According to Karen Armstrong's historical treatise on Islam, Muhammad received his first divine revelations from Allah in the month of Ramadan in 610 CE. In all, Muhammad received the Quran 'verse by verse, surah by surah' from Allah in the space of twenty-one years. His initial encounter with Allah was characterized by a 'devastating presence' which overpowered his whole being.
As with Moses and Abraham's experience, divine revelation came to Muhammad during a period of great societal and political unrest. At the time of his encounter with Allah, Muhammad had belonged to the Quraysh tribe. When he started to preach in 612 CE, members of his tribe fretted that he was bastardizing secular, tribal culture by incorporating Judeo-Christian religious tenets into Arab civilization. Chief among the concerns was that Muhammad was now preaching a Final Judgment, where men would be judged by their earthly actions before the throne of God. Members of the Quraysh tribe who favored wealth above all else, strongly objected to this new religion, Islam.
However, Muhammad was not to be deterred. With seventy Muslim families, Muhammad made the hijrah or migration from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. The new faith had shaken the foundations of Arab society to its core. In time, Muhammad and his followers were able to defeat the secular, Arab forces at Mecca; from 632-634 CE, Muhammad's successor, Abu Bakr, was able to finally unite all the various tribes of Arabia under one leader.
Muhammad's encounter with Allah was meant to reinforce the divine revelations both Moses and Abraham received from their own encounters with God. As for differences, Moses' encounter with God before the Burning Bush involved a physical manifestation of divine presence, while Muhammad's encounter with God was more of a mystical experience. However, the divine revelations both Moses and Abraham received characterized providential assistance during moments of historical significance. For example, in the 'Quranic vision, there is no dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, the religious and the political, sexuality and worship,' and Muhammad received much of what comprises the Quran as answers to the societal and political concerns of his time.
His life had thus represented a constant dialogue between transcendent reality and the violent, puzzling, and disturbing happenings of the mundane world. The Quran had therefore, followed public and current events, bringing divine guidance and illumination to politics.
Likewise, in Moses' experience, divine revelation consisted of specific instructions on how to navigate the political complexities of winning freedom for the Jewish people from their Egyptian slave masters. Like Muhammad, Moses was to go on a journey as part of the divine plan.
In Genesis 11 and 12, Abraham also received direct instruction from God; he was to take his family from Haran to Canaan. The Bible says that God appeared directly to Abraham to inform him that He would make a great nation out of Abraham's descendants. Interestingly, Muhammad, Moses, and Abraham were all to make propitious journeys away from their original homes in order to carry out the dictates of Providence: while Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, Abraham took his family away from Haran and Ur, and Muhammad fled Mecca with seventy Muslim families who supported his divine mission. As Muhammad had strongly maintained during his life, he had not come to 'cancel the older religions, to contradict their prophets, or to start a new faith.'
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