Surah an-Najm (The Star ) 53 : 23

According to a hadith related by Bukhari and Muslim on the authority of Abdullah bin Mas’ud, this is the first Surah in which a verse requiring the performance of a prostration (sajdah) was sent down. The parts of this hadith which have been reported by Aswad bin Yazid, Abu Ishaq and Zubair bin Mu’awiyah from Ibn Mas’ud, indicate that this is the first Surah of the Qur’an, which the Prophet had publicly recited before an assembly of the Quraysh (and according to Ibn Marduyah, in the Ka’bah) in which both the believers and the disbelievers were present. At the end, when he recited the verse requiring the performance of a sajdah and fell down in prostration, the whole assembly also fall down in prostration with him. Even those chiefs of the polytheists who were in the forefront of the opposition to the Prophet could not resist falling down in prostration. Ibn Mas’ud says that he saw only one man, Umayyah bin Khalaf, from among the disbelievers, who did not fall down in prostration but took a little dust and rubbing it on his forehead said that that was enough for him. Later, as Ibn Mas’ud relates, he saw this man being killed in the state of disbelief.

Another eye witness of this incident is Muttalib bin Abi Wada’ah, who had not yet become a Muslim. Nasai and Musnad Ahmad contain his own words to the effect: “When the Prophet recited the Surah An-Najm and performed the sajdah and the whole assembly fell down in prostration along with him, I did not perform the sajdah. Now to compensate for the same whenever I recite this Surah I make sure never to abandon its performance.”

Ibn Sad says that before this, in the Rajab of the 5th year of Prophethood, a small group of the Companions had emigrated to Abyssinia. Then, when in the Ramadan of the same year this incident took place the news spread that the Prophet had recited Surah 53: an-Najm (The Star) publicly in the assembly of the Quraysh and the whole assembly, including the believers as well as the disbelievers, had fallen down in prostration with him. When the emigrants to Abyssinia heard this news they formed the impression that the disbelievers of Makkah had become Muslims. Thereupon, some of them returned to Makkah in the Shawwal of the 5th year of Prophethood, only to learn that the news was wrong and the conflict between Islam and disbelief was raging as furiously as before. Consequently, the second emigration to Abyssinia took place, in which many more people left Makkah. Thus, it becomes almost certain that this Surah was revealed in the Ramadan of the 5th year of Prophethood.