Rise of Islam (610): Muhammad and the First Revelations

The rise of Islam began around 610, when Muhammad, a merchant of Mecca in western Arabia, reported that he had received a revelation from God in a cave on a mountain outside the city. Over the next twelve years he preached a strict monotheism to a growing but persecuted circle of followers. This small Meccan community became the foundation of one of the world’s largest religions and, within a few decades, of an empire stretching from North Africa to Central Asia.

Arabia before Islam

A land between empires

In the early 7th century the Arabian Peninsula lay on the edge of two great powers: the Christian Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire to the north-west and the Zoroastrian Sasanian Empire of Persia to the north-east. From 602 to 628 the two fought an exhausting war, the Byzantine-Sasanian War of 602-628, which drained both of men and money just before the Arab conquests began.

Most of Arabia was never ruled directly by either empire. Society was organised around tribes and clans, bound by kinship, honour and the duty of revenge. Many Arabs were settled farmers or townspeople in oases; others were pastoral nomads, the Bedouin, who herded camels and goats.

Mecca and the Kaaba

Mecca lay in the Hejaz, the mountainous western region near the Red Sea. It had little farmland, but it held the Kaaba, a cube-shaped sanctuary that attracted pilgrims from across the region. Muslim tradition says the Kaaba housed some 360 idols, among them Hubal, while the goddesses al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat were widely venerated in the area.

The dominant tribe in Mecca was the Quraysh, who controlled the sanctuary and took part in regional trade. How important Meccan commerce really was is debated: older histories describe Mecca as a great caravan hub, while historians such as Patricia Crone argued that its trade was more modest and local.

Arabia was also religiously mixed. Jewish tribes lived in oases such as Yathrib (later Medina) and Khaybar, Christians lived in Najran in the south and along the frontiers, and the sources mention individual seekers of a purer faith in one God, called hanifs.

Muhammad before the revelation

Muhammad ibn Abd Allah was born in Mecca around 570, into the clan of Hashim, a respected but not especially wealthy branch of the Quraysh. His father died before he was born and his mother, Amina, when he was about six. He was raised first by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib and then by his uncle Abu Talib, the head of the clan.

As a young man Muhammad worked in the caravan trade and gained a reputation for honesty; tradition says he was called al-Amin, “the trustworthy”. At about 25 he married Khadija bint Khuwaylid, a widowed merchant who had employed him. Tradition gives her age as 40, though some scholars think she was younger. They had several children, including Fatima, the only one to leave descendants.

In his late thirties Muhammad began to withdraw for days at a time to a cave on Jabal al-Nour, the Mountain of Light, a few kilometres from Mecca, to pray and reflect.

The first revelation and its message

According to the early biographies, one night around 610, during the month of Ramadan, Muhammad was in the Cave of Hira when an angelic being, identified as Gabriel (Jibril in Arabic), appeared and commanded him to recite. The words he received are traditionally identified with the opening verses of Surah 96 of the Quran, al-Alaq, which speak of God creating humankind and teaching by the pen.

The accounts describe Muhammad as shaken and afraid. He returned home and was comforted by Khadija, who took him to her cousin Waraqa ibn Nawfal, a Christian, who is reported to have recognised the experience as similar to that of earlier prophets. Muslims commemorate the night of the first revelation as Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power.

After a pause, the revelations resumed and continued for the rest of Muhammad’s life, about 23 years. They were memorised and written down by his followers, and later collected into the Quran.

The message

The early Meccan revelations centre on a few strong themes:

• One God (tawhid): there is only one God, creator of all things; worshipping other gods or idols is the gravest error.
• Judgement: all people will be raised after death and judged for their deeds, with reward in paradise or punishment in hell.
• Social justice: the rich must share with the poor, protect orphans and deal honestly; greed and arrogance are condemned.
• Prophecy: Muhammad is presented as a messenger in a line that includes Abraham, Moses and Jesus, bringing a message in clear Arabic.

The name of the new faith, Islam, means “submission” to God, and a Muslim is “one who submits”.

The first believers and Meccan opposition

The first believers

For about three years Muhammad shared his message mainly with family and friends. Tradition names Khadija as the first believer. She was followed by his cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib, then about ten years old, his freed slave and adopted son Zayd ibn Haritha, and his friend Abu Bakr, a merchant who brought in other converts, including Uthman ibn Affan.

Around 613 Muhammad began preaching publicly. The early community, perhaps a few dozen and later a few hundred people, included young members of leading families as well as slaves, freedmen and members of weaker clans. Bilal ibn Rabah, an enslaved Abyssinian, was one of the best known.

Opposition and persecution

Many leaders of the Quraysh reacted with hostility. The new message attacked the gods of the Kaaba, which underpinned Mecca’s religious prestige, and it challenged the authority of the elders and the customs of their ancestors. Among the fiercest opponents were Amr ibn Hisham, known to Muslims as Abu Jahl, and Muhammad’s own uncle Abu Lahab.

Muhammad himself was protected by Abu Talib, who never became a Muslim but upheld his duty as clan chief. Converts without such protection suffered most. Bilal was reportedly tortured in the desert heat, and Sumayya bint Khayyat is remembered in Muslim tradition as the first person to die for the faith.

Around 615 a group of Muslims, later about 80 people, sought refuge in the Christian kingdom of Aksum (Abyssinia, in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea), whose ruler, the Negus, refused Quraysh demands to hand them over. Around 616-619 the Quraysh imposed a boycott on the clan of Hashim, refusing to trade or intermarry with them.

The Year of Sorrow and the turn to Yathrib

In 619 Khadija and Abu Talib both died, a period Muslims call the Year of Sorrow. Without Abu Talib’s protection Muhammad’s position in Mecca became precarious. He tried to win support in the nearby town of Ta’if but was driven out.

Tradition places the Night Journey (Isra and Mi’raj), in which Muhammad is believed to have been carried to Jerusalem and to heaven, in this difficult period, around 620-621.

The breakthrough came from Yathrib, an oasis about 340 kilometres to the north, torn by feuds between its Arab tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj. At the annual pilgrimage season, pilgrims from Yathrib met Muhammad at al-Aqaba near Mecca. In 621 a small group pledged to follow him, and in 622 a larger group of about 75 promised to protect him. This opened the way to the Hijra, the migration to Medina in 622.

Key people

• Muhammad (c. 570-632): merchant of the Quraysh tribe, regarded by Muslims as the final prophet of God.
• Khadija bint Khuwaylid (died 619): Muhammad’s first wife, a successful merchant and, in tradition, the first believer.
• Abu Talib (died c. 619): Muhammad’s uncle and protector, head of the clan of Hashim.
• Abu Bakr (c. 573-634): close friend and early convert who later became the first caliph.
• Ali ibn Abi Talib (c. 600-661): Muhammad’s cousin and later son-in-law, one of the first converts and later the fourth caliph.

The sources and their limits

What the sources say

Almost everything known about Muhammad’s life in Mecca comes from Muslim sources. The Quran is regarded by most historians as a text from Muhammad’s lifetime, but it rarely names people or dates events. Detailed narratives come from the sira (biography) and hadith (reports of the Prophet’s words and deeds).

The earliest major biography was written by Ibn Ishaq (died c. 767), more than a century after the events, and survives mainly in the edition of Ibn Hisham (died c. 833). Historians therefore treat precise details, numbers and dates with caution, while the broad outline of Muhammad’s Meccan career is widely accepted. Non-Muslim sources from the 630s already mention an Arab prophet, but they say little about his early years.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Islam began as a movement of conquest. In Mecca the Muslims were a small, persecuted minority with no armed force. Warfare began only after the move to Medina.
• Myth: Mecca was entirely pagan. Polytheism dominated, but Jews, Christians and hanifs were part of the wider religious world of Arabia, and the Quran addresses many ideas they shared.
• Fact: dates are approximate. The year 610 for the first revelation is a calculation from tradition, which says Muhammad was about 40 at the time; it is not recorded in a contemporary document.

Timeline

• c. 570: Muhammad is born in Mecca.
• c. 595: Muhammad marries Khadija bint Khuwaylid.
• c. 610, Ramadan: first revelation in the Cave of Hira.
• c. 613: Muhammad begins preaching publicly in Mecca.
• c. 615: a group of Muslims takes refuge in Aksum (Abyssinia).
• c. 616-619: the Quraysh boycott the clan of Hashim.
• 619: deaths of Khadija and Abu Talib, the Year of Sorrow.
• 621: first pledge of al-Aqaba with men from Yathrib.
• 622: second pledge of al-Aqaba; the Muslims begin migrating to Yathrib.

Why it matters

The events in Mecca between about 610 and 622 created the core beliefs of Islam: one God, prophecy, judgement and social responsibility. The small community that survived persecution there carried these ideas to Medina, where it became a political force. Within a generation, under the Rashidun Caliphate, the faith born in a mountain cave had spread across much of the Middle East.