[Sidenote: Scene on Mount Hira.] It was Mohammed's custom--one not uncommon in Arabia at that time--to retire for a fixed season each year to the seclusion of the rocks and ravines which encircled Mecca. One of these in particular, a cave in Mount Hira, was a favourite resort--a wild, bleak, barren spot, in harmony with troubled heart and wounded spirit. And some suras (i.e. chapters) of the Korân, almost certainly composed at this time, reveal an intensity of anguish and also a growing sense of the reality of God--the following for example: 'BY THE RUSHING PANTING STEEDS, STRIKING FIRE WITH FLASHING HOOF, THAT SCOUR THE LAND AT EARLY MORN; AND, DARKENING IT WITH DUST, CLEAVE THEREBY THE ENEMY: VERILY MAN IS TO HIS LORD UNGRATEFUL, AND HE HIMSELF IS WITNESS OF IT: VERILY HE is KEEN AFTER THIS WORLD'S GOOD. AH! WITTETH HE NOT THAT WHEN WHAT IS IN THE GRAVES SHALL BE BROUGHT FORTH, AND THAT WHICH IS IN MEN'S BREASTS LAID BARE:-- VERILY IN THAT DAY SHALL THE LORD BE WELL INFORMED OF THEM.' To this cave Mohammed had come with his trusted wife, in his fortieth year, to {35} spend the month Ramadân in undisturbed meditation; in wrestling, we may believe, with his own heart, and in contemplating the eternal problem of the world's sin and sorrow. There, in the midst of prayers and supplications, the light of revelation seemed suddenly to burst upon him. It was midnight in the cave when a glorious angel appeared first in the sky, then approached within two bow-shots' length, holding a silken cloth written all over. The angel roused him from sleep and bade him 'Read.' 'But I am not a reader,' Mohammed replied. Thrice was the injunction repeated, the third time in these words: 'READ, IN THE NAME OF THE LORD WHO CREATED, CREATED MAN FROM A CLOT OF BLOOD. READ, FOR THE LORD IS THE MOST BENEFICENT, HE HATH TAUGHT THE USE OF THE PEN; HE HATH TAUGHT MAN THAT WHICH HE KNOWETH NOT.' Then Mohammed repeated the words to himself, and they were 'written upon his heart.' Then, we are told, he went to the door of the cave, and remained standing there till again there appeared his heavenly visitant, 'in the form of a man, with wings, {36} and with his feet upon the horizon,' and saluted him: 'Mohammed, thou art the Prophet of God, and I am Gabriel.' Trembling and overstrung, Mohammed returned to Khadîjah, and nestling close beside her like a frightened child related what had passed. 'Cover me, cover me,' he said. 'I fear for my soul.' She covered him with a mantle and comforted him, saying: 'Rejoice: God will not put you to shame; thou art so kind to thy relations, sincere in thy words, afraid of no trouble to serve thy neighbour, supporting the poor, given to hospitality, and defending the truth.'