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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Message Chapter 12: The First Revelation Just like the dates of birth and death of the Holy Prophet the date of his appointment to the prophetic mission is also not known definitely from the historical point of view; the Shi'ah scholars are almost unanimous that he was appointed to the prophetic mission on the 27th of Rajab and his prophethood commenced from the same day.

However, the Sunni scholars usually claim that he was appointed to this mission during the holy month of Ramadan. As Shi'ahs claim to be the followers of the progeny of the Prophet and consider their reports to be true and final in the light of 'Hadith Thaqalayn', they have accepted the report of the progeny of the Prophet's Household about the date of this appointment to the prophetic mission to be correct.

The descendants of the Prophet say: "The chief of the family was appointed to the prophetic mission on the 27th of Rajab". In view of this, Shi'ahs do not entertain any doubt about the correctness of this date. The thing which can be treated to be the basis for the other view is the very statement of the Holy Qur'an, wherein it has been stated that the verses of the Qur'an were revealed in Ramadan.

And as the day of the commencement of the prophetic mission is the day of the beginning of revelation of the Holy Qur'an it may be said that the Prophet was appointed to prophethood in the very month of Ramadan. The verses of the Holy Qur'an which indicate that it was revealed in Ramadan are as follows: In the month of Ramadan the Qur'an was revealed. (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:185 ). We swear by the Glorious Book that We revealed the Qur'an on a blessed night. (Surah al-Dukhan, 44:2-3).

And that is the very night of Qadr (glory) which has been mentioned in Surah al-Qadr (verse 1) wherein it has been said: **"** We revealed the Qur'an in the Night of Glory." Reply by Shi'ah Scholars The Shi'ah traditionalists and commentators have given various replies and explanations with regard to this argument; some of them are mentioned below: The First Reply The above-mentioned verses show that the Holy Qur'an was revealed in one blessed night of the Holy month of Ramadan, which is called the 'Night of Glory', but they do not mention the place of its revelation and do not also denote that they were revealed to the Prophet during the same night.