The first revelation

By the time he was around forty, Muhammad ﷺ had grown used to leaving the bustle of Mecca behind. He would go up to the cave of Hira, a quiet hollow in a mountain nearby, and stay there for many nights, alone with his thoughts and turning toward his Lord. He took simple provisions with him, and when they ran out he came back to his wife Khadija for more, then returned to the solitude he had come to love. This was a man searching for truth long before any words came down to him.

It was during one of these retreats that everything changed. The angel Jibril came to him and said, "Read." He answered honestly that he could not read. The angel took hold of him and pressed him hard, then released him and repeated the command. Again he said he could not read. After the third time, the words came: "Read in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clinging clot. Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know." These were the opening verses of Surah al-Alaq, the first of the Qur'an.

He came down from the mountain shaken to his core, his heart pounding. He went straight to Khadija and asked her to cover him with a cloak until the fear settled. When he told her what had happened and admitted that he feared for himself, she did not doubt him for a moment. She reassured him with steady words, reminding him that he kept good ties with his family, helped the poor and the destitute, was generous to his guests, and stood by those struck by hardship. Then she took him to her cousin Waraqa, an old man who knew the earlier scriptures, who recognised that this was the same revelation once sent to Moses.

This single night in the cave is where the message of Islam begins. It came not to a king on a throne but to a thoughtful, honest man in a quiet place, and its very first word was a call to learn. The command "Read" set the tone for everything that followed: knowledge, humility before God, and gratitude for what He teaches. For a reader today, the moment is a reminder that the greatest turning points can begin in stillness, and that the response of a faithful companion like Khadija can steady a heart facing something far larger than itself.