IRE5/1: HOW THE QURAN WAS REVEALED – Stages of Qur’anic revelation

IRE5/1: HOW THE QURAN WAS REVEALED – Stages of Qur’anic revelation

1. 

   The holy Qur’an was not revealed to Prophet Muhammad PBUH as a whole but it was revealed to him in piecemeal

2. It was revealed to the prophet for a period of 23years, 2 months and 22 days between AD 610 and 632 in the two noble cities of Mecca and Madiina.
3. Before its revelation, the holy Qur’an was kept by Allah on the ‘preserved tablet’, where His revealed books were kept before being given to their recipients.

Allah says in Q (85:21-22);           “… this is a Glorious Qur’an, in a Tablet Preserved.”

4. From the Tablet Preserved in the 7^th heaven, it was brought as a whole on the 1^st heaven by angel Jibril, from where its verses were brought to the Prophet PBUH according to the circumstances of the time.
5. Prophet Muhammad PBUH received the 1^st message at the age of forty in 610 AD in one of the nights of the month of Ramadhan while meditating in the cave of mountain Hira.
6. The night in which the holy Qur’an was revealed is described in the holy Qur’an as the ‘Night of Power’.

Allah says in Q (97:1);            “We have indeed revealed this message in the Night of Power.”

He also says in Q (2:185);                   “Ramadhan is the month in which was sent down the

Qur’an, as a guide to mankind…”

7. While in the cave of Mount Hira meditating, Prophet Muhammad PBUH fell asleep and suddenly heard a voice calling him “Muhammad.” When he woke up, the voice told him to read.
8. Muhammad (SAW) answered that he could not read but the voice insisted that he had to read. After terribly squeezing him and confirming that he could not read, the voice told him to read thus;

“Read in the name of your Lord who created. Created man from a clot of blood.

Read! And your Lord is the Most Bountiful one,

who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.”

This was the first revelation of the holy Qur’an which is now found in chapter 96, verses 1-5 of the holy Qur’an.

9. The experience of this revelation shook and stunned the prophet and hurried to his wife Khadijah whom he asked to cover him with a blanket. When he recovered his composure, he narrated to her the story of his experience.
10. He was concerned that he was hallucinated or had lost his mind but Khadijah assured him that he was balanced and that his experience had some super natural explanation.
11. She took him to her friend, Waraq ibn Naufal, who had knowledge of previous scriptures. Waraq confirmed that Muhammad’s experience resembled that of Moses and other prophets and, therefore, he had also become a prophet of Allah.
12. Between the first and second revelation, there was a period of recess of three years called FUTRA PERIOD without any message coming to the prophet, during which the Meccans mocked the prophet that Allah had forsaken him until when Q74:1-4) was revealed
13. In the beginning, verses came to the prophet PBUH in intervals and in small bits but as time went by, it grew both in frequency and volume until when it almost came like a continuous stream.
14. Furthermore, revelations came over the remaining thirteen years of the prophet’s life in Mecca and ten years in
15. By the time of his death, the revelation composed of 114 chapters. The last chapter being Surat al- Taubah (Repentance) numbered 9^th while the last verse believed to be Q (5:3).
16. Q (5:3) says: “Today I have completed for you your religion, fulfilled upon you my favours, and approved for you Islam as your religion.”