How the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
The Qur’an is a guidance from Allah for all human beings.Allah revealed it to Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) who is the very last prophet. The Qur’an is in the Arabic language, the language of the Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) . It is the same now, word for word, as it was revealed.The angel Hazrat Jibreel, (A.S), brought the Qur’an to the Holy Prophet(PBUH).
The angel lives close to Allah and brought His message to earth, to the Prophet.
The angel is huge in his real form. He is so enormous that he fills the whole horizon in every direction. And the Holy Prophet(PBUH) did see him in that form later. But at first he saw the angel in the form of a human. The angel can appear in any shape he wants.The Holy Prophet(PBUH). was very frightened that such an unusual thing should happen to him.
The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). lived in the city of Makkah in the huge desert land of Arabia. Most of the people then worshipped idols. They thought that the idols would help them to come closer to Allah. But the idols could not move or speak or do anything at all. The people of Makkah were in a terrible state. They treated the poor really badly. They were very cruel to them. They treated women in an awful way. Just think, they used to bury little baby girls alive. They were afraid that Allah could not provide for them. They argued and fought amongst themselves dreadfully.
The Holy Prophet(PBUH) disliked the way that his people were living a great deal. He was very concerned for them. He used to go to a cave called Hira on the mountain of Nur, just outside Makkah, to fast and to pray. He surely must have thought a lot about the state of his people as well.
It was in the year 610 A.D during the month called Ramadan, that the first revelation came to him. He was forty years old at that time. The angel came before him as he was sleeping in the cave and said to him, Iqra!\ an Arabic word which means ‘read out aloud!’ and ‘recite!’. The angel showed him a beautiful piece of cloth, of a type called brocade. On it were written the first verses of the Qur’an ever revealed.
“The Holy Prophet(PBUH)., was, like most of the Arab people of his time, not able to read or write. He had never been taught about any religion or any school . He had never been taught to be a poet or a writer. So he told the angel that he could not read. The angel took hold of him and squeezed him so hard that he thought he would die. Then he let him go and told him again to read. The Holy Prophet(PBUH) he could not read. The angel squeezed him again so hard that he thought he was going to die. Then he let him go and told him again to read.
“This time the Holy Prophet(PBUH), was afraid that he might die if the angel squeezed him so tightly. He asked, ‘What shall I read?’ The angel replied,
‘Read in the name of your Lord, the One who created. He created man from a clinging clot of blood. Read! and your Lord is the Most Generous, the One who taught by means of the pen.
It is also called first wahi.He taught man what he did not know.’And the Prophet, salla’llahu alaihi wa sallam, awoke. It was just as if these words were carved deep in his heart. He could not forget them at all.
“These are the very first verses of the Qur’an to be revealed. They are at the beginning of the ninety- sixth surah of the Qur’an, called the ‘Clinging Blood Clot’. It is one of the small surahs near the end of the Qur‘an.”
The verses and the surahs were all revealed at different times.The Holy Prophet(PBUH) received verses of the Qur’an for twenty-three years. That was throughout the whole of the rest of his life after these first verses.
Some parts of the Qur’an were revealed in Makkah. Other parts were revealed in Madinah, where Islam really began and where he lived the rest of his life after leaving Makkah. So the parts that were revealed in Makkah are known as Makkan. The parts that were revealed in Madinah are known as Madinan.”
He teaches us how to live as Muslims. Allah tells us that if we love Him then Allah will love us. Allah tells us that He loves those who are honest and truthful. Particularly He loves those who care for other people. He tells us to establish the prayer and to read the Qur’an. Allah tells us to help people in need. This is all in Qur’an. It is the speech of Allah. When you hear Qur’an recited, or you recite it yourself, you must listen to it carefully. It is really Allah speaking just to you.
Allah would speak to him personally, through the Book He had revealed more than a thousand years ago!
So we also try and understand what Allah is saying to us in the Qur’an. Allah tells us how He made the world and everything in it. He tells us about Himself, that He is very kind and merciful towards the believers but terrible and angry with the unbelievers. He tells us that He is always near and present. He helps the believers when they call on Him for help. He warns us against doing bad things and teaches us how to do good things. “He promises us Paradise if we live by the Qur’an. He describes very wonderfully all the fruits and rivers and other amazing things in the beautiful gardens of Paradise. He also tells us very exactly about the terrible burning and boiling hot, smoke-filled fire of Jahannam.
“The Qur’an is full of the stories of the ancient peoples; of how Hazrat Musa, (A.S), and the Children of Israel were enslaved by Firawn and his people; of how Adam and Hawwa (A.S), were created and how they came out of the Garden of Paradise to live on this earth; of the Prophet Su- layman, (A.S), and the great kingdom he had and how the Jinn worked for him; of Isa, (A.S), and of the strange and wonderful way he was born without a father and how the Children of Israel rejected him.
“Then Allah reminds us of all the amazing signs in His creation; of how everything grows from tiny little seeds, even the human being; of how sometimes the earth becomes totally dry and dead and then Allah sends down rain and suddenly millions of beautiful green plants grow up; of how fantastic the heavens are, with the sun and the moon and the trillions of stars.
Allah reminds us of how He knows everything; the falling of a leaf in the middle of the forest; the sprouting of a seed buried deep in the earth; even the secret thoughts of human beings when they are completely alone.
“Allah tells us of all the things which will happen after we are dead on the Last Day; how we will be asked about the things which we used to do. He tells us too about the terrible Hour which is the ending of the whole world.
We learn about the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the other Prophets and the work they did for Allah, through the Qur’an. He tells us of all the difficulties they faced and how people refused to listen to them. There is Adam, Nuh, Ibrahim, Ismail, Ishaq, Yaqoub, Yousuf, Musa, Haroun, Dawud, Sulayman, Isa, Yahya alaihimu’s-salaam, and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)He was the last of them all and the seal of all the prophets.
