Imām Aḥmad related:

1. Abū Saʿīd, the client of Banī Hāshim, told us; ʿImrān Abū al-ʿAwwām narrated to us from Qatādah, from Abū al-Malīḥ, from Wāthilah b. al-Asqaʿ that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

   “The Scriptures of Abraham were sent down on the first night of Ramaḍān; the Torah after six nights of Ramaḍān had passed; the Gospel after thirteen nights had gone by; and the Qur’an after twenty-four nights of Ramaḍān had elapsed.”

Ibn Mardawayh also transmitted a similar report in his Tafsīr from Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh. On that basis a number of Companions and Successors held that Laylat al-Qadr is the night of the twenty-fourth.

When Gabriel said, “Recite,” and the Prophet replied, “I am not a reader,” the sound opinion is that his words constitute a denial, meaning, “I am not someone who knows how to read.” This is the position favored by al-Nawawī and, before him, Shaykh Abū Shāmah. Those who took it as an interrogative—“What shall I read?”—are far-fetched, for the preposition bāʾ is not added in affirmative speech.

Supporting the first view is the report recorded by Abū Nuʿaym, through al-Muʿtamir b. Sulaymān from his father: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ, trembling with fear, said, “I have never read a book at all, nor am I skilled in it; I neither write nor read.” Gabriel then seized him and squeezed him with a mighty squeeze, released him, and said, “Recite.” The Prophet replied, “I see nothing to recite. I do not read or write.” (The wording alternates between “he pressed me,” “he grasped me,” and “he had already gripped me,” meaning he choked me) “until my strength was nearly spent”—the verb is transmitted with a hard or soft g, in the accusative or nominative—and he did that to him three times.

Abū Sulaymān al-Khaṭṭābī said: Gabriel treated him so in order to test his endurance, refine his discipline, and accustom him to the burdens of prophethood. For that reason states akin to fever would overtake him, and perspiration—meaning labored breathing and sweat—would break out upon him.

Others added further reasons: one was to awaken him to the gravity of what would be imparted after such a trying ordeal, as the Exalted says, “Indeed, We shall soon cast upon you a weighty word” (al-Muzzammil 73:5). Hence, whenever revelation came to him ﷺ, his face would flush red, a sound like the groaning of a young camel would issue from him, and beads of sweat would trickle down his forehead even on the coldest day.

The phrase “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned to Khadījah with his heart trembling” is also reported as “with his bawādir trembling,” bawādir being the plural of bādirah. Abū ʿUbaydah explained that it is the piece of flesh between the shoulder and the neck, while others said it refers to the veins that throb in fright.