ʿAʾisha relates that the Prophet ﷺ loved seclusion and would withdraw to the cave of Hiraʾ, worshipping Allah for several nights in a row, until the angel came to him and said: “Read!”; these were the first verses of Surah al-ʿAlaq (al-Bukhari 3).
Meaning of the name Hira
Hiraʾ is the name of a mountain near Mecca, today called Jabal al-Nur, “the mountain of light”, and of the cave where the Prophet ﷺ used to withdraw to worship Allah before the revelation. It is a place name whose original meaning is unknown. Hira has become a common girls’ name in Turkey and Pakistan.
In Arabic
حِرَاءحراء
Transliteration
Ḥirāʾ
Gender
Girl
Origin
Arabic
Is Hira in the Quran?
No: the name Hira does not appear in the Quran. A name can be beautiful and permissible without coming from the Quran.
In the hadiths
AuthenticMuttafaq ‘alayh (Bukhari and Muslim)Sahih al-Bukhari 3
The first thing the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) started to experience from the revelation was the good vision in his sleep. He never saw a vision except that it came true like the break of dawn. Then seclusion was endeared to him, and he used to retreat to the…
أَوَّلُ مَا بُدِئَ بِهِ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم مِنَ الْوَحْىِ الرُّؤْيَا الصَّالِحَةُ فِي النَّوْمِ، فَكَانَ لاَ يَرَى رُؤْيَا إِلاَّ جَاءَتْ مِثْلَ فَلَقِ الصُّبْحِ، ثُمَّ حُبِّبَ إِلَيْهِ الْخَلاَءُ…
