- A man was sitting in a cave minding his own business.
- A very bright flash of light appeared.
- A voice spoke out one word: "Read!" The man felt like he was
being squeezed to death. This happened several times.
- Then the man asked, "What should I read?"
- The voice said, "Read in the name of your Lord who created humans
from a clinging [zygote]. Read for your Lord is the most generous.
He taught people by the pen what they didn't know before."
- The man ran home to his wife.
- While running home, he saw the huge face of an angel in the sky.
The angel told the man that he was to be the messenger of God.
The angel also identified himself as Gabriel.
- At home that night, the angel appeared to the man in his dreams.
- Gabriel appeared to the man over and over again. Sometimes it was
in dreams, sometimes during the day as "revelations in his
heart," sometimes preceded by a painful ringing in his ears
(and then the verses would flow from Gabriel right out of
the man), and sometimes Gabriel would appear in the flesh and
speak. Scribes wrote down everything the man said.
- Then, one night about 11 years after the first encounter with
Gabriel, Gabriel appeared to the man with a magical horse. The
man got on the horse, and the horse took him to Jerusalem.
Then the winged horse took the man up to the seven layers of
heaven. The man was able to actually see heaven and meet and
talk with people there. Then Gabriel brought the man back to earth.
- The man proved that he had actually been to Jerusalem on the
winged horse by accurately answering questions about buildings
and landmarks there.
- The man continued receiving the revelations from Gabriel for
23 years, and then they stopped. All of the revelations were
recorded by the scribes in a book which we still have today.
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