Muhammad’s Jibril (Gabriel)

Jibril in the Islamic narratives is the messenger who carried (transported) the revelations to Muhammad. Despite Jibril’s vital role in establishing Islam as a religion, Muhammad was silent about him for years. Jibril is not mentioned at all by Muhammad in the Meccan portion of the Qur’ān. This spiritual messenger is not identified by Muhammad until thirteen years later, after about eighty-six suras of revelation had already been given. Jibril’s name appears for the first time in sura al-Baqara, where Muhammad accused the Jews of being enemies of Jibril (Gabriel) (Q 2.97-98).

Afterwards, Muhammad mentions Jibril’s name only once in Q 66.4 to warn his insubordinate wives that Allah and Jibril are on his side against them.

There are, however, verses where hints of Jibril possibly appear, including“One mighty in power” (Q 53.5) and “the Faithful Spirit” (Q 26.193).

Muhammad declared his revelations for many years before explicitly mentioning the name Jibril.

The Trance

The sirat literature (biography books) record that Muhammad suffered from strange trancelike episodes. These unusual experiences were described by an eyewitness: “I looked at him, he had a snore….as the snore of a young camel”.

These trances actually led Muhammad to question whether he had a touch of madness. These symptoms stayed with him even after he declared himself a prophet. He continued to suffer from episodes of fainting, profuse sweating, and sounds of voices in his head. These symptoms then became explained as manifestations connected with the descending of inspiration, instead of possible symptoms of sickness.

Muhammad described his condition during the process of his receiving a revelation:

Sometimes it comes like the ringing of a bell—which is the hardest on me—then it splits away from me. I then am aware of what he said. Other times the angel appears to me like a man and talks to me. Then I became aware of what he was saying. ‘A’isha, may Allah be content with her, said about it, “I saw him while the revelation was coming upon him on a bitterly cold day, then when it was split away from him, his [Muhammad’s] head would drip with sweat”.

When we read history, we find that these symptoms are similar to the condition of the Arab diviners before Islam:

The priest during his divination enters a trancelike state, during which he would be in contact with a difficult arduous world no man can withstand. For the spirit to connect to it and be connected with the body of the diviner is a seriously dire matter during which the sweat is profuse, which especially happens when the speaker is the diviner himself.

Note that Muhammad had openly declared that he used to hear a sound like the ringing of a bell. He also claimed, “The bell is the pipes of Satan”. Nonetheless, the question that seemingly has not been asked is if “the bell is the pipes of Satan”, why does Muhammad hear its ringing?

No matter the answer, Muhammad treated these symptoms with al-ruqiyya (“spell-removing prayers or chants”) and he would further advise Muslims to use al-ruqiyya for spells and chants.

Muhammad and the Jahiliyya Divination

When the above-mentioned symptoms started to appear in Muhammad, a great anxiety overtook and controlled him. When he compared what he was going through with the condition of the Arab diviners, he thought he too had become a diviner. He said to Khadija (his first wife), “I am worried that I might be a diviner”.

In the Arabian Peninsula, divination was a common religious practice as well as a variety of other magical practices in use at the time, such as al-ruqiyya and astrology. The religious men would often belong to the priestly group, known as the ruqiyya performer (al-raqi) or the astrologer.

Such a diviner could make contact with hidden, spiritual forces. People with spiritual-related questions would bring them to him at his home, for “those who sought him [the diviner] saw in him a super power and an ability to receive the revelation from that power which was seen in the form of an invisible person that would give the revelation to the diviner. Then the diviner would speak accordingly with what was appropriate to the situation and would answer their questions addressed to him”.

Muhammad admitted that he too experienced this process of divination: “Other times the angel appears to me like a man and talks to me. Then I became aware of what he was saying”.

Acts of similar divination by Muhammad are presented in the Qur’ān, where he responds to questions with the expression, “They ask thee,” as in these verses: “They will ask thee of the spirit…” (Q 17.85); “They will ask thee about the mountains…” (Q 20.105); and “They shall ask thee about the Hour…” (Q 79.42).

Furthermore, the “priests had a particular style in their talk while prophesying and divining known as al-saja‘ [rhymed prose]. That is why it was known as ‘al-saja‘ of the diviners. Their saja‘ was characterized by the use of ambiguous words and general expressions that could be interpreted in a variety of opposing ways”.

The saja‘ and short expressions are characteristic of the Qur’ānic verses that belong to the first call (to Islam) period. An example of this can be seen in the Arabic rhymed prose of Q 102.1-8 (Palmer trans.):

The contention about numbers deludes you

till ye visit the tombs!

Not so! In the end ye shall know!

And again not so! In the end ye shall know!

Not so! Did ye but know with certain knowledge!

Ye shall surely see hell!

And again ye shall surely see it with an eye of certainty.

Then ye shall surely be asked about pleasure!

For this reason, Muhammad’s contemporaries described him as one who had joined the diviners, an accusation that he vehemently denied. He announced to the Quraysh, that he was “neither a soothsayer nor mad!” (Q 52.29).

This reaction is significant, as the diviner was seen as one who would be inspired with the revelation by the “satan of the diviner.” The Arabs believed that this satan would eavesdrop “on heaven and bring what he heard and recite it. Then the diviner would recite to the people what his satan had recited to him”.

Based on this imagery, Muhammad believed that every man had his companion satan. He declared, “‘Each one of you, without exception, has been assigned a companion of the Jin.’ The Muslims asked him, ‘Even you’? He said, ‘Even I, except that Allah aided me against him. So, he became a Muslim and would command me with nothing but good”. He also said to ‘A’isha, “‘Yes! But my Lord aided me against him until he became a Muslim”. Khadija’s Verdict

In the midst of these hallucinations and voices, when some suspected that madness could have befallen Muhammad or that he might have become a diviner, Khadija stepped forward to deliver Muhammad out of his condition and suffering:

According to Khadija, may Allah be content with her, she said to the messenger of Allah—Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him—“Cousin [husband], can you tell me about your companion that appears to you when he comes?” He said, “Yes!” She said, “Then when he comes to you, tell me about it.” Jibril, peace be upon him, came to him as he used to do. The messenger of Allah—Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him—said to Khadija, “Khadija! Jibril has come to me.” She said, “Get up, cousin [husband], and sit on my left thigh….” The messenger of Allah—Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him—got up and sat on her. She said, “Do you see him?” He said, “Yes!” She said, “Move and sit on my right thigh.” She reported that the messenger of Allah—Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him—moved and sat on her right thigh. She asked, “Do you see him?” He said, “Yes!” She said, “Move and sit in my lap.” She reported that the messenger of Allah—Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him—moved and sat in her lap. She said, “Do you see him?” He said, “Yes!” She reported that she felt distressed and cast her veil while the messenger of Allah—Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him—was in her lap. Then she said to him, “Do you see him?” he said, “No!” She said, “O cousin [husband], be steadfast and of good cheer, for by Allah he is indeed an angel and not a satan.”

[Another slightly different story adds that Khadija] tucked the messenger of Allah—Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him—between her and her undergarment [dir‘iha]. At that point Jibril left. She then said to the messenger of Allah—Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him—“This is an angel, not a satan”.

We notice the following troubling issues in this story:

Khadija said to Muhammad, “This is an angel, not a satan,” which indicates that Muhammad believed that satan was the one that was appearing to him (and not Jibril) as the text of the story mentions. For if Muhammad had thought that Jibril is the one that was appearing to him, his wife would probably have said, “You are right! He is Jibril.” Instead, she rejected the description of the being as satan without mentioning Jibril, which means the name Jibril may have been inserted later into the original story.

Even though Khadija was not able to see this being, she still decided its nature—despite the fact that Muhammad, who could see the being, was not able to identify it. (Muhammad only identified this being as Jibril in later revelations.)

This story presents another perplexing question: Why would the angel overlook the fact that Muhammad was sitting on the thigh of Khadija (a suggestive, provocative position) yet leave later when she unveiled her face (a less erotic action)?

Khadija conducted her experiment to an explicit extreme. She made Muhammad sit one time on her left thigh, then again on her right thigh, and then in her lap. Finally, according to the second story, she tucked Muhammad under her undergarments, “tucked the messenger of Allah—Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him—between her and her garments [dir‘iha],” to judge if the being would remain to watch these explicit scenes. If this being continued to watch, then this being would be a satan. What is clear is that Khadija was lavishing compassion and kindness on Muhammad to calm his fears, so she would find it easy to convince him that what he saw was an angel and not a satan.

Conclusion

For many long years Muhammad suffered different trancelike symptoms. On occasion he suspected that he had become mad, as he said to Khadija, “I hear a voice and see a light. I fear that I have madness in me”.

At other times, Muhammad believed that he had become a diviner like those soothsayers who “see their companion, who could appear to them in a human form”. But Khadija delivered him from this condition because she had a sharp insight into Muhammad’s psyche. Then she experimented to find out the identity of what appeared to her husband and to testify afterwards that it was an angel and not a satan. Her pronouncement means Muhammad discovered the nature of what he saw through a woman, “who lacks in reason and religion,” according to the view of women in Islam. Based on her witness, Muhammad established his evidence that what came to him was an angel. Muslims, then, rely in turn on the single testimony of one woman.

The testimony of Khadija did not cure Muhammad of this phenomenon, which plagued him all his life. He continued hearing the voices and seeing the shadows.

These symptoms resemble those of a condition known as auditory aura.They are auditory hallucinations that may be accompanied with other sensory hallucinations, and they can take place during epilepsy. If Muhammad did not suffer from auditory aura, it seems certain that he had a lesser problem known as akoasm, which is an auditory hallucination where symptoms include hearing ringing sounds, knocking sounds, shuffling sounds, and the like. Because of these sounds, Muhammad continued to believe that he had a companion satan, as he told ‘A’isha (Muhammad’s third wife).

After Khadija convinced Muhammad that what appears to him is the deliverer of revelation, Muhammad refers to this being by the title “The Holy Spirit” (Q 16.102), and calls him “a noble apostle” (Q 81.19). He did not mention Jibril’s name as the one delivering the revelation until he moved to Medina.

This eventual declaration concerning Jibril must have resulted from Muhammad’s contact with the Jews. The name גַּבְרִיאֵל (Jibril/Gabriel) is a Hebrew name mentioned in the Old Testament book of Daniel (8.16, 9.21). Did Muhammad learn the name Jibril from the Jews, or did he learn it just before that?

We do not have any available written text that would help specify the time period when Muhammad directly introduced the name Jibril. If Muhammad acquired that name from the Jews, it explains why the name did not appear except in Medina. However, if we are to accept the probability offered by Arthur Jeffery, noted scholar and historian of Semitic languages, its source originated from the Syriac form of the name .

It is possible that Muhammad could have heard the name in Mecca, but in Medina he saw the necessity of updating all the Qur’ānic texts to show that Jibril delivered all the revelations Muhammad had received.

Therefore, Jibril, in his true nature were those voices and images that would come to Muhammad. These manifestations were transformed by the suggestive power of Khadija into an angel that later could have become Gabriel through the influence of Jewish or Christian acquaintances.

Note: Because of an apparent misinterpretation of the Annunciation story in the Gospel (Luke 1.19-31), Muhammad created a mix-up between the spirit and Jibril and merged the two into one being. He said about Mary, “...we sent unto her our spirit” (Q 19.17) as well as “a messenger of” the Lord (Q 19.19).Therefore, Muhammad made the spirit of Allah and the messenger of Allah one and the same.

This issue of Jibril as both spirit and messenger appear to run counter to other verses of the Qur’ān that mention “angels and the Spirit'' (Q 70.4; Q 97.4), distinguishing between the angels and the spirit without paying attention to the fact that Jibril is an angel. Who is the spirit in these verses? In response, the exegetes say that Jibril is the spirit. But if Jibril is one of the angels, then why make this distinction? (See comment on Q 2.97).

This reference manual about hallucinations and other sensory deceptions provides information regarding possible physical reasons for the symptoms Muhammad experienced during his revelations.

Blom, Jan Dirk. A Dictionary of Hallucinations. New York: Springer, AD 2010. Print. See Akoasm, Auditory Aura, Auditory Hallucination, and Visual Hallucination.

References

1. al-Bukhārī 1: 542. 2. Ibn Sa‘d 1: 165. 3. al-Bukhārī 1: 13-14; this tale is also repeated in 2: 425. 4. ‘Alī 6: 761. 5. Muslim 3: 415. 6. al-Bukhārī 4: 43-46. 7. Ibn Sa‘d 1: 165. 8. ‘Alī 6: 755. 9. Ibid. 6: 757. 10. al-Bukhārī 2: 425. 11. ‘Alī 6: 759. 12. Ibid. 6: 758. 13. Muslim 4: 311. 14. Ibid. 4: 312. 15. al-Suhaīlī 1: 408-409. 16. Ibn Sa‘d 1: 165. 17. ‘Alī 6: 760. 18. Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’ān 100-101. 19. Houtsma et al. 1: 2652. 20. al-T. abarī 23: 251, 24: 547.