At the heart of Mecca stands a House. Allah showed Ibrâhîm (peace be upon him) its place.
With it came a command: “Do not associate anything with Me and purify My House.”
Yet his people set up idols around it: three hundred and sixty, on the day he ﷺ entered Mecca, years later.
That day he ﷺ recited: “Truth has come, and falsehood has departed.” But our story begins long before.
It is He who has sent among the unlettered a Messenger from themselves
reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book and wisdom -
although they were before in clear error -
The word is ummiyyîn, the unlettered: a people to whom no Book had yet been given.
And the man this book is about? Listen to what his own people said of him ﷺ, even those who fought him.
Years later, the emperor Heraclius questioned Abû Sufyân (may Allah be pleased with him), then still his enemy.
“Did you accuse him of lying before he said what he said?” Abû Sufyân answered: “No.”
The emperor concluded: a man who would not lie about people would not lie about Allah.
Later, on the hill of Safâ, Quraysh told him ﷺ so themselves: “We have only ever known truth from you.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was forty years old when revelation came to him, in the best-known report.
He then stayed thirteen years in Mecca, says Ibn 'Abbâs, and ten in Medina. This book stays at the very beginning.
'Â'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) said: revelation began for him with true dreams in his sleep.
He never saw a dream but that it came true, as clear as the break of day.
Notice her words: for 'Â'isha, these dreams were already the beginning of revelation.
He ﷺ later said: “The good dream of a righteous man is one of forty-six parts of prophethood.”
He ﷺ said: “I know a stone in Mecca that used to greet me before I was sent.”
“And I know it even now.” One stone, that he ﷺ still recognised years later.
Before the cave, there was a city, a House, and a man whose word everyone trusted.
What was Mecca like, and who was he ﷺ, before the first word came down?
A House surrounded by idols, a people without a Book, and one man known for telling the truth.
Tonight, think of one thing you promised this week, and keep it before you sleep.