REFLECTIONS

ON PROPHETIC HISTORY

WEEK 2: SYMPTOMS OF J AHILIYYAH

Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
The Arab character:
Shaped by the dessert life
Bedouin
Fiery temper, ardent in love, bitter in
hate, delighted in war
Generous and hospitable
Poetry: praise themselves, kindred and
friends. Bitter shafts of blame against
their foes


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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
The Arab character:
Brave and courageous and manfully in all
situations
Muruwwah (manliness) and ird (honour)
Hardness and strength
Emotional attachment of the Bedouin to his
clan
Unity of blood and social unity was under
mothers kinship
(Hilf) Alliances of tribes and (jiwar) granting
of protection to individuals and tribes.
Revenge and vengeance

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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Social disintegration:
Ukaz gathering (between Nakhlah and Taif):
Friends and enemies
Lots of wine
Poets recite their poetical composition
Drinking:
Fornication
Slavery and slave girls from Syria and
Iraq, through caravans from Byzantine
empire, Syria, Persia, and India

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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Social disintegration:
Drinking, dancing, and gambling in groups
No sanctity for matrimonial relations,
describing publicly their adulterous
adventures
No notion of conjugal fidelity among the
most of the tribes (marriage)
The custom of polyandry
No distinction between legitimate and
illegitimate offspring




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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Social disintegration:
Female infanticide due to generosity and
honor kill not your children on a plea of
want;- We provide sustenance for you and
for them (6:151)
The news of a birth of daughter is a sad
one for the family and the tribe With
shame does he hide himself from his
people, because of the bad news he has
had! Shall he retain it on (sufferance and)
contempt, or bury it in the dust? Ah! what
an evil (choice) they decide on? (16:59)



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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Social disintegration:
Females are sold to their husbands
Females were not allowed share in the
inheritance of their husbands, parents, etc
No limit on the number of wives



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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Economic exploitation (Hijaz and Najd):
Stock-breeding (nomads)
Agriculture in the oasis and mountains
(Yathrib & Taif)
Charges paid by traders who pass through
Makkah (Makkah was the centre of trades,
they were middlemen and retailers).
Skillful manipulation of credit
Women also participated in trade (Abu Jahls
wife ran perfumery business, Hinda the wife
of abu suffiyan, etc.



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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Economic exploitation (Hijaz and Najd):
Riba formed the backbone of the financial
and economic system.
The lending and repayment, and taking
ownership of wives and children
The gambling






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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Religious Bankruptcy:
If indeed you ask them who has created the
heavens and the earth and subjected the sun
and the moon (to his Law), they will certainly
reply, "Allah". How are they then turned
away (from the truth)? (29:61)
And if indeed thou ask them who it is that
sends down rain from the sky, and gives life
therewith to the earth after its death, they
will certainly reply, "Allah!. (29:63)
If thou ask them, who created them, they will
certainly say, Allah: How then are they
turned away (from the Truth)? (43:87)
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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Religious Bankruptcy:
They believe He delegated his powers to
living and lifeless intermediaries.
Idol worshiping:
Goddesses: Klab tribe: wadd, Huzail:
Suwa, Quraish: Yaguth and Manat
between Mediah and Makkah worhibed by
Aus and Khazraj.
Thaqif & Quraish: al-Laat (destoyed by al-
Mighirah inb shubah). Then al-Uzzah in
Makkah.






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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Religious Bankruptcy:
They believe that they are the daughters of Allah:
Have ye seen Lat. and 'Uzza, (19) And another, the
third (goddess), Manat? (20) What! for you the
male sex, and for Him, the female? (21) Behold,
such would be indeed a division most unfair!
(22) These are nothing but names which ye have
devised,- ye and your fathers,- for which Allah
has sent down no authority (whatever). They
follow nothing but conjecture and what their own
souls desire!- Even though there has already
come to them Guidance from their Lord! (23)
Nay, shall man have (just) anything he hankers
after? (24) But it is to Allah that the End and the
Beginning (of all things) belong. (53:19-23)






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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Religious Bankruptcy:
They had several idols in and around the
Kabah: The most famous is Hubal.
A one handed goddess. Used by Kahn to
shuffle and through the arrows (Pure,
impure). To decide on children, marriage,
intended travel, etc.
Another two are Usaf and Nailah, close
to Kabah and near Zamzam.
Ansaab (stones), Asnaam (body) Awthan
(non-living) shapes.





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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Religious Bankruptcy:
Idol worshiping:
1. Asking for favors
2. Sujud and Tawaf
3. Sacrifices
4. Intercede for them with Allah
Pilgrimage and Umrah and Araf and
Muzdalifah, and Talbiah, and scarifying,
circumambulating the Kaba naked, clapping
their hands and singing.
Their argument: dont want to use the close
that they committed sin in.





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Symptoms of Jahiliyyah
Religious Bankruptcy:
Worshiping Heavenly bodies, trees, dead
heroes of their tribes, the Sun.
They go to Kahin (seers of future).
They believed in signs: crossing of the
animal in front of him or (Zajr al-tayr).
Christianity
Judaism






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