Insya Allah, the "place" I've decided to start with is at the very start of Prophethood. The Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was 40 years old and in the last few years, he had taken to visit a cave on the Mount of Hira, a few miles from Mecca for seclusion.
M A Salahi in his book speculated that it was partly because of "a widely intellectual gap" between him and the people of Mecca. Several modern biographers speculated that he might have done so due to being disturbed by the state of his people. Martin Lings suggested that the seclusion was likely a result of the visions that came to him; where he found that his dreams came true and the visions were like "the breaking of the light of dawn". This seemed to be derived from the hadith reported by Aisyah r.a. in Sahih Bukhari. It seemed that the Prophet used to go into seclusion during the month of Ramadhan and these retreats gave him comfort for the rest of the year.
Whatever motivated him to go into seclusion, I have always wondered why he chose the cave as opposed to other places or even in his own home. While I have never had a chance to visit the cave myself, the description of the cave was that it was well hidden and seemed very isolated. Described here by someone who had been there,
No one can stay there even for a minute or two without feeling lonely. In my second visit, which took place when we went for ‘umra, the pilgrims who were there before me left at some point and I found myself on my own for about 5 minutes before new visitors started to arrive. It was so lonely. You do not see or hear anyone, and you feel so apart from the rest of the world. It can be scary in the morning, but it must be utterly terrifying in the night. This is the place that Muhammad frequented and lived in for days and probably weeks, day and night. He wanted to be alone, away from all people, because he was seeking a different company. This is where Muhammad sought and worshipped Allah, the only God, who was going to inspire him, make him His last Prophet, and reveal the Qur’an to him.
Visiting the Cave of Hira’ was one of the most moving and memorable experiences of my pilgrimage and later ‘umra. Having seen how well hidden the cave is, even to someone at its path, there is no way Muhammad, looking up from the bottom of that mountain, could have guessed that somewhere near the summit of that mountain there was a totally isolated cave. We do not know whether he climbed up the mountain looking for the cave he felt existed and needed to find, or whether he was made to find it having been led to explore that summit. But what is certain is that Muhammad must have been drawn to the cave. Allah wanted him to find the cave and make it the private abode that he would frequent to be on his own with Him and think of the spiritual matters that preoccupied him.
My first visit to the cave left me with an overwhelming sense of amazement, reverence, and awe. The belief that it was Allah who led Muhammad to the cave was so intense. But the impact of what I saw and learned about that breathtaking cave and the Prophet’s miraculous journey to its discovery was too strong to easily neutralize by my knowledge that this miracle, like anything else, is easy for Allah to do.
And it was in the cave in the month of Ramadhan that the angel Gabriel came to Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. with the first message. There are differing opinions on which was the first verse that was revealed in that fateful meeting but majority was of the opinion that it was that of the first verse of Al-'Alaq (The Clot of Blood) based on the authentic hadith reported by Aisyah mentioned above and that of a hadith reported by Abdullah ibn Az-Zubair r.a. (related by At-Tabari).
Gabriel approached Prophet Muhammad saying "Read." When he answered he could not read, Gabriel embraced him and pressed him hard before releasing him. This sequence of actions repeated twice over before Gabriel recited, "Read in the Name of Your Lord who created. It is He who created man from clots of blood. Read! Your Lord is the most bounteous, Who has taught the use of the pen. He has taught man what he did not know."
I shall stop the sequence of events here instead of going further to describe the Prophet's s.a.w. reaction. Instead, let us reflect for a minute on the significance of this moment.
1. Sayyid Qutb wrote in "In the Shade of the Qur'an":
This great event began to bear on the life of humanity as a whole right from the first moment. It marked a change in the course of history...It specified the source man should look up to in order to derive his ideas, values and criteria. The source is heaven and the divine revelations, not this world and man's own desires...Clear and permanent guidelines were established which cannot be changed by the passage of time or effaced by events.
2. In Sahih Muslim:
Anas related that Abu Bakr said to Umar after the death the Prophet: 'Let us go and visit Umm Ayman as the Prophet used to do.' When they went to her she burst into tears. They said: 'What are you crying for? Do you not realise that Allah's company is far better for the Prophet?' She replied: 'This is true, I am sure. I am only crying because revelation has ceased with his death.' This made tears spring to their eyes and the three of them cried together.
The significance of that first instance of prophethood and messengership is the direct word of Allah to us. For twenty three years, the Prophet and his Companions lived, guided by those words. For that period, there was a bridge between our world and the divine, one that shaped the first Muslim generation to be the best of generations. The impact of the Quran was so significant because the Companions let themselves be guided by it.
3. The choice of the first verses revealed matched the intellectual capacity of its target audience well. In it is information of three things
a. The creation of man
b. The transmission of knowledge
c. Most significantly, the author of both.
The Qur'an transformed a people (the Arabs) from an oral culture and tradition to those of letter and writing. The first university in the world was in the Islamic world and the library in Baghdad at the height of the Islamic civilisation was impressive. The Islamic civilisation produced scholars who excelled in many different branches of knowledge.
All of these stemmed from that first meeting between the Prophet Muhammad and Gabriel.
