Waraqa ibn Nawfal
ورقة بن نوفل
c. 555 CE – c. 610 CE
Khadija's cousin, an elderly Meccan Christian who had studied the scriptures; the man who first told the shaken Prophet that what had come to him in the cave was prophecy.
At a glance
- Roles
- Scholar
- Era
- The Prophetic Era
- Region
- Arabia
- Review
- Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it
In time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
Islam and ChristianityConverts and those who leaveScripture and its sciences
Place in the story
- ScholarTradition
- InterlocutortowardMuhammad · 610 CE – 610 CETradition
Christian (transmitted)
Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.
Brief
Waraqa ibn Nawfal was Khadija's elderly cousin — a Meccan Christian who could read scripture — and the first person to tell Muhammad that what had come to him in the cave was prophecy.
Life
An old man of Quraysh, blind in his last years, Waraqa had "read the scriptures" — the tradition says he could write Hebrew or transcribe the Gospel in Arabic 1.
When the Prophet returned from Hira' shaken, Khadija brought him to Waraqa. The old man's verdict — the tradition's hinge — was that what had descended on Moses had descended on Muhammad: the great namus (law). And then the warning: "Would that I were young when your people drive you out" 1.
He died soon after, before the preaching became public 2.
Legacy
Waraqa is the tradition's bridge between Islam and the older scriptures: a Christian elder inside the story who names what is happening before the new community itself has a name.
For young visitors
The first person to understand what was happening to Muhammad was an old Christian man who had spent his life reading scripture — and he told him so.
Connections
- Died in
- Mecca
- Member of
- QurayshBanu Asad ibn Abd al-Uzza
- Participated in
- The first revelation
People and things also explored
Khadija bint KhuwaylidThe pause of revelation (Fatra)The prostration at surat al-NajmThe early Muslim communityAbdullah ibn AbbasAbdullah ibn KhatalAmr ibn al-AsAttab ibn Usayd
Sources
- Ibn Ishaq / Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (1955)
- Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir (Bewley translation, Ta-Ha)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Waraqa ibn Nawfal”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/waraqa-ibn-nawfal/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-12.