Where did Muhammad receive the message?

Salam, James.

Thank you for your question.

God Almighty, the Creator of the universe, has not only created everything but also has provided the means to sustain everything properly. What we call "the laws of nature" are a part of this system of divine guidance.

But when God created humans who are intelligent beings, He gave them a special form of guidance suited for them through His chosen prophets, and the first prophet was the first man, Adam (peace be on him).

Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus (peace be on them all) were all prophets sent by God to guide their respective peoples along the right path.

And finally when the time was ripe, God completed His guidance through the last prophet, Muhammad (peace be on him).

In the Qur'an, God Almighty speaks to Muhammad:

*{We have sent thee revelation, as We sent it to Noah and the messengers after him: We sent revelation to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the tribes, to Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms.}* (An-Nisaa' 4:163)

From the above verse, we understand that God sent revelation to Muhammad as He did to other prophets.

From his early youth, Muhammad had earned the name Al-Ameen (Arabic for "the trustworthy one") from his people.

Guidance Is Revealed

When he was 40, he developed a habit of withdrawing to the solitude of a cave in Mount Hira which was close to the city of Makkah. He used to spend hours, sometimes days on end, meditating in the cave.

Once while he was in the cave, an imposing figure suddenly appeared before him and asked him to read a scroll held before him.

He was terribly frightened by this sudden appearance, and when the figure asked him to read again, he stammered saying that he had not learned how to read. But the figure, who was Gabriel, the angel of God, told him,

*{Read in the name of your Lord Who created; created man from a thing that clings. Read, for your Lord is the Most Generous; and He has taught by the pen; taught man what he knew not}* (Al-`Alaq 96:1-5)

These were the first revealed verses of the Qur'an, and thus started the revelation of the last Testament of God for mankind. Since the revelation of this verse, the Prophet's meditation in the Cave of Hira came to an end.

From then on, he was not to rest, for he had been chosen by God to be His last messenger on earth.

The Transformation of a Nation

Guided by divine revelation, Muhammad began preaching Islam when he was 40 years old. At that time, the Arabs were in the depths of ignorance and superstition; a set of mutually contending idolatrous tribes, who even buried their baby girls alive. But when the Prophet completed his mission in his 63rd year, they had become transformed into a unified nation of cultured people who were ready to make all and any sacrifices to help a needy brother.

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