Book 29: Excellent Qualities and Description of the Prophet

Ibn `Abbas said God's messenger was commissioned at the age of forty, he remained in Mecca thirteen years receiving revelations, after which he was ordered to emigrate, he was an emigrant for ten years and died at the age of sixty-three. (Bukhari and Muslim.)

He said God's messenger stayed in Mecca fifteen years hearing the voice and seeing the light for seven years, but seeing nothing along with it, and eight years during which revelations were given to him. He stayed in Medina ten years and died at the age of sixty-five. (Bukhari and Muslim.)

Anas said God took him when he was just sixty years old. (Bukhari and Muslim.)

He said the Prophet (ﷺ) was taken at the age of sixty-three, Abu Bakr at the age of sixty-three, and `Umar at the age of sixty-three. Muslim transmitted it.

Muhammad b. Isma'il al-Bukhari said sixty-three is the commonest statement. `A'isha said: The first revelation God's messenger received was the true vision in sleep, and every vision he saw came like the bright gleam of dawn. He then became fond of solitude and would go alone to the cave on Hira where he would engage in tahannuth, which means worship for a number of nights, before feeling a yearning for his family. He would take provisions for that purpose, then he would return to Khadija and get provisions for a like period, till the truth came to him when he was in the cave on Hira. The angel came to him and said, `Recite,'[1] to which he replied, "I am not a reciter." He said, "He then took me and squeezed me till I was distressed, after which he let me go and said, `Recite.' When I replied, `I am not a reciter,' he took me and squeezed me a second time till I was distressed, then letting me go he said, `Recite;' When I replied, "I am not a reciter,' he took me and squeezed me a third time till I was distressed. He then let me go and said, `Recite! In the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clot of blood. Recite! And your most bountiful Lord is He who taught the use of the pen, taught man what he did not know.' "[2] God's messenger came back with the verses, his heart trembling, and went in to Khadija and, said "Wrap me up, wrap me up." So, they wrapped him up till the terror had left him. He then spoke to Khadija and informed her of what had happened, saying, "I fear for myself." She replied, "By no means! I swear by God that God will never shame you. You join ties of relationship, you speak the truth, you bear people's burdens, you give to the destitute, you entertain guests, and you help against the vicissitudes which affect people's rights." Khadija then took him to Waraqa b. Naufal, her paternal cousin, and said to him, "Listen, cousin, to what your nephew has to say." Waraqa said to him, "Son of my brother, what do you see?'' God's messenger then informed him about what he had seen and Waraqa said, "It is the namus[3] which God sent down to Moses. Would that I were a young man during your prophetic career! Would that I might be alive when your people expel you!" God's messenger asked, "Will they expel me?'' and he replied, "Yes; no man has ever brought anything like what you have brought without meeting hostility. If I see your day, I shall give you strong help."Waraqa died soon afterwards, and there was an intermission in the inspiration. 1. The word iqra means either "recite" or "read". The former is to be preferred here. 2. Quran; 96:1-5. 3. This word is most likely derived from the Greek nomos (law). It indicates the revelation of scripture in the form of a divine law such as that given to Moses. "The suggestion may also have been present that Muhammad should be the founder or legislator of a community" (W. M. Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, Oxford, 1953, p. 51). (Bukhari and Muslim.) Bukhari added: so that the Prophet (ﷺ) was grieved, as we have heard, and on that account went out in the morning several times to throw himself down from the heights of the mountain; but as often as he reached the summit of a mountain to throw himself from it, Gabriel appeared to him and said, "Muhammad, you are truly God's messenger." On that account his turmoil would then quieten and he would feel at ease.

Jabir said he heard God's messenger telling about the intermission in the inspiration as follows: "While I was walking I heard a voice from the sky, and raising my eyes I saw the angel who had come to me on Hira sitting on a throne between heaven and earth. I was terror stricken on that account so that I fell to the ground. I then went to my family and said, `Wrap me up, wrap me up.' They wrapped me up, and then God most high sent down, `You who are shrouded, arise and deliver warning, your Lord magnify, your clothes cleanse, and defilement shun. * The inspiration then became hot and followed continuously." *Quran; 74:1-5 (Bukhari and Muslim.)

`A'isha told that al-Harith b. Hisham asked God's messenger, "How does the inspiration come to you, messenger of God?" to which he replied, "It comes to me at times like the clanging of a bell, and that is the type which is most severe for me; it then leaves me, I having retained of it what the angel said. At times the angel appears to me in human form and speaks to me, and I retain what he says." `A'isha said she had seen the inspiration descending on him on a very cold day, and his forehead pouring with sweat when it left him. (Bukhari and Muslim.)

`Ubada b. as-Samit said that when the inspiration descended on the Prophet, he was distressed on account of that and his face was altered to a dark hue. A version says, he lowered his head and his companions lowered their heads; then when it was removed from him, he raised his head. Muslim transmitted it.

Ibn `Abbas said: When "And warn your nearest relations"[1] was sent down the Prophet (ﷺ) went out, ascended as-Safa', and began to call, "B. Fihr, B. `Adi," calling clans of Quraish until they gathered; and when a man was unable to go out, he sent a messenger to see what was the matter. When Abu Lahab arid all Quraish had come he said, "Tell me; If I were to inform you that horsemen were coming forth from the side of this mountain (a version having: were coming forth in the wadi) with the intention of making a raid on you, would you believe me?" They replied, "Yes; we have experienced nothing but truth from you." He said, "Well, I am a warner to you before a severe chastisement." Abu Lahab said, "May you perish! Is it for this you have brought us together?" Then came down, "Perish the hands of Abu Lahab and may he perish!"[2] Quran; 26:214 Quran; 111 (Bukhari and Muslim.)

`Abdallah b. Mas'ud said: While God's messenger was praying at the Ka'ba and the company of Quraish were in the places where they sat, someone said, "Which of you will go to the sacrificial camel of the family of so and so, make for the contents of its stomach, its blood and the skin over the foetus then wait and put it on his shoulders when he prostrates himself?" The most wretched one among them* then went off, and when he prostrated himself put it on his shoulders; and as the Prophet (ﷺ) remained in prostration, they laughed to such an extent that they rolled against one another. Someone went to tell Fatima who came running, and the Prophet (ﷺ) remained in prostration till she threw it off him, faced them and reviled them. Then when God's messenger finished the prayer, he said three times, "0 God, deal with Quraish (it being his practice when he made supplication to make it three times and when he made a request to make it three times); 0 God, deal with 'Amr b. Hisham, `Utba b. Rabi'a, Shaiba b. Rabi'a, al Walid b. `Utba, Umayya b. Khalaf, `Uqba b. Abu Mu'ait, and `Umara b. al-Walid." `Abdallah said: I swear by God that I have seen them prostrate at the battle of Badr, after which they were dragged to the well, the well of Badr; and God's messenger said, "Those thrown into the well have been followed with a curse." *Mirqat, 5:409, says this was either Abu Jahl, or `Uqba b. Abu Mu'ait, adding that Nawawi said it was the latter. (Bukhari and Muslim.)

`A'isha told that she asked God's messenger whether he had experienced a day more severe than that of Uhud, and that he replied, "I have experienced things from your people, but the most severe thing I experienced from them was on the day of the `Aqaba when I offered myself to Ibn `Abd Yalil b. Kulal and he did not agree to what I wanted.1 I then went off full of care not noticing where I was going, and did not come to my senses till I was at Qarn ath-Tha'alib[2]. Raising my head, I saw a cloud which overshadowed me, and when I looked, I saw Gabriel in it. He called to me, told me God had heard the words of my people and their rejection of me, and said He had sent me the angel of the mountains for me to order him to do to them what I wanted. The angel of the mountains then called to me, saying, after giving me a salutation, `God has heard the words of your people, Muhammad, and I am the angel of the mountains whom your Lord has sent to you to order me if you wish to cover them with al-Akhshaban[3].'" God's messenger replied, "No, I hope God may bring forth from their loins people who will worship God alone, associating nothing with Him." Ibn 'Abd Yalil belonged to at-Ta'if. His father was one of the leading men, but he was 'Abd Ya`lil b. 'Amr b. `Umair (see Isti'ab, p. 410). Yaqut, Mu'jam, 4:72, sats it is a day and a night's journey from Mecca when one comes from Najd. Two hills near Mecca. Cf. Yaqut, Mu'jam, 1:163. (Bukhari and Muslim.)

Anas told that when one of God's messenger's teeth between the front and the canine teeth was broken at the battle of Uhud and a cut was made in his head, he began to remove the blood from himself and say, "How can a people who have split the head of their prophet and broken his tooth next to his eyetooth prosper?'' Muslim transmitted it.

Abu Huraira reported God's messenger as saying, "God is very angry with people who have done this to their prophet (pointing to the tooth next his eyetooth). God is very angry with a man who is killed by God's messenger in God's path." (Bukhari and Muslim.)