I couldn’t cover even a tenth of the climb of the Holy Prophet to go into ‘Gaar Hiraa’ on ‘Jabal-n-Nur’ in Mecca.
Just before the Holy Prophet turned 40 for Allah to start communicating with him, he used to come to this mountain very often to be in solitary communion with a divine force he didn’t know at that time.
I came to the foot of this mountain in an air-conditioned cab and a white guy offered to give me a bottle of chilled water on arrival. But still I couldn’t. I can reckon the Holy Prophet walked a long distance to even arrive here. The tarred terraces that facilitate climbing today I reckon were patches of rough rocky terrain. Subhanallah!
At this time, Prophet Mohammed was married to a supportive wife called Khadija. He used to take a few food supplies and seclude himself in this mountain for many days only to come down for re-supply of food to go back. He hadn’t become a Prophet then, there was no Quran, there was no Ramadan, there was no Hajj. The people of Mecca were idol worshippers.
On one of those solitary occasions, the Arch Angel Gabriel appeared to the Holy Prophet and said to him ‘read!’. He said I’m not a reader. The Angel squeezed him, released him and ordered him to read and he revealed the first few verses of Chapter 96 of the Holy Quran. Some say the first 5 verses of the following were revealed underpinning the importance of reading and education to the great civilization Islam would offer the world a few decades and centuries after this momentous but scary encounter with the trusted Angel of Allah, Gabriel: –
Quran Chapter 96
In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.
1. Read: In the Name of your Lord who created.
2. Created man from a clot.
3. Read: And your Lord is the Most Generous.
4. He who taught by the pen.
5. Taught man what he never knew.
After this scary encounter, the Holy Prophet came down this steep and rugged mountain you are seeing. In shock, he ran to his home and said ‘zammiluunii zammiluunii’ which translates as ‘cover me or wrap me up’.
His wife took him to her learned uncle who told the Prophet not to worry. The Spirit he saw, was the same one sent to Moses and other prophets.
This mountain was and still is the greatest testament to the commencement of a scripture and a religion that has a fellowship of more than 2 billion people who pray five times every day praising Allah and remembering the priceless sacrifices of this great man, Prophet Muhammed, may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him.
I hope this helps Muslims to appreciate the sacrifices of the Holy Prophet and I hope this gives a good introduction to Islam to our good friends who belong to other faiths inshaAllah’
Alhaji Irbard Ibrahim, soon inshaAllah-
E-mail: peaceambassador2016@gmail.com