The Jahiliyyah

Cards (36)

  • The Arabic word for God is Allah.
  • Muhammad is often regarded as the founder of Islam.
  • Muslims believe in one God.
  • The Qur’an is the Islamic holy book.
  • Islam is against idolatry because it is considered a form of shirk, which is forbidden in Islam.
  • Mecca and Arabia may have experienced significant changes if Muhammad had never been declared 'Seal of The Prophets'.
  • Pre-Islamic Arabia was characterized by idolatry and polytheism.
  • A 'seal of The Prophets' is necessary to distinguish the final messenger from other prophets.
  • The Islamic month of fasting is called Ramadan.
  • Before the night of Laylat al-Qadr, Muhammad was a nomad who struggled to survive due to hostile tribes.
  • Pre-Islamic Arabia is referred to as the Age of Jahiliyyah (understood as ‘ignorance’) in Islam.
  • Pre-Islamic Arabia included Polytheism, the worship or belief in more than one God.
  • Monotheism, the worship or belief in only one God, was also present in Pre-Islamic Arabia, centered within the Ka’aba where there were over 360 idols.
  • As Mecca was declared to be haram of violence, everyone kept their idols at the Ka’aba to worship them in safety but also ensured that everyone in Mecca behaved.
  • Idolatry, the worship of a picture or object, was also a part of Pre-Islamic Arabia.
  • A thriving community of Jewish tribes existed in pre-Islamic Arabia.
  • After Constantine conquered Byzantium in 324 CE, Christianity spread to Arabia.
  • Both Judaism and Christianity reject the view that God is entirely above all, and thus separate from the world, as the pre-Christian Greek Unknown God.
  • Both Judaism and Christianity also reject atheism on one hand and polytheism on the other.
  • Pre-Islamic Arabian society was influenced by nomads and different cultural and religious tribes.
  • Nomads are people who do not stay long in the same place; wanderers, often struggling to survive due to hostile tribes.
  • Being a part of a tribe was crucial to survival, as being a part of a group is much better than being a sole individual.
  • Many tribes’ members, especially the weak, the old, women and children, lived in constant terror.
  • Islam was not a ‘new’ religion to Arabia.
  • Muhammad was orphaned at the age of six when his mother died.
  • Their world was threatened by universal injustice, cheating, drunkenness, sexual immorality and cruelty of all kinds, including the maltreatment of orphans and female infanticide.
  • Muhammad saw first-hand how the leading families of the Quraysh lived as they’d forgotten how God would want them to live.
  • The people of Arabia are believed to have forgotten the previous messages sent down by Allah by the Prophet Ibrahim.
  • Chaos was spreading all over Arabia.
  • The Jahiliyyah period was socially, morally and religiously ignorant about Pre-Islamic Arabia.
  • The Quraysh, Prophet Muhammad’s tribe (monotheistic), were the guards of the Ka’aba and were well-respected.
  • Muhammad was sure that social reform had to be based on a new spiritual foundation, though before the revelations, he had no idea that his destiny would be to implement these changes.
  • Prophet Muhammad was the Seal of the Prophets, sent to bring Arabia back to Islam and reaffirm previous Prophet’s messages through the final Holy Book = The Qur’an.
  • By the end of the sixth century, Arabs considered their own tribe first before anything, no matter what a tribe member had done.
  • They were arrogant, reckless, ungenerous and egotistical, believed only in riches, and took no responsibility for people outside their immediate, elite circle.
  • Muhammad saw this decline in traditional values as a threat to the very existence of his tribe.