Section: The Manner in Which Revelation Came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ

We have already described how Gabriel came to him the first time and again the second time.

Mālik (1) narrates, on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—that al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, saying, “O Messenger of Allah, how does revelation come to you?” He replied:

“Sometimes it comes to me like the clanging of a bell—and that is the hardest upon me—then it departs and I have retained what was said. At other times the angel appears to me in the form of a man, speaks to me, and I grasp what he says.”

ʿĀʾishah added, “I have seen revelation descend upon him ﷺ on an intensely cold day; when it had left him, sweat was streaming from his brow.”

The two Ṣaḥīḥs record this report through Mālik (3).

Imām Aḥmad (4) also transmitted it through ʿĀmir ibn Ṣāliḥ, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, with the same purport. It was likewise related by ʿAbdah ibn Sulaymān and Anas ibn ʿIyāḍ from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah.

Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī narrated it from Hishām, from his father, from al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām, who said, “I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, ‘How does revelation come to you?’” He mentioned the account but did not cite ʿĀʾishah.

In the ḥadīth of the Slander (5) ʿĀʾishah relates: “By Allah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not stir from his place, nor did anyone from the household leave, until the revelation came down upon him. He was seized by that agony which would overtake him, so that beads of sweat like pearls dripped from him, though it was a wintry day, because of the weight of the revelation that had descended upon him.”

Imām Aḥmad (6) said: ʿAbd al-Raz̩z̩āq narrated to us; he informed me that Yūnus ibn Sulaym said: Yūnus ibn Yazīd dictated to me, from Ibn Shihāb, from ʿUrwah, from (7) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbdin al-Qārī, who said: “I heard ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb say: ‘There used to be …’”