Stories from Early Islam — Page 13
13 From his childhood, Muhammad was content, quiet and given to reflection and meditation. He took no part in quarrels and rivalries, rather he tried to put an end to them. He was pious, truthful and honest so much so that he was given the titles of As-Siddeeq ‘the truthful one’ and Al-Ameen, ‘the trusted one’, by the people. As he grew up, he was greatly concerned about the vices and ills of the society in which he lived. He loved soli- tude and used to retire for meditation to a hollow in the moun- tain called Hira, a few miles out of Makkah. At the age of forty he received a revelation from God that he had been appointed a Prophet whose duty it was to reform mankind. One day when he was meditating in the hollow, he heard a voice commanding him to recite. He was much perturbed. He replied that he did not know how to recite. The voice insisted and so Muhammad began to recite as he was instructed. Revelation was a new expe- rience for him. He was full of anxiety because of the responsi- bility which God was about to place on him. He went home