Why Revelation Physically Overwhelmed the Prophet

Alhamdulillah.

[Silence]

Continuing where we left off with regards to the story of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam's first reception of revelation from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Revelation is a very strenuous process. It is not easy. It's not simple. It has physiological effects and it has emotional and psychological stresses that are involved in the process. We are speaking about the words of Allah Almighty, the divine, the sublime, the endless, the infinite, the unique. He is taking his words and putting them into the heart of a human being. This is not a simple process. Allah Subhanahu Waaala says to the prophet Sam, he said indeed we are going to send down upon you a very heavy and lofty and grave speech and revelation. Notice the words that were used here. In the Arabic language can be used to articulate something that is physically heavy. Can be used to articulate some or to describe something that is grave and weighty. And both are intended here in this verse. Zabat and Bkari said that the prophet sallall.aii wasallam received revelation while I was sitting next to him. Zenit is one of the scribes of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. when revelation would come or they were anticipating revelation, he would call for zade and summon him. He would come, he would bring his pen, he would bring his slates, whatever they were, and he would wait to write whatever new verses the prophet sallall.aii wasallam recites to him. And so as they were waiting, he was sitting next to the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam this sitting next to each other a kimbo. And he said the prophet sallall.aii wasallam's thigh was on my thigh. Right? If you could imagine that we're sitting cross-legged next to each other. His thigh was on mine. They were very close to each other. He said when revelation suddenly came. He said and I felt the physical weight of his body become heavy. So heavy that I thought my thigh was going to smash. It was going to burst from the weight of his thigh just sitting on mine. From the revelation in a sunin it's mentioned that the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam was riding on his camel in Mecca when he received the chapter of al- Mida. Al- Mida is one of the last chapters of the Quran to be revealed to the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. It was revealed to him in Mecca during he was on his camel and he was being led during when was revealed to him. The companion said that the camel started to buckle under the weight of the revelation. It almost collapsed under the weight of the revelation. The prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam had to get down off of the camel before it broke the camel's legs because of the weight. This is a physical weight that these words would bring. Not to mention the gravity of the words of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says And so this revelation is not easy. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam had to have a preface to prepare his heart for this revelation. That preparation came in the form of a few months. Some scholars posit that it is about 6 months of premonitions that he would have in his sleep. Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He'd wake up and he would see exactly vividly, word for word, movement for movement, action for action, moment for moment, what he saw in his premonition, in his sleep play out in the real world, in his wake. And so this continued on for a number of months. Says, forch.

[Silence]

He says, she says, she said after this time passed by of these premonitions that he was getting, we said if the premonitions were 6 months, right? This would mean that if the first revelation of the Quran came in what month? the month of Ramadan. And so the month of Ramadan is what number? No. Number nine, right? 6 months before that. What's the third month? What's interesting about that's the month that he was born in. That's the month that it said that's the month that he received revelation in. The prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam would have first began receiving or having these premonitions during that month. Then later in the month of Ramadan during that month he started to go to the mountain the cave of and he would stay there said he would go to and he would worship Allah there. worship Allah doing what? What what was his worship at this point? Does he is he making salah? Is he making what is his worship that she's speaking about that he would go to and make there? Anyone have an idea?

[Arabic recitation]

You know the word meditation is an interesting word. It's been hijacked by the wrong folks. Meditation really means to what? To contemplate. I mean sah is meditation. But then when you say meditation what pops into your mind immediately? The Buddhist guy sitting in his red whatever you know Harry Krishna chanting some shivi yet. Right. So the problem is is that the word meditation has become hijacked and also by soccer moms. Soccer moms to do meditation, you know, cuz they were they saw it on on Tik Tok, right? They saw it on Instagram. You got to say you got to focus on your breathing. You got Muslims doing this at the same time, right? Muslims yes, mindfulness, 5 minutes of mindfulness in the what is for? What is mindfulness? They have nothing to think about. So the idea is I'm going to sit and think about absolutely nothing as best as I can. That's the point of meditation in most popular of Eastern religions and disciplines Buddhism and right that's the idea. You think about nothing. If you must think about something think about your breathing. That's it. Only think about your breathing. Just think when you breathe in and breathe out. That's it. clear your mind completely right and then you feel better. This is we get to think about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and contemplate his names and attributes and they get to think about their breathing. The point here is that he would it was not meditation it was contemplation. When she says, she means that he would go to that cave and contemplate. He would look at the stars. He would look at the moon. He would think. He would think and reflect on why am I here? Why do I exist? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Why did he create me? Why are my people worshiping idols? Where did this come from? What is the religion of Ibraim truly? I wish I knew. I wish I understood these things. This time of absence when the questions flared up. This was the perfect time for the first revelation to come to the prophet sallall.aii. So this here that she's speaking about is Oh Allah, you didn't create this for no good reason. Then what is the reason? Guide me. You created me. Guide me. Tell me what to do. I'll do anything. And so said that he would go there for nights on end. And he would actually not want to break his reflection and contemplation even to go get food. So he would take food with him for a number of nights. He would go there and stay away from everyone. He started to desire and be more inclined towards solitude said. And so he would start to go to this cave in because it's of its high place and because it was you know out of the way it's less likely someone's going to pass by and find him there. If anybody here has ever been to Omrah and you've seen it's very steep and awkward and out of the way. It's very small. No one's going to go there unless they're going for that cave specifically. And that's why he chose that cave sai wasallam. And so he would go there for a number of nights. When he'd run out of food, he would come back to Khadijah. She would pack him a new ration for however many nights and he would go back for another span of evenings there. She said, And he continued to do this until the truth meaning revelation finally came to him while he was in the cave in saiam. Now I want you to imagine with me when you read the Quran how do we make the Quran affect us? How does it change us? You know when you just read the Quran with the foremost of your mind and you leave away the deep contemplation and you take its details for granted. When you read about Mus Alisam when he was lost with his family on his way back to Egypt, you need to be standing there with Mus Alisam. You need to feel his anxiety. You need to feel his bewilderment when he went up onto that tree that found it was resonating light and Allah spoke to him and said, "Yeah." He said, "Oh M, indeed it is I, Allah, none is rightfully worship but I." You're supposed to be there standing there with him. When you read these stories, you need to envision these things as deeply as possible in order for these things to affect your heart, to change, to come into your your mind and and to replace the filth that the dunya puts into our heart and replace it with the light. What is the setting? We have the prophet sallall.aii wasallam in this cave. We know for a fact it's night time. It's nighttime because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us what. So it's night for sure. And there may have been a small fire. We know it was at the end of Ramadan. So in the last 10 nights and so was the moon out. Was it very bright? No. The moon would have been very slight, very small. It would not have been bright. Pitch black, total darkness. Everyone is asleep. There's no one out. When suddenly, as the prophet sallallah.aii Wasam is sitting there up in this cave in the middle of nowhere all the way at the top of this obscure mountain in this obscure little tiny cave. Somebody approaches him. It's a man who approaches him. He's never seen this man before. He doesn't recognize this man. And this man walks up to him. Doesn't say a single word. All he did was come very close, very close enough to touch him and he says the prophet sallall.aii wasallam is captivated by this who is this so many questions and so the only response he has is meaning I don't know how to read. Now the word in Arabic has a dual meaning. Based on context, we know what it means, right? So for instance, if there's something written means read this written thing, but if there's nothing written could also mean recite. Here the context is unclear. It's not as some have mentioned that he had some piece of paper and he said to him, and he presented him with it. That's there's no authentic narrations mentioning that rather he's just saying to him read what he understands as read. So he's responding to the question. He says, he said, "So when I said to the man, I am illiterate. I'm unable to read." The man took me and squeezed me so hard until I was breathless. He couldn't breathe anymore. And just as I, you know, just as he had, I had reached my limits and felt he was going to pass out, he let me go. And he said again, imagine the bewilderment here, the emotions, what do you want from me? He said when I said this to him again, I'm unable to read. He took me a second time and squeezed me so tight that I was breathless until finally he released me and he said to me a third time. So now he had grabbed him three times. You notice the number three comes up a lot in Islam, in our religion, even in the natural world, even in logic. The number three comes up a lot. Why? Once is a coincidence, right? Once is a fluke, an off thing. It's an occurrence. Twice is a coincidence. Three times articulates habits. Always. Three times articulates habit. Right? And so when he took him this third time and he squeezed him that third time, Jirel released him and said Jirel wasn't saying wasn't commanding him with anything. He was delivering a message. It sounded he was commanding him with something, but he wasn't. He was actually reciting to him, but he didn't understand that yet. He said.

[Silence]

And then he turned around and left. He disappeared into the night. That's the entire occurrence. How long did that take? At most a minute or two. How bewildered was the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam upon hearing such eloquence, such violence, such gentleness, such harshness, such enlightenment. So many questions but so much information. It is a very starkly contrasting set of events that are jarring and it's meant to be jarring. It wasn't meant to be a nice feeling. It wasn't supposed to have a warm fuzzy feeling he was supposed to be left with. It was designed to scare him at first. Sallallah.aii wasallam. Take that, compare it. Is this how Allah usually reaches out to the prophets and messengers? What is the first command Allah gave to Musam? What's the first command? Right? Throw your stick down. The stick turned into a giant snake that moved in an unnaturally fast pace. So, it's a huge snake. It should be moving slowly. Instead, it's whipping around and moving in an unnatural way. What was the second command he gave him? No, what is it? But with regards to the stick, the second thing was immediately take it. Reach out and take it. Right? Why did he have to go through that before he was given the light? Now, think about this. First, throw the stick down. Now, he's terrified. As a matter of fact, he was so scared. He ran away so fast he didn't even glance back. He was out of there. The next thing, no, no, come back. Reach down and pick it up. Now I mean the horror of such a thing and the snake the significance is a natural predator. It's a natural phobia that humans have. 99.9% of humanity is naturally afraid of snakes even as babies. People are scared of snakes, right? But no, that's the first lesson. You have to reach out and grab it. You have to be very scared first. And then you have to conquer that fear. You have to conquer that fear and trust me more than you trust your eyes, more than you trust your ears, more than you trust your body. Then we're ready for the next lesson. That has to happen first. Reach out and grab it. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's first meeting with Gibl was not pleasant. It was terrifying. It was so terrifying that he couldn't speak and he was shaking and shivering in one narration. His heart of hearts was shivering in fear. This here is where we will stop for tonight. We've gone way far beyond our time. only because we're telling a story. If this was some kind of aam or something, people would be like, ", she what's going on? We got to go home." But we will stop here for tonight. Inshallah, we'll pick this up again tomorrow. Alhamdulillah.