It is kinda fascinating to know that every event in the history of our Prophets (peace be upon them) has wisdoms in it in every detail of the storyline, no matter how insignificant it looks. Every situation and every condition arranged by God Almighty have something to convey for us to think and reflect on.
Tonight’s reading, I learned that the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) ’s state of self when receiving the first divine revelation in the Hira’ cave of Mount Nour by the Angel Jibril also has a great lesson for the ummah.
IQRA’
“Read! In the name of your Lord, who created. Created the man from a clinging substance. Read, and your Lord is The Most Generous. Who taught by the pen. Taught man that which he knew not.” (Al-‘Alaq 96 :1-5)
These were the very first revelation that’s already symbolical in a way that it’s telling us ‘to read’ that directly means ‘to learn’ because learning has the greatest importance in human life. It’s a clear message everyone must get wind of.
But then if we learned more, the history told us that it was first really hard for Prophet Muhammad s.a.w to recite the first ayaat until that Angel Jibril had to repeat it for a few times and he (s.a.w) still couldn’t. Prophet s.a.w, being unlettered and frightened of the extraordinary event, had been saying that ‘I cannot read’, until the Angel embraced him and then only he s.a.w began to recite those revealed words.
QURANIC WISDOM
From the book Quranic Wisdom that I read tonight, it says that this story gives a great lesson for us all : a lesson of struggle. The struggle to read and learn.
Just imagine how difficult for him, our beloved Prophet s.a.w., to utter the first piece of guidance but he s.a.w. did it anyway with all the struggle at that time. The strange event should be interpreted as meaning : “Read even if you cannot read, learn even if you cannot learn.”
It shows how obligatory it is for us to learn, to seek knowledge from the beginning with no retirement. Learning is not only a job for students, we are actually a student for life. A learner. Seeking knowledge should always be in our agenda no matter what priorities we’re currently in. Be it the work, the growing families, businesses, etc, learning should also be our priority especially; in learning the knowledge of the religion.
READ
And reading is the key to learning. One has to read a lot for the minds to grow. Alhamdulillah reading has been a hobby of mine but I thought it was just a hobby. As I grow older, I can feel that reading helps me a lot in acquiring wisdoms in every life event that I experienced. It helps me progress, biiznillah.
Many told me that they struggled with reading as it’s never been their thing. My response was usually well, it’s just not your hobby. But now after learning about this prophetic event, what can I say… just look at our Prophet s.a.w. for what he’s been through, it has been a struggle ever since the beginning of time. A different kind of struggle these days, yes, but what is our excuse?
DIVINE MESSAGE
The story could be the other way around. It could have been that it was calm and serene for him s.a.w. in receiving the first ceremonial revelation but that’s not how Allah s.w.t planned it for him. It was difficult, complicated, and frightening. The scene was actually very special in it’s kind, but without some sort of reflection we could think that it was trivial or normal somehow for a human being suddenly seeing an angel coming down for the first time, that must be strange and the reaction made sense. But it’s not just that. There was a divine message we gotta pay attention to.
Hence, no matter what, iqra’!
As ever,
SALZY
Salzy Mommyhood 