The First Revelation: Divine Choice And The Command To Read

The First Revelation: Read in the Name of Your Lord

These ayat which I recited are the first five ayat of Surah Al-'Alaq. And these ayat, according to all the scholars, were the first revelation that came down to the Prophet ﷺ. The very first ever revelation that came down were these five verses.

The Prophet ﷺ — in fact, any prophet — prophethood, we should say, is not something that could be acquired by a person's own efforts. It's not like a status or a rank that if a person works very hard over a number of years, he'll be able to achieve or acquire. It's something that is purely the gift of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah ta'ala chooses.

That's why in many cases you'll find that a prophet, at the time when prophethood is being given to him, it's not something that he knew beforehand. So for example, it comes in the hadith of Aisha radiyaAllahu ta'ala anha, narrated in Sahih Al-Bukhari, that six months prior to prophethood, Nabi ﷺ had this internal desire to go and seclude himself. So he would go to the cave of Hira — which we now know today as Ghar-e-Hira, the cave of Hira. And for six months before, this desire came within his heart to go seclude himself, to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But it wasn't that he went there knowing that he's going to get prophethood. That was not the case.

The Example of Musa ﷺ

Same thing in the story of Musa ﷺ. Very clearly we see that when Musa ﷺ was traveling at night back to Misr and he sees a fire — إِنِّي آنَسْتُ نَارًا — he didn't go there knowing that he's going to become a prophet. He was completely unaware. And when he went there, at that time Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said to him:

"O Musa, I am your Lord speaking to you. You are in the sacred valley of Tuwa. Remove your shoes. I have chosen you, so listen now carefully to what I have to say."

In another place Allah ta'ala says to Musa ﷺ:

"I have prepared you, I have made you for Me, for My work."

So same thing with the Prophet ﷺ. When Nabi ﷺ went to Ghar-e-Hira, he didn't go thinking that he'd become a Prophet. But this is from Allah ﷻ:

Allah ﷻ chooses whoever He wishes, from the people and from the angels, and He sends them as His messengers.

The First Word of Revelation: اقرأ

And so in the narration it comes that when the Prophet ﷺ was there and the angel came, the angel said, "Read." Nabi ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3)

"I can't read." Nabi ﷺ didn't know how to read and write. And this was part of the mu'jiza as well. Here you have a person who doesn't know how to read and write, yet when he speaks, when he recites the kalam of Allah ta'ala, it's so profound. That was a sign that this is a messenger of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is not the statement of a human being. This is not something that a human being could come up with.

And so after this happened three times — where the angel said اقْرَأْ, "Read," and he said مَا أَنَا بِقَارِئٍ, "I can't read, I don't know how to recite" — and then Jibreel ﷺ squeezed him so hard, so much, that it's like all his energy left him. And this happened three times. And after the third time, the ayah came down:

"Read in the name of your Lord." Which is very interesting — the very first revelation, the very first word that came, is read.

The True Goal of Education

Most individuals today will use this and say, "Look, this is promoting education. We have to be well educated. So you should get a degree. You should have a master's. You should be a PhD. Look, it's encouraging education."

And so know that, yes, we have no problem with education. But what's the goal of education? That's the key here. What is the goal of education? Whatever it may be — whether you are going into science, math, engineering, medicine — whatever the field you're going in, what is the objective of that education? It is not that at the end of it, you have some sort of paper, some sort of degree that you could flaunt in front of other people that "I've become this." Or even whether it's religious studies — a person goes into an Islamic seminary and they're studying the deen of Allah ta'ala, they become a scholar — it's not so that you could show a paper and say, "Look, I'm a scholar, I have a degree." That's not the objective.

What is the objective?

It is to recognize who Allah is. Your education, what you study, what you learn, should allow you to recognize who created you. If it's not doing that, that education is limited to just this dunya — that's when it becomes dunyawi, that's when it becomes for the material world.

So no matter what — whether we're studying medicine, whether we're studying engineering — it should allow you to recognize Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I often used to think, even in high school and college, when I used to take any of these classes, I used to say to myself: how is it that a person takes these classes and does not recognize Allah? How is it? You're sitting in, for example, biology, and you're learning the intricacies of the human body. You have the smallest part of the human body — the cell — how it's composed, how it's beautifully composed, that within it you have small little organs, organelles, how they function together. That's amazing. And how is it that after studying this, you would say, "No, we were evolved. There's no creator."

Do you ever pass by anything, and you look at it and you marvel at it, and the thought comes: "Yeah, this just came up by itself"? You marvel at the engineering behind it, the engineers who constructed it. So if you ever pass by, mashallah, you see a seminary, you see how beautiful — what feat of engineering must have gone in to the construction of something like this? Whether it's any masjid, whether it's any building — you take the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. No one, no matter who he or she is, looks at it and thinks in the back of their mind, "This just came up from nowhere." Everyone who looks at it recognizes that this is an amazing feat of engineering, and that whoever did this must have had a mastery in it. But yet, when we look at the world around us and within us, how is it that a person doesn't recognize Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?

"We will soon show them Our signs, in the world around, and within themselves, so they recognize Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala." But now it's a matter of either ignoring it, or actually taking it in and marveling.

How the Believer Looks at the World

The people of Allah, the believer — how does he look at the world? How does he look at himself? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:

They remember Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There are only three states that you could be in — you could either be standing, sitting, or lying down. But the idea is, no matter what state the person is in, he's always remembering Allah: يَذْكُرُونَ اللَّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمْ. Then what does Allah ta'ala say? وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ — and they reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth. Then they say: رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَٰذَا بَاطِلًا — "Ya Allah, whatever You created, this is not something for no use. There's a purpose behind it, and everything is so intricate." The result should be that you marvel, you recognize Allah, and then say: فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ — "Ya Allah, protect me, save me from the punishment of Jahannam." That should be the result.

Education Must Lead to the Recognition and Worship of Allah

So our education — we have to keep this in mind. Whatever we're studying, whether it's the deen of Allah ta'ala or whether it's anything else, it should increase you in the recognition of Allah. And the purpose of recognition of Allah is what? The worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That a person worships Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's what he was created for.

"I did not create jinn and mankind except that they worship Me — that they worship Me, they recognize Me." That's why in the tafsir of this ayah, it is reported from Abdullah ibn Abbas radiyallahu anhuma, he says: إِلَّا لِيَعْرِفُونِ — "Except that they recognize Me." Why? Because actual recognition, true recognition, results in worship.

I usually give an example to understand this. Let's say you have a scholar that comes in — a great senior scholar — but nobody knows him. He could be sitting in your midst and you have no idea. If you don't know about him, if you don't know who he is, how are you going to benefit from him? You're not. You'll see him pass by, maybe you'll say salam, maybe you won't. But if somebody now tells you, "Oh, you know what, he's the sheikh of such and such place, he's written volumes, he has deep insight into the Quran and hadith" — all of a sudden what happens? Your whole perspective, your whole attitude completely changes. The way you meet him, the way you greet him, the way you sit with him — you look at every moment as an opportunity to benefit from him now. But if you didn't know, he would just pass by and you would think he's any musalli visiting and praying salah here.

That person who doesn't know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and who doesn't make an effort to recognize Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala — how is he going to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Then the actions that we're doing just become mundane. They just become cookie-cut actions: "I just have to pray salah, this is what I'm expected to do." So it becomes like a cultural thing.

Are We Doing Ibadah for Allah, or for Culture?

Our Jum'ahs — how many of us actually come to Jum'ah with the idea that "I'm praying to Allah, I'm congregating for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala," because Allah ta'ala says:

"O you who believe, when the call to prayer is made on the day of Jumu'ah, hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off trade." Am I doing it for that reason? Or is it because it's a cultural norm — "We Muslims have to do it, we take pride in it"?

How many of us fast in the month of Ramadan saying, "This is a fast for the sake of Allah, I'm holding myself back from eating and drinking, from committing any type of haram action. Why? Because Allah is watching me. He's the one who ordered me to do this." How many of our sisters are wearing hijab — why? Because this is the command of Allah. Or is it just something cultural? No — we don't do it because it's our culture. We do it because it's the ibadah of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

If we are good to our neighbors, it's not because this is the morally right action that our society has told us. No — if I'm being good to my neighbor, if I'm being good with other individuals, it's because Allah commanded me to. That's why Nabi ﷺ says:

He connected "don't harm your neighbor" to: مَنْ كَانَ يُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ — "If you believe in Allah and you believe in the hereafter, then don't harm your neighbor." It's not because it's the morally right thing, it's not because it's what society is telling us to do. No — I'm doing it because Allah and His Rasul commanded me to do it. That's it.

The Example of Uthman رضي الله عنه at Hudaybiyyah

I was reading the other day in the book Al-Shamail Al-Muhammadiyyah, compiled by Imam Al-Tirmidhi r.a. The chapter was on the izar of the Prophet ﷺ — the lower garment of the Prophet ﷺ. One sahabi said: while I was walking, someone came from behind and said, اِرْفَعْ إِزَارَكَ — "Raise your lower garment." When I turned around, it was the Prophet ﷺ. The sahabi thought that maybe Rasulullah ﷺ was saying this so that it doesn't drag and get dirty. He said, "Ya Rasulullah, this izar is black and white in color, it's old — even if it gets dirty, it's not a big deal." The Prophet ﷺ said: مَا لَكَ فِيَّ أُسْوَةٌ — "Do you not have an example in me?" He said: "I looked at the Prophet ﷺ and I saw that his izar was above his ankles, between the shins." So I pulled it up.

There is a related story mentioned concerning the events of Hudaybiyyah — when the Prophet ﷺ and the sahaba رضي الله عنهم أجمعين were in Hudaybiyyah. They had come with the intention of performing umrah, but they were blocked. To let the people of Makkah know — to let the Quraysh know — that they were not there to fight, he sent Uthman رضي الله عنه. Initially Nabi ﷺ had thought of sending Umar رضي الله عنه, but Umar رضي الله عنه said, "Ya Rasulullah, I don't have many family there to support me. Send Uthman — he has family there, he is very respected among them, they will listen to him. Whatever message you want to send, send it through Uthman رضي الله عنه."

So Uthman رضي الله عنه went — and of course they were all in ihram, because they had the intention of doing umrah. As soon as he entered, one of his relatives came along with other members of the family and said, "Look, you have our protection. No one's going to do anything to you." Even though they were not Muslim, because it was a tribal society, the values they had for family were ingrained within them — so even though he was a Muslim, the fact that he was a family member meant "no, we're going to give you support."

Some of the family members said, "Look, you're about to speak to the leaders of the Quraysh. You're going to tell them the message of Muhammad ﷺ. So if you want your voice to be heard, you should lower your garment." Because this was not common — the Meccans had the habit of dragging their clothes. So he said:

هَكَذَا أَزَرَ حَبِيبِي — "This is how my habib ﷺ, my companion Muhammad ﷺ, keeps it. I'm not going to change it for anyone. Let them be the leaders of the Quraysh — I'm not going to change it for them. If this is what Rasulullah ﷺ taught me, if this is what Allah taught me, then that's what I'm going to stick to. I don't care what the world has to say to me."

Seeking Allah's Validation Over the World's Validation

Today, we are so enamored by everyone else and what everyone else is doing, but we forget about Allah. We're so worried about the validation of other people. "What is so-and-so going to say if I pray in front of them? What is so-and-so going to say if I wear the hijab? What is so-and-so going to say if I say the name of Allah?" We're so worried. But we forget: what does Allah have to say? Do I have Allah's validation? Do I have Allah's maqbuliyyah or not? That's more important.

This life of this world is very short. It doesn't matter whether you're old or whether you're young — one day we all have to go. And when we go there, when we see that place, this dunya will seem like a dream. It will seem like it was a day:

Someone will say, "I thought we just stayed in the dunya for a day." Even if he lived a hundred years, he will say on the Day of Judgment: it felt like a day.

May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us tawfiq — myself first and everyone here — that we value what we have. We value what we have in our education. Our ta'lim should lead us to the recognition of Allah and the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.