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'''Bi'tha''' (Arabic: {{ia|البعثة}}), is the appointment of Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah as a prophet by God which marked the beginning of Islam.

In the fortieth year after the [[Year of the Elephant]], while seeking solitude in the [[Hira Cave]] near [[Mecca]], the revelation was bestowed upon Muhammad. This marked the beginning of his prophethood, accompanied by miracles, as foretold in previous scriptures. Muhammad was around forty years old at the time.

There is a difference of opinion regarding the exact date of the Prophet's mission; the 27th of Rajab is more commonly accepted by Shia Muslims, while the 17th of Ramadan is more widely accepted by Sunnis. According to traditions, the first revelation was the first five verses of [[Sura al-'Alaq]]. The first to believe in [[the Prophet(s)]] were [[Khadija(a)]] and [[Ali(a)]].

== Concept ==

Bi'tha, derived from the root "ba-'ayn-tha",<ref>''Mufradāt'', vol. 1, p. 132, the term "Ba'th/بعث"</ref> signifies sending,<ref>''Al-ʿAyn'', Volume 2, p. 112, the term "Ba'atha/ بعث"</ref> awakening,<ref>''Al-Tahqīq fī Kalimāt al-Qurʾān al-Karīm'', Volume 1, p. 295, the term "Ba'atha"</ref> or dispatching.<ref>''Mufradāt'', vol. 1, p. 133</ref> In its various usages, this root encompasses the concepts of selection and sending, collectively understood as 'awakening.'<ref>''Al-Tahqīq fī Kalimāt al-Qurʾān al-Karīm'', Volume 1, p. 295</ref> In Islamic theology, bi'tha specifically refers to God appointing prophets to guide humanity.<ref>''Farhang-i Shīʿa'', p 159</ref> This concept is rooted in Quranic verses such as 16:36 and 17:15, where God emphasizes belief in Him, the sending of prophets, and the punishment for those who disbelieve."

{{quran
|text = وَلَقَدْ بَعَثْنَا فِي كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ رَسُولًا أَنِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ وَاجْتَنِبُوا الطَّاغُوتَ...
|translation = Certainly We raised an apostle in every nation [to preach:] 'Worship Allah, and shun fake deities.'
|sura = Sura al-Nahl (16)
|verse = 36
}}

== Hijaz Before Bi'tha ==
The [[Quran]] describes the state of affairs before the Prophet's mission as "clear misguidance."<ref>Sura Al-Jumua, Verse 2</ref> This era is referred to in Islamic sources as the Age of Ignorance (Jahiliyya). According to [[Imam Ali (a)]], people were religiously fragmented and scattered; some likened God to phenomena, while others attributed valuable names and virtuous attributes to idols.<ref>''Nahj al-balāgha'', Sermon 1</ref> The most common practice among the Arabs was idol worship, and it was so popular that the number of idols quickly increased, and up to 360 idols were installed and maintained in the [[Ka'ba]]. The idols of Manat,<ref>''Al-Aṣnām'', p. 13</ref> Lat,<ref>''Al-Aṣnām'', p. 16</ref>  Uzza,<ref>''Tārīkh-i ʿArab-i Qabl az Islām'', p. 379</ref> and Hubal<ref>''Al-Aṣnām'', p. 27</ref> held a high position among the polytheists. In addition to idol worship, [[Judaism]], [[Christianity]], and [[Dualism]] were among the common religions among the Arabs at the time of the Prophet's mission.

=== Propehecies of Bi'tha ===
According to Quranic verses, the attributes of the Islamic Prophet were foretold in the earlier scriptures, namely the Old Testament and the New Testament.<ref>Sura al-Saff:6; Sura al-Baqara:142; Sura al-An'am:20</ref> This made it crucial for the followers of these religions to recognize and witness the arrival of this prophet.<ref>''Al-Sīra al-Nabawīyya'', Ibn Hishām, vol. 1, p. 117; ''Itḥāf al-warā'', vol. 1, p. 187-190.</ref> Additionally, Arab seers had also prophesied the coming of a prophet in the Hijaz.<ref>''Al-Sīra al-Nabawīyya'', Ibn Hishām, vol. 1, p. 123; ''Al-Sīra al-Nabawīyya'', Ibn Kathīr, vol. 1, p. 286.</ref>

== Religion of Muhammad (s) Prior to His Prophethood ==
There are several perspectives on the religious beliefs of Prophet Muhammad (s) before his prophetic mission began. Some scholars suggest that he did not follow any specific religious law during that period.<ref>''Al-Muʿtamad fī uṣūl al-fiqh'', vol. 1, p. 276. ''Subul al-Huda'', Vol. 8, pp. 70-71. ''Al-Shifāʾ bi-taʿrīf ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā'', vol. 2, p. 148.</ref> Others remain neutral on the issue, refraining from making a conclusive statement.<ref>''Al-Shifāʾ bi-taʿrīf ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā'', vol. 2, p. 148; ''Al-Mankhūl'', p. 319; ''Al-Ahkam'', vol. 4, p. 137; ''Al-Dhari'a'', vol. 2, p. 597; ''Al-Ibtihaj'', vol. 2, p. 275.</ref> Another viewpoint holds that the Prophet may have followed the religious teachings of earlier prophets, such as [[Noah]],<ref>''Al-Mankhūl'', p. 318</ref> [[Abraham]],<ref>''Majmaʿ al-bayān'', vol. 6, p. 209.</ref> Moses,<ref>''Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī'', vol. 16, p. 57; ''Al-Mustasfa'', vol. 1, p. 165.</ref> Jesus,<ref>''Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī'', vol. 16, p. 57; ''Al-Mankhūl'', p. 319.</ref> or a group of prophets,<ref>''Rūh al-maʿānī'', vol. 7, p. 217.</ref> or that he adhered to a righteous but undefined shari'a.<ref>''Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī'', vol. 16, p. 57.</ref>

It is said that the angel of revelation spoke with Muhammad (s) before Bi'tha.<ref>''Ḥaqq al-yaqīn'', vol. 1, p. 179.</ref> The Prophet of Islam held the position of prophethood before the age of forty<ref>''Biḥār al-anwār'', vol. 26, p. 75; vol. 18, p. 278.</ref>, and religious rulings were revealed to him, and he worshiped God in the same way.<ref>''Biḥār al-anwār'', vol. 18, p. 278.</ref> When he saw the angel of revelation at the age of forty, he was obliged to preach the new Sharia.<ref>''Tārīkh al-khamīs'', vol. 1, p. 254.</ref>

==Objectives of Bi'tha==
The Quran considers one of the purposes of the prophets' mission to be the completion of God's proof to the people, so that they do not say: We did not have a leader and guide and we did not know.<ref>Sura al-Nisa:165; ''Min Hudā al-Qurʾān'', vol. 2, p. 257; ''Tafsīr-i nūr'', vol. 2, p. 213.</ref> According to verses and hadiths, education and training<ref>Sura al-Jumu'a:2.</ref> and resolving the disagreements of people,<ref>''Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān'', vol. 2, pp. 131-132.</ref> fair judgment among them<ref>''Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān'', vol. 3, p. 198.</ref> and the liberation of human beings from the clutches of the oppressors<ref>''Al-Kāfī'', vol. 8, p. 386; ''Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān'', vol. 12, p. 243.</ref> are considered other purposes and wisdoms of the mission of the prophets.

== Events of Bi'tha ==
[[file:غار حراء.png|200px|thumb|Hira' Cave]]

Around 40 years after the [[Year of the Elephant]], Muhammad (s) was appointed by God to guide humanity.<ref>''Imtāʿ al-asmāʾ'', vol. 1, p. 32; ''Tārīkh al-Islām'', vol. 1, p. 24; ''Al-Bidāya wa l-nihāya'', vol. 2, p. 321.</ref> According to widely accepted reports, the initiation of his prophethood and the first revelation occurred when he was 40 years old,<ref>''Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī'', vol. 2, p. 22.</ref> although some sources suggest it happened when he was 43.<ref>''Sīra Ibn Isḥāq'', p. 114.</ref>

Narratives about the first revelation differ among various companions, leading to some inconsistencies in the details. Nonetheless, a consistent element across these reports is that the divine revelation began with the descent of several verses of the Holy Qur'an while the Prophet was in seclusion in the [[Cave of Hira]] for worship and reflection.<ref>''Al-Sīra al-Nabawīyya'', Ibn Hishām, vol. 1, p. 154; ''Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī'', vol. 2, pp. 48-49; ''Ansāb al-ashrāf'', vol. 1, pp. 104-105.</ref> Additionally, some accounts describe the initial phase of this divine communication as the Prophet (s) receiving truthful dreams prior to his formal appointment as a prophet.<ref>''Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī'', vol. 1, p. 3.</ref>

== Day of Bi'tha ==
For most Shia Muslims, the 27th of Rajab is observed as the Day of Bi'tha,<ref>''Biḥār al-anwār'', vol. 18, p. 190; ''al-Ṣaḥīḥ min sīrat al-Nabī'', vol. 2, p. 64-65.</ref> while Sunni Muslims commemorate it on the 17th of [[Ramadhan]].<ref>''Al-Sīra al-Nabawīyya'', Ibn Hishām, vol. 1, p. 158; al-Ṭabaqāt, vol. 1, p. 193-194.</ref> 

The Prophet Muhammad's Bi'tha was the first important event in the history of Muslims, and 'Umar b. al-Khattab suggested that it be the starting point of the Muslim calendar; but with Ali's (a) suggestion, the emigration of the Prophet (s) was chosen as the starting point of the Muslim calendar.<ref>''Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī'', vol. 2, p. 145.</ref>

== First Revealed Verses ==
It is widely narrated that the first five verses of Sura al-'Alaq were the initial revelations to Prophet Muhammad (s).<ref>''Al-Sīra al-Nabawīyya'', Ibn Hishām, vol. 1, p. 155; ''Tafsīr al-Qummī'', vol. 2, p. 428.</ref> However, some sources suggest that Sura al-Muddaththir,<ref>''Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī'', vol. 6, p. 74; ''Al-Awāʾil'', p. 43.</ref> or Sura Al-Fatiha were the first verses.<ref>''Al-Kashshāf'', vol. 4, p. 270; ''Majmaʿ al-bayān'', vol. 10, p. 398; ''al-Itqān'', vol. 1, p. 77.</ref>

== First Believers ==
With the revelation of the first verses, Prophet Muhammad (s) started his prophetic mission. His wife, Khadijah bt. Khuwaylid al-Asadi, was the first woman to accept Islam, a fact universally acknowledged by historians.<ref>''Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī'', vol. 2, p. 23.</ref> According to the prevailing consensus among both [[Shia]] and [[Sunni]] scholars,<ref>''Al-Sīra al-Ḥalabīyya'', j. 1, p. 382.</ref> the first man to embrace Islam was [[Ali (a)]].<ref>''Al-Ghadīr'', vol. 3, s. 95; ''Al-Sīra al-Nabawīyya'', Ibn Hishām, vol. 1, p. 162.</ref>

==Notes==
{{Notes}}

==References==
{{References}}
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* ''Al-Awāʾil'': Al-Ṭabarānī (d. 310 AH), ed. by Shukūr, Beirut, Dār al-Furqān, 1403 AH.
* ''Al-ʿAyn'': Al-Khalīl (d. 175 AH), Dār al-Hijra, 1409 AH.
* ''Al-Bidāya wa l-nihāya'': Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH), Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1408 AH.
* ''Al-Ghadīr'': Al-Amīnī (d. 1390 AH), Tehran, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1366 Sh.
* ''Al-Itqān'': al-Suyūṭi (d. 911 AH), Lebanon, Dār al-Fikr, 1416 AH.
* ''Al-Kāfī'': Al-Kulaynī (d. 329 AH), Tehran, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1375 Sh.
* ''Al-Kashhāf'': Al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538 AH), Muṣṭafā al-Bābī, 1385 AH.
* ''Al-Mankhūl'': Al-Ghazālī (d. 505 AH), Beirut, Dār al-Fikr al-Muʿāṣir, 1419 AH.
* ''Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān'': Al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī (d. 1402 AH), Beirut, Aʿlamī, 1393 AH.
* ''Al-Muʿtamad fī uṣūl al-fiqh'': Abū l-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī al-Muʿtazilī (d. 436 AH), Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1403 AH.
* ''Al-Shifāʾ bi-taʿrīf ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā'': Qāḍī ʿAyāḍ (d. 544 AH), Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 1409 AH.
* ''Al-Sīra al-Ḥalabīyya'': Al-Ḥalabī (d. 1044 AH), Beirut, Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1400 AH.
* ''Al-Sīra al-Nabawīyya'': Ibn Hishām (d. 213/218 AH), Egypt, Maktaba Muḥammad ʿAlī Ṣabīḥ, 1383 AH.
* ''Al-Sīra al-Nabawīyya'': Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH), ed. by Muṣṭafā ʿAbd al-Wāḥid, Beirut, Dār al-Maʿrifa, 1396 AH.
* ''Al-Tafsīr alkabīr'': Al-Fakhr al-Rāzī (d. 606 AH), Qom, Daftar-i Tablīghāt, 1413 AH.
* ''Al-Tahqīq fī kalimāt al-Qurʾān al-karīm'': Al-Muṣṭafawī, Tehran, Wizārat-i Irshād, 1374 Sh.
* ''Ansāb al-ashrāf'': Al-Balādhurī (d. 279 AH), Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 1417 AH.
* ''Biḥār al-anwār'': Al-Majlisī (d. 1110 AH), Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1403 AH.
* ''Farhang-i Shīʿa'': Pazhūhishkada-yi Tahqīqāt-i Islāmī, Muḥammad Khaṭībī Kūshkak and others, Qom, Zamzam-i Hidāyat, 1385 Sh.
* ''Ḥaqq al-yaqīn'': Al-Shubbar (d. 1242 AH), Tehran, Aʿlamī, ʿIrfān, 1352 SH.
* ''Imtāʿ al-asmāʾ'': Al-Maqrīzī (d. 845 AH), Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1420 AH.
* ''Itḥāf al-warā'': ʿUmar b. Muḥammad b. Fahd (d. 885 AH), Mecca, Jāmiʿat Umm al-Qurā, 1408 AH.
* ''Majmaʿ al-bayān'': Al-Ṭabrisī (d. 548 AH), Beirut, Aʿlamī, 1415 AH.
* ''Min hudā al-Qurʾān'': Sayyid Muḥammad Taqī Mudarrisī, Tehran, Dār Muḥibbī al-Ḥusayn, 1419 AH.
* ''Mufradāt'': Al-Rāghib (d. 425 AH), Damascus, Dār al-Qalam, 1412 AH.
* ''Nahj al-balāgha'' (Sharḥ Abduh): Qom, Dār al-Dhakhāʾir, 1412 AH.
* ''Rūh al-maʿānī'': Al-Ālūsī (d. 1270 AH), Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī.
* ''Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī'': Al-Bukhārī (d. 256 AH), Beirut, Dār al-Fikr, 1401 AH.
* ''Sīra Ibn Isḥāq'' (''Al-Sīyar wa al-Maghāzī''): Ibn Isḥāq (d. 151 AH), Maʿhad al-Dirāsāt wa l-Abḥāth.
* ''Subul al-huda'': Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Ṣāliḥī (d. 942 AH), Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1414 AH.
* ''Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī'' (''Al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān''): Al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH), Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1405 AH.
* ''Tafsīr-i nūr'': Muḥsin Qarāʾatī, Tehran, Markaz-i Farhangī-yi Dars-hā-yi az Qurʾān, 1388 SH.
* ''Tārīkh al-Islām wa wafayāt al-mashāhīr'': Al-Dhahabī (d. 748 AH), Beirut, Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1410 AH.
* ''Tārīkh al-khamīs'': Ḥusayn al-Diyār Bakrī (d. 966 AH), Beirut, Muʾassasat Shaʿbān, 1283 AH.
* ''Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī'' (''Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk): Al-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH), Beirut, Aʿlamī, 1403 AH.
* ''Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī'': Aḥmad b. Yaʿqūb (d. 292 AH), Beirut, Dār Ṣādir, 1415 AH.
* ''Tārīkh-i ʿArab-i qabl az Islām'': ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Sālim, trans. Ṣadrīnīyā, Tehran, ʿIlmī wa Farhangī, 1380 Sh.
{{end}}

[[Category:History of Islam]]
[[Category:The Prophet (s)]]

[[fa:بعثت]]