It is told that, when Muhammad was on Mount Hira, something fell upon him and he saw that the angel Gabriel had come and had broken him to pieces. When people educated in a university write this, they say it was a fancy, a dream, for how could an angel break him to pieces and how, after being in pieces, could he still remain alive ? Traditionalists say that it was the angel Gabriel, but really it was the rapture, the ecstasy that fell upon him. Muhammad felt that he was fractured, that he was broken. When the consciousness can free itself from the body, then the body is left without support, it falls down; it means that the soul left the body. It was a strange experience. Muhammad had no murshid to say to him, "My child, it is not that", and it was the first time that he experienced it. It was when he was alone in the desert with nothing artificial, nothing false before him; no false voice of the world saying, "I am your wife, I am your brother, I am your friend, I like you, I love you" - all false. One prophet could have given his experience to another, but the last prophet died so many hundred years before the next was born. A murshid could give his mysticism, his experience to the mureed, but here God had to teach directly without intermediary the one whom He had chosen.

The ecstasy, which Sufis call wajad, increased very much. Sometimes when he was in the hills, Muhammad would feel inclined to throw himself down from the top. Then a voice would come, "Balance ! Do not jump !" Thus two things were taught : ecstasy was taught and balance. He was not an ascetic to become a stone with the stones; he was a man of the world. He had his wife to care for, he had his relations to care for, he had his community to care for, and he had the message of God to give. He had not only his own development to think of.

The power of the divine injunction, the might of the thought of the universal Mind, the overwhelming presence of God had not only their effect upon the soul and the mind of Muhammad, but even his body felt as if tied up, sqeezed and broken, which made him spellbound. It was as if a person were to see himself from the top of a high tower with all the prospect below, and would be reluctant to look down. The same was the condition of Muhammad's innocent heart, viewing himself against the whole of humanity spread before his view. He would fain hide himself from his own sight at that time.

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