Waraqah ibn Nawfal and the News of the First Revelation

Another example is Waraqah ibn Nawfal. Waraqah ibn Nawfal was the cousin of Khadījah (may Allah be pleased with her), the wife of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Waraqah ibn Nawfal was a Christian, and he was a lettered man, and he used to copy some of the scripture of the Christians and study from it, and he had some of these scrolls, and he was a believer in one God — a believer in Allah (swt). Again, there were some Christians here and there who still believed in the oneness of Allah (swt), and they would not attribute divinity to ʿĪsā (peace be upon him); Waraqah ibn Nawfal was one of them.

Waraqah ibn Nawfal was the one Khadījah (may Allah be pleased with her) consulted when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) first received the revelation. Immediately after that, Waraqah ibn Nawfal passed away, so people were wondering what would happen to him, and some of them were saying that Waraqah ibn Nawfal was in the Hellfire, because he died before the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) started preaching the message — even though he had received the message, he hadn't started preaching it yet, and Waraqah ibn Nawfal died before that, so they said that he would be in the Hellfire. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "I have seen him in a dream, and he was wearing white clothes" — if he were a man in the Hellfire, he would not be wearing white clothes. Later on, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saw another dream, and he saw that Waraqah ibn Nawfal had two gardens in Paradise, so he was in Paradise, because he had the true belief — he had the right belief.