A portion of Allaah’s revelation was communicated directly to the prophets without any intermediary. This form of revelation came either as visions during a prophet’s sleep, or in the form of words spoken by Allaah from behind a veil of light. (a) True Dreams: Divine commands were communicated to the prophets in their sleep in the form of dreams that gave them accurate glimpses of future events.

‘Aa’ishah, said, “Revelation to the Prophet (r) first began as righteous11 visions in his sleep. Whenever he saw a vision, it would occur as surely as the break of the day.” 12 This form of revelation was a very gentle means of preparing the Prophet (ﷺ) for the tremendous burden of revelation in the waking state.Sometimes visions directed the prophets to perform certain acts, as in the case of Prophet Ibraaheem, who is recorded in the Qur’aan as saying to his son Ismaa‘eel,

Ismaa‘eel’s reply is recorded as follows:

Both Prophet Ibraaheem and his son knew that the vision was a divine command which they had to fulfill.

The only soorah of the Qur’aan reported to have been revealed in a vision was Soorah al-Kawthar. The sahaabee Anas ibn Maalik said, “Once while Allaah’s Messenger (r) was among us in the masjid, he dozed off, then raised his head, smiling. I asked him, ‘What has amused you, O Messenger of Allaah (r)?’ He replied, ‘A soorah has just been revealed to me.’ Then he recited, ‘In the name of Allaah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,

It should be noted that true dreams are not restricted to the prophets only.15

However, true dreams of common people are not the same as the true dreams of the prophets. Every dream of the prophets was a true dream; hence, their dreams are a reliable source of guidance. On the other hand, ordinary persons only know that their dreams are true if and when they come true. The ordinary person’s dreams are mostly a mixture of recollections, fantasies, and evil dreams implanted by the devils, with occasional true dreams. Hence, one cannot claim any of one’s dreams to be true before its occurrence.

(b) Divine Speech: The second method of direct communication by Allaah with His prophets took the form of direct speech, in which the actual words of Allaah were spoken to the prophets. In this case, the prophets were in a waking state, but a veil of light separated them from Allaah and prevented them from seeing Him.16

This form of communication only occurred with two prophets, as far as we know.

The first of those was Prophet Moosaa, about whom Allaah stated the following in the Qur’aan:

This method of communication was apparently the main way in which Prophet Moosaa received revelation, hence his title “Kaleemullah” (the one to whom Allaah spoke).18

The second prophet to listen to the direct speech of Allaah was Prophet Muhammad (r). However, this pheno-menon occurred on only one occasion during his prophethood; at the time of the Prophet’s ascension up into the heavens (Mi‘raaj).19