The First Believers

Part oneThe first to say yes

Khadijah believed first. She had heard his account on the day he came down from Hira, and she never wavered. She was a widow who had built a successful trading business, and she was respected in Makkah for her intelligence and her character. In the years that followed she was his companion, his comfort and his support, and her wealth and her standing were placed in the service of the message. Soon the two of them were praying together.

Beside them stood Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet's ﷺ young cousin. Ali's father, Abu Talib, had a large family and little money. In a lean season the Prophet ﷺ took Ali into his own home, and the boy grew up there. He was still a child when he believed, and he joined the Prophet ﷺ and Khadijah in prayer.

Zayd ibn Harithah (may Allah be pleased with him) also lived in the household. As a child he had been taken from his family and sold in Makkah, and he had come into the Prophet's ﷺ care. Years later, Zayd's father and uncle found out where he was and came to take him home. Zayd was given the choice to leave with them or to stay, and he chose to stay. The Prophet ﷺ freed him and treated him as his own son, and his father went home content that the boy was in good hands. Zayd was among the first to accept Islam.

Outside the family, the first man to believe was Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him). He had been a close friend of the Prophet ﷺ long before the revelation, a trader of good standing, gentle in manner and trusted by people from many clans. He did not hesitate when the message was put before him.

Abu Bakr did not keep his faith to himself. He spoke quietly to those he trusted, and several of them went to the Prophet ﷺ and accepted Islam. They included Uthman ibn Affan, a wealthy and modest merchant; Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a young man who was the Prophet's ﷺ cousin; Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, a trader; Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, a youth from the Prophet's ﷺ mother's clan; and Talhah ibn Ubaydullah, another merchant (may Allah be pleased with them). All five would become leading figures in the years ahead, and each is counted among the ten Companions who were given the good news of Paradise in their lifetime.

Abu Bakr was later given the title as-Siddiq, the truthful, for the way he believed without hesitation. He used his wealth and his good name freely for the sake of the message, and he will appear again and again in the chapters ahead.

Part twoA quiet community

When revelation returned after its pause, it brought a command. Surah al-Muddaththir addresses the Prophet ﷺ as the one wrapped in his cloak, and tells him to rise, to warn, to glorify his Lord, to keep himself clean and to be patient.

From the Quran

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلْمُدَّثِّرُ ۝١ قُمْ فَأَنذِرْ ۝٢ وَرَبَّكَ فَكَبِّرْ ۝٣ وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَهِّرْ ۝٤ وَٱلرُّجْزَ فَٱهْجُرْ ۝٥ وَلَا تَمْنُن تَسْتَكْثِرُ ۝٦ وَلِرَبِّكَ فَٱصْبِرْ ۝٧

¹O you covered up ˹in your clothes˺! ²Arise and warn ˹all˺. ³Revere your Lord ˹alone˺. ⁴Purify your garments. ⁵˹Continue to˺ shun idols. ⁶Do not do a favour expecting more ˹in return˺. ⁷And persevere for ˹the sake of˺ your Lord.

Work began, but it began softly. For about three years the message passed from one person to another. The believers prayed, learned the revelation as it came and tried not to draw attention to themselves. When they wanted to pray together, some of them slipped out to the glens and valleys on the edge of Makkah, where no one would see them.

Think how small it was. In a city of traders and tribes, a handful of households held a faith that nobody around them shared. The revelation came in pieces, a few verses at a time, and the believers learned each portion by heart and recited it to one another. There was no building and no public gathering, only a few families who trusted each other with a secret.

A mix of people made up the community. There were prosperous merchants such as Abu Bakr and Uthman, and there were people who owned almost nothing. Bilal ibn Rabah (may Allah be pleased with him), an enslaved man of Abyssinian descent who would one day call the believers to prayer, accepted Islam in these years. So did Yasir and Sumayyah and their son Ammar, a family without a strong clan to defend them, and Khabbab ibn al-Aratt, a blacksmith (may Allah be pleased with them). Women believed as well, among them the Prophet's ﷺ daughters. The message did not follow the lines of rank that Makkah took so seriously.

Believers also needed a place to learn. A young man named al-Arqam ibn Abi al-Arqam (may Allah be pleased with him) offered his house near Mount Safa, and the Prophet ﷺ taught there. It stood close to the Kaaba but drew no attention, so people could come and go without being noticed. Many early believers heard the Quran recited there for the first time.

Word still travelled. Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him), from a tribe that lived along the caravan road to Syria, heard of a man in Makkah who spoke against idols, and he set out to find him. His story comes later, but it shows that people far from the city were already hearing about the call.

The message did not follow the lines of rank that Makkah took so seriously.

More on How to Muslim

• guide.howtomuslim.orgLearn about IslamThe beliefs the first Muslims accepted, in six short parts.

WatchLectures for this chapter

Lecture Towards EternityO Messenger, Ep. 1: Life of Prophet Muhammad (opens on YouTube)

Lecture Islamic GuidanceThe Early Converts To Islam (Seerah of Muhammad, part 21) (opens on YouTube)

The mapWhere it happened

• Makkah and the Kaaba
• Mount Safa and the house of al-Arqam
• the glens at the edge of Makkah

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter