ABSTRACT
The angel Gabriel first came to Muhammad in a cave on Mount Hira during the holy month of Ramadan in 610 C.E. Muhammad was forty years old at the time, married to a deeply devoted wife named Khadija, and father to several children, stepchildren, and foster children. He was a well-respected merchant in the city of Mecca, and although he had started life as an orphan he made up for that familial deficit with his trustworthy behavior and fair-minded dealings with others, earning the nickname “the reliable one.” He was also observant of the traditional religious practices of his people. He gave alms to the poor, participated in public ceremonies, and made frequent circumambulations (
tawaf)
of the Ka’ba, the holiest shrine in all Arabia. Inside the Ka’ba, embedded in its southeast wall, resided the Black Stone (
al-hajar al-aswad
), an object about a foot across that, according to tradition, fell from the heavens many ages ago. Worshippers at the Ka’ba would walk around the temple to the right, countersun-wise, time after time after time, periodically stopping to kiss and bow to the Black Stone. Throughout his life Muhammad regularly practiced the
tawaf
, and he also participated in the rituals devoted to the various divinities associated with the Ka’ba (one of whom was the creator god Allah). Muhammad may have been poor and fatherless, but no one could deny that he was as pious, faithful, and god-fearing as any of the wealthier tribal leaders of the city.
