roaring of the young camel.' 'Umar ibnu'l Khattab says: "When inspiration
descended on the Apostle of God, there used to be heard near his face as it were the
buzzing 1 of bees."
Somewhat similarly we read in the Turkish work, Mir'at i Ka' inat: "When 2
inspiration came with a message of threatening and warning, it descended with a terrible
sound like that of a bell .... On the authority of Abu Hurairah, too, it is related that,
when inspiration descended on the Apostle, they used to bathe his sacred head with henna,
because of the headache that used to come on."
In the Turkish Insanu'l 'Uyun of 'Al' Halabi we read: "Zaid ibn Thabit
relates: 'When inspiration descended on the Prophet, he became very heavy. Once his leg
fell upon mine, and, by God, there is no such heavy leg as was that of the Apostle of God.
Sometimes a revelation would come to him when he was on his camel. Then it shuddered as if
it would collapse, and it usually knelt down .... As often as the Prophet received
inspiration, it seemed as if his soul were being taken from him, for he had always a kind
of swoon and looked like one intoxicated."
These strange phenomena did not begin in Muhammad's case only just before he claimed to
be a Prophet. Of his childhood we know only a few facts, but one of them is that, when he
was quite a young boy, living in the desert with his foster-parents, something similar
occurred. The story is differently told by different authorities, but Muslim's account is
this, based on a Tradition handed down from Anas: "As 3 for the Apostle of
God, Gabriel came to him while he was playing with the (other) lads. He took him and threw
(فَصَرَعَهُ) him
on the ground and split his heart. Then he took out of it a drop of clotted
blood, and said, 'This is Satan's portion of thee.' Then he washed it (the heart) in a
basin of gold, in Zamzam-water, then
|