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With that,
angel vanished.
In stunned exaltation, Muhammad went and told Khadija what had happened. She embraced him and unequivocally expressed her faith in his vision and his mission, saying, 'Rejoice, dear husband. He who holds in His hands life of Khadija is my witness that thou wilt be messenger of His people.'
But Muhammad could not accept his own vision. How could he, an ordinary man so far from perfection, be such a messenger? He feared that he might be deluded or perhaps insane. Days passed. He waited for another sign, for further confirmation so that he might believe in himself and know how to proceed. But no sign came.
At last, he returned to cave on Mount Hira, seeking angel Gabriel. He waited and prayed, but to no avail. In despair, haunted by terrible doubts and assailed by fears of madness, Muhammad climbed onto a precipice and prepared to leap to his death. At that very moment, angel appeared before him again and, raising his hands, repeated, 'I am Gabriel, and thou art Muhammad, Messenger of Allah.' Muhammad froze on edge of chasm in a spellbound trance. Hours passed. That night one of Khadija's servants came and found Muhammad still perched on a crag, lost in ecstasy, and led him home.
After that event, Muhammad began to quietly spread revelation of his new faith among only a few close friends and family members. But in this tightly knit culture, word spread quickly. Before long, his persecution began--gossip, brutal beatings, plots against him, and attempts against his life. Over time, his honesty and virtue, words of scripture revealed through him, and mysterious workings of fate brought about conversions of several of Mecca's greatest warriors. All this greatly strengthened fledgling faith of Islam and drove fear into hearts of its enemies.
People demanded that he perform miracles as proof of his divine mission. Muhammad answered that he had not come to perform miracles; he had come to preach word of Allah. Challenged to move a mountain, he gazed toward it but it did not budge, so he spoke now-famous words demonstrating his wisdom, humor, and humility: 'If mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad will go to mountain.'
From beginning to end, Muhammad acknowledged himself as an ordinary man, full of faults and limitations--a man chosen by God, for reasons he did not understand, to deliver a new revelation of Islam, which means 'submission to God.' Islam required faith in God, charity, purity, and a life free of idols, lived with courage of a warrior in battle, with prayer as a cleansing immersion in His spirit.
The citizens of Mecca were roused to fury by Muhammad's attack on their cherished idols--and by his declaration that there was but one God, named Allah, and that he, Muhammad, was His prophet. Forced to flee across desert to city of Medina, he began his mission anew, once again a lonely prophet with a handful of followers in a city of unbelievers.
Over time, angel Gabriel revealed scripture to Muhammad, which he recited aloud and which Khadija and others wrote down. This scripture became known as Holy Koran (Quran). The Koran was Muhammad's defining miracle--the writing of this masterpiece of poetic religious scripture by a simple, semiliterate man might in itself have earned him fame as a prophet. But this feat was only one chapter in life of Muhammad.
Persecuted as a heretic for nearly two decades by people of Mecca {How was Khadija still alive if he spent almost two decades there? The math doesn't work, but perhaps semiliterate don't worry.}, including many of his own relatives and former friends, once young Bedouin became in old age a fearless military general. More than once, Mecca's army laid siege, seeking to destroy Medina, where Muhammad and his followers lived--their war would not end until Muhammad or Mecca fell. In final battle, while outnumbered three to one, but filled with power of Allah, Muhammad and his followers descended like a storm upon Meccan army and destroyed it. This battle turned tide.” (1)
The people who ridicule legends of Indians and natives aren't funny and it isn't right for me to do it either. Still it seems a poor role model to win followers by sword of Allah or Yahweh (Yahu) or Shiva. We are all paying price these story-tellers have wrought since day of Caliph Omar and Constantine who took fledgling new beliefs and built empires under their spell of ignorance. Omar said there was no need to read anything other than Koran as he commanded one of raids to destroy great library at Alexandria that housed all knowledge; we need to really know about our roots. Islam has much good and is less intolerant than other Ur Story based religions. The Caliphate still has its stranglehold on souls of people. It does not want people to have knowledge – so it encourages reading old books with limited meaning, as I see it.
Author of Diverse Druids Columnist for The ES Press Magazine Guest 'expert' at World-Mysteries.com
