Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/40

 Rh that Haris-ibn-Hishám asked the Prophet, 'How did the revelation come to you?' and the Prophet said, 'Sometimes like the noise of a bell, and sometimes the angel would come and converse with me in the shape of a man.

According to A′yeshah's statement, the Súra-i-Alaq (xcvi.) was the first portion of the Qurán revealed; but it is more probable that the poetical Súras, in which there is no express declaration of the prophetic office, or of a divine commission, were composed at an earlier period. Internal evidence would assign the earliest date to the Súras Zilzál (xcix.), Asar (ciii.), A′diyát (c.), and Fátiha (i.), which are rather the utterances of a searcher after truth than of an Apostle of God.

The whole book was not arranged until after Muhammad's death, but it is believed that the Prophet himself divided the Súras and gave most of them their present titles, which are chosen from some word which occurs in the chapter. The following is the