough for the news of it to reach the emigrants in Abyssinia and induce some of them to return to Mecca. While putting the best face on the matter, Muḥammad felt keenly both his own disgrace and the public discredit. It speaks well for his sincerity that, as soon as he perceived any compromise with idolatry to be impossible—to be, in fact, a surrender of the great principle by which he was inspired—he frankly confessed his error and delusion. Henceforth he "wages mortal strife with images in every shape"—there is no god but Allah.