Makkah · a Light

The cave of the first revelation is smaller than most rooms

Hira is a cleft near the top of Jabal al-Nour, a steep hill about four kilometres northeast of the Kaaba. The climb takes most people over an hour. The cave itself is small, roughly the length of a man lying down and about a metre and a half wide, with an opening that faces toward the Kaaba. The Prophet ﷺ used to withdraw there for nights at a time before revelation began, and the first verses came to him in that space during Ramadan. Thousands of pilgrims climb it each season. Visiting it is not part of Umrah or Hajj and carries no rite, which scholars in Makkah repeat every year.

Jabal al-Nour, Makkah