Preaching by the Holy Prophet
The revelations stopped for some time. The Holy Prophet passed this time restlessness and anxiety, until one day, he saw angel Jibril again, in Sky seated on a chair. The Holy Prophet became frightened and rushed Home. He asked Khadija to cover him up. She covered him up, after which he received another revelation which said:
“O thou rapped up (in a mantle) ! Arise and deliver thy warning ! And thy Lord do thou magnify.” (74: 1-3)
In obedience to the command of Allah, the Holy Prophet invited his friends and relatives to the religion of Islam. He preached to them the Oneness of Allah and warned them of the consequences of following their evil ways But, he did not, at this stage, make any public announcement. He confined his message only to those of his close friends and relatives that he thought would give a favourable response.
The first person to believe in him was his wife, Khadija, who accepted his message without any hesitation. This was followed by the acceptance of Islam by ten year old, Ali, son of Abu Talib. The first freed slave to accept Islam was Zaid bin Haris. The first person to become a Muslim outside the prophet’s immediate family was his close friend, Hazrat Abu Bakr.
Within a period of three years, while the Holy Prophet was preaching his message in secret, about forty righteous and God-fearing people accepted Islam Among them were Usman, Talha, Zubair; Abdur Rahman bin Auf, Sa’ad bin Abi Waqas and Abdullah bin Masud.
These early converts were the people who had witnessed the Prophet’s PBUH private and public life very closely and had arrived at the conclusion that such A gentle and honest person could not mislead the people. Then came another revelation that said:
“And admonish thy nearest kinsmen”. (26:214)
In order to carry out this command, the Holy Prophet PBUH invited his relatives to his house and said to them: “Allah has ordered me to call you to Him, so who amongst you will help me in this affair and be my friend, my adviser and my deputy No one responded to the message except Ali, who said: “O Prophet of Allah! I shall be your helper I will fight him who fights you.
The people laughed and dispersed making fun of the Holy Prophet PBUH Soon afterwards he received another revelation through which the Holy Prophet was given the order to:
“Expound openly what thou art commanded, and turn away from those who join false gods with Allah.” (15:94)
Following this command, the Holy Prophet assembled the people of Makkah at the Safa hill and said to them: “O Quraish, if I were to tell you that a large army has collected on the other side of his mountain and is ready to attack you, would you believe me? They all sâid that they would, since they had never heard him tell a lie. But when he asked them to believe in one Allah and his Prophethood, they became angry and some of them shouted: “You have gone mad”. Abu Lahab, one of his uncles, said, “May Allah destroy you.
Did you assemble us for this?” After this, all of them dispersed The Holy Prophet now started to address the people in public and private gatherings and on approach routes to Makkah which were used by pilgrims the Holy city. His efforts were successful and people started embracing Islam.
