Imagine a cave, silent, dark, and unassuming, hidden in the rugged hills outside the ancient city of Mecca in the 7th century AD.

Inside that cave, the cave of Hira, a man sits in quiet meditation, yearning for solitude, trying to ascertain

the meaning of disturbing transcendental dreams.

Suddenly, the silence is shattered, a voice, as if from the depths of eternity itself booms

the sight.

Behold, Gabriel, the archangel of God, has come to deliver a message from him. as if from the depths of eternity itself booms, Recite!

Behold, Gabriel, the archangel of God,

has come to deliver a message from Allah.

That moment, whether real or imagined,

changed the course of human history.

The man on the receiving end of this angelic message were the 40-year-old illiterate vagabond merchant,

a man known to history as Muhammad.

A man, we are told,

who was called out of obscurity to be the final prophet of Almighty Allah.

According to the Islamic teaching, this heavenly encounter around 610 AD would inaugurate

a 23-year period of sporadic revelations to Muhammad, revelations that would much later be

compiled into what we now know as the Quran, which, along with the history of Muhammad's life, as recorded in the various

hadith, formed the very basis of the Islamic faith. Against the highly polytheistic

pagan culture of his age, Muhammad preached Islam, submission to the one and only God Allah.

With the essential claim of Taheed, that God is one and its five

pillars, Shahada, faith in Allah and Muhammad as his messenger, Salat, five daily prayers,

Zakat, charity, and Psalm, fasting during Ramadan, as well as Haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

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