When Muhammad (PBUH) was 38 years of age, he spent most of his time in meditation and solitude. The cave of the mount Hira was his favorite place. It is there that he used to retire with food and water and spend days and weeks in remembrance of Allah. Nobody was allowed to go there except Khadijah and 'Ali. He used to spend the whole month of Ramadhan therein.
The period of waiting had come to a close. His forty years of life had varied experiences, and from the world's point of view, he had developed a maturity of mind and judgement, although in reality he was the embodiment of perfection from the very beginning.
He has said: "I was a prophet when Adam was between water and clay." His heart was overflowing with profound compassion for mankind and a pressing urge to eradicate wrong beliefs, social evils, cruelty and injustice. The moment had arrived when he was to be allowed to declare his prophethood. One day, when he was in the cave of Hira, Jibril (Gabriel) came to him and conveyed to him the following message of Allah:
Read in the name of thy Lord Who created, created man from a clot (of congealed blood): Read and thy Lord is most Bountiful, no taught with the pen, taught man that which he knew not. (Qur'an, 96:1-5)
These were the first ayats to be revealed, and the date was the 27th of Rajab, 40th year of elephant (610 C.E.).
The flow of the Divine message which continued for the next twenty-three years had begun, and the Prophet had arisen to proclaim the Unity of God and the Unity of Mankind, to demolish the edifice of superstition, ignorance, and disbelief, to set up a noble conception of life, and to lead mankind to the light of faith and celestial bliss.
Imam praised the holy prophet of Islam and his pure progeny (peace be upon them). The founder of the Islamic Republic invited the whole Islamic community to follow footsteps of the honorable prophet of Islam Hadrat Mohammad (peace be upon him) and his infallible successors.
According to Imam Khomeini, the prophet’s mission was foretold by all previous divine prophets over the different parts of the world. The holy prophet of Islam preached genuine divine teachings and promoted brotherhood among mankind at the time when the world had been plunged into moral and social decline.
Imam Khomeini urged the whole humanity to comprehend the moral and Islamic values promoted by the holy prophet of Islam.
Imam Khomeini regarded the dissemination of principles of morality and spirituality among nations as the major purpose of the holy prophet’s mission.
Promotion of moral values also constituted one main concern of all Divine Messengers.
The holy prophet said in one of his traditions that he was sent and assigned to complete and promote the best moral and ethical values. Imam Khomeini revived these genuine teachings.
Mab’ath marks (Holy Prophet Muhammad’s, peace be upon him and his progeny, official appointment to the Prophetic Mission) signals the turning point in the history of the world as the Seal of Messengers with the final revelation was finally brought into this material world.
Imam Khomeini said in some of historic messages in this regard as following:
"The purpose of the bi‘that is the descent of Divine Inspiration and the Qur’an; and the purpose of recitation and pondering upon the Qur’an is to guide man to attain self-purification and the purification of the souls from the darkness that is present within them so that man’s soul and mind gains the preparedness for understanding the Book and its Wisdom."
(Sahifeh-ye-Imam, Vol.14, page 335)
"The purpose of the bi‘that was to purify the soul of man and the soul gets purified when it gets rid of selfishness, egotism, lust for power, and greed for other worldly things and replaces it with (pure love for) God Almighty."
Sahifeh-ye-Imam, Vol.14, page 338
"The purpose of the bi‘that is to let God rule over the hearts and the society. Unless the upper rungs purify themselves, we cannot expect to see any rectification within this country and the other countries."
(Sahifeh-ye-Imam, Vol.14, page 339)