فترة
Fatra
Event
A pause in revelation after the first revelations; some reports of the Prophet’s distress at that time are not from Aisha.
What it means
Revelation paused for a period after the first revelation at Hira, then resumed with chapter 74. The long report in Sahih al-Bukhari from Aisha ends with a sentence added by the narrator al-Zuhri, who says it reached him that the Prophet in his grief would go to the mountain tops to throw himself off.
Often misunderstood as
That Muhammad tried to kill himself.
What the sources say
Hadith scholars such as Ibn Hajar point out that this sentence is al-Zuhri’s, “it has reached us”, and not part of Aisha’s account, so that it has no chain to the Prophet. The sound part of the report describes his fear and the comfort of Khadija, who said: “God will never disgrace you, for you keep family ties, bear the burdens of the weak and help in calamity.”