Lesson 9

When the angel Gabriel brought the first revelation to the Prophet Muhammad (s)
it contained the first five verses of Surah 96:
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Read in the name of your Lord who created - who created the human being from an embryo.
Read, and your Lord is most noble - who taught by means of the pen - taught the human being what he did not know.
 
  • The Dhâl sounds like a soft voiced th as in the Englisch word "that".
  • The Ghayn is pronounced in the throat as a sound somewhere between g ("garden") and r.
Perhaps you are surprised that this first passage of the revelation is not on the very first pages of the Qur'an but rather far back. The Qur'an was not written down chronologically as it was revealed but arranged in such a way that people are able to learn from it step by step even if they are not scholars. For scholars, however, it is also important to know the history to which each passage is linked.

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