Excerpt: As written previously, because of his uncompromising stand on Hanifite movement and because of his deriding remarks on paganism, the Quraysh expelled Zayd b. Amr from Mecca and he was forbidden to live there. He was a severely ostracised person, boycotted and utterly disdained by the larger section of the Quraysh. He had to live in the cave of mount Hira , opposite the city. Muhammad, being a forlorn person at that time used to meet Zayd in the cave of Hira . Ibn Ishaq also writes that Gabriel used to visit Muhammad at the Hira cave. When we consider the fact that on many instances Muhammad had confessed that Gabriel, on many occasions, had met Muhammad in the form of human beings it is quite likely that when Muhammad visited Zayd b. Amr many times to learn about the new religion of the ‘Hanif’ he might have thought Zayd to be the angel Gabriel. It is also quite probable that Zayd b. Amr took an interest in teaching Muhammad how to read (and write)—his poetry (or verses) that later became Qur’anic verses! Ibn Ishaq (Ibn Ishaq, p.105) writes that Muhammad used to pray in seclusion in Hira every year for a month to practice ‘tahnanuth’, a pagan practice (thus confirming again Muhammad’s pagan background). According to the Quraysh, ‘tahannuth’ meant religious devotion. Sahih Bukhari confirms that Muhammad had encountered Zayd b. Amr in the Valley of Hira Mountain.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 18:16:57 +0000
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