How Islam Began

In Muhammad's retelling of his first revelation, he says that an angel tried to make him read something and repeatedly "pressed" him harshly when he failed to read it. He then went to kill himself, thinking that he was "a poet or possessed", but this "angel" told him "Oh Muhammad! thou art the apostle of God and I am Gabriel." Read the story for yourself:

When it was the night on which God honored him with his mission and showed mercy on His servants thereby, Gabriel brought him the command of God. "He came to me," said the apostle of God, "while I was asleep, with a coverlet of brocade whereon was some writing, and said, 'Read!' I said, 'What shall I read?' He pressed me with it so tightly that I thought it was death; then he let me go and said, 'Read!' I said, 'What shall I read? 'He pressed me with it again so that I thought it was death; then he let me go and said 'Read!' I said, 'What shall I read?' He pressed me with it the third time so that I thought it was death and said 'Read!' I said, 'What then shall I read?'—and this I said only to deliver myself from him, lest he should do the same to me again. He said:

'Read in the name of thy Lord who created, Who created man of blood coagulated. Read! Thy Lord is the most beneficent, Who taught by the pen, Taught that which they knew not unto men.'

"So I read it, and he departed from me. And I awoke from my sleep, and it was as though these words were written on my heart."

Now none of God's creatures was more hateful to me than an (ecstatic) poet or a man possessed: I could not even look at them. I thought, Woe is me poet or possessed—Never shall Quraysh say this of me! I will go to the top of the mountain and throw myself down that I may kill myself and gain rest.' (Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah, p. 106)

Does this sound like the story of a prophet of God, or a man being tormented by a demon?