The first revelation — Iqraʾ

In Ramaḍān, in the cave of Ḥirāʾ above Makkah where he had taken to withdrawing, the Prophet ﷺ — forty years old — received the first verses: "Recite, in the name of your Lord who created" (96:1-5). The tradition preserves the weight of the moment in his own words: the angel's embrace, the return to Khadījah trembling, "cover me, cover me," and her answer that Allah would never disgrace one who bears burdens for others.

The Qurʾān itself fixes the month — "the month of Ramaḍān in which the Qurʾān was sent down" (2:185) — and the night is sought among the last ten as Laylat al-Qadr, deliberately unfixed. This entry follows that precision exactly: month, no day, no year in the calendar that did not yet exist.