He said: Then the following was revealed: “O you wrapped in your cloak, arise and warn, and magnify your Lord.”’”’”

This hadith agrees with the preceding one: Sūrat al-Muddaththir was revealed after he had descended from the mountain, while he was walking, and after the angel had called out to him. In the other narration, he explained that this angel was the one who had come to him at Hirā’. ‘Ā’ishah explained that “Read” was revealed at that time in the cave of Hirā’.

It seems, however, that he did not know that “Read” had been revealed then. He only knew that the Prophet had seen the angel before that; yet he could have seen him without hearing from him. ‘Ā’ishah’s hadith, however, provides additional information: the angel’s command that he recite “Read.”

In al-Zuhrī’s narration, he called this the “pause in revelation,” an expression also found in ‘Ā’ishah’s hadith. Al-Zuhrī may therefore have paraphrased Jābir’s hadith, calling the interval between the two sightings the “pause in revelation,” as ‘Ā’ishah explained it. Otherwise, if Jābir himself called it the “pause in revelation,” how could he say that no revelation had yet come down?

In any event, al-Zuhrī possessed both ‘Urwah’s hadith from ‘Ā’ishah and Abū Salamah’s hadith from Jābir. Should he and Yahyā ibn Abī Kathīr differ, al-Zuhrī has broader knowledge and a stronger memory. Yahyā, however, mentioned that he had asked Abū Salamah about the first revelation. Jābir thus related what he knew, not having known what had been revealed before that, whereas ‘Ā’ishah established and clarified the matter.