Waraka ibn Nawfal (died 610) was a religious scholar and the cousin of Khadijah bint Khuwaylid and Muhammad.
Biography[]
Waraka ibn Nawfal was born in Mecca, within the clan of banu Assad ibn Abd-Al-Uzza, his father is Nawfal ibn Assad, his uncles and aunts are Amrou, Al-Harith, Al-Houwairith, Al-Muttalib, Uthman, Oum Habib and Arnab.
Waraka ibn Nawfal was a monotheist even before the rise of Islam, studying the Bible and writing the New Testament in Arabic, translating it from Greek. In 576, Waraka returned a lost five-year-old Muhammad to his grandfather Abdul-Muttalib, a foreshadowng of his acceptance of Muhammad's prophecy. When he saw Umayyah ibn Khalaf torturing his slave Bilal ibn Rabah for his monotheistic belifs, Waraka threatened to make Bilal's tomb into a shrine, also insisting that there was one God. Waraka continued to study the scriptures as Muhammad grew older, and he believed that Muhammad was the prophet of his people. Muhammad said that he had foreseen two gardens for Waraka in Paradise, and Waraka died before Muhammad's advent.
Notes[]
- According to Ibn Ishaq, Waraka ibn Nawfal was a Nestorian monk, while other Muslim sources say he was Jewish, and some who followed Hanafisma.