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Allah, exalted is He, says:
“Do not move your tongue with it, trying to hasten it. Surely upon Us rests its collection and its recitation. So when We have recited it, follow its recitation; then, indeed, upon Us rests its clarification.” (Q 75:16–19)

And He, the Most High, says:
“Do not rush with the Qur’an before its revelation to you is completed, and say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge.’” (Q 20:114)

This occurred at the outset of revelation. Because of the Prophet’s intense eagerness ﷺ to receive from the angel everything that was being revealed from Allah, he would seek to keep pace with him in recitation. Allah therefore commanded him to listen in silence until the revelation was concluded, promising that He would gather it in the Prophet’s heart, make its recitation and conveyance easy for him, clarify its meanings, interpret it, and acquaint him with its intent.

Hence His words: “Exalted, then, is Allah—the True Sovereign. Do not rush with the Qur’an before its revelation to you is completed, and say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge.’” (Q 20:114)

And His words: “Do not move your tongue with it to hasten it. Surely upon Us rests its collection”—that is, in your breast—“and its recitation,” meaning that you will recite it. “So when We have recited it,” i.e., when the angel has recited it to you, “follow its recitation”: listen attentively and ponder it. “Then, indeed, upon Us rests its clarification.” (Q 75:16–19) This mirrors His statement, “And say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge.’”

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs it is related—from Mūsā ibn Abī ʿĀʾishah, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ endured great difficulty when revelation came down; he would move his lips. Allah therefore revealed: “Do not move your tongue with it to hasten it. Surely upon Us rests its collection and its recitation,” meaning: its collection in your breast; then you will recite it—“So when We have recited it, follow its recitation,” listen attentively and be silent—“then, indeed, upon Us rests its clarification.” Ibn ʿAbbās added: “Thus, when Gabriel came to him, he would lower his head, and when the angel departed he would recite it exactly as Allah had promised him.”

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Ibn Isḥāq said: “Revelation thereafter came in close succession to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he held as true whatever reached him from it. He accepted it wholeheartedly and bore from it what he was charged to bear, whether people were pleased or displeased. Prophethood is weighty and demanding; none can shoulder it or stand firm under it except those messengers of fortitude and resolve, by Allah’s aid and enabling, in the face of what they meet from the people and the rejection of what they bring from Allah. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ thus proceeded with what Allah had commanded him, despite the opposition and harm he met from his people.”

Ibn Isḥāq also said: “Khadījah bint Khuwaylid believed and affirmed what came to him from Allah. She supported him in his mission and was the first to believe in Allah and His Messenger and to attest to what had come from Him. Through her, Allah lightened the burden upon His Messenger; whenever he heard anything—”