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CHAPTER ONE
Our knowledge about the period before Islam derives from various
sources such-as The Qurlan, The Hadith, Literature and various
biographies. That erajs usually called Jahiliyyah (ignorance),
a term which is found in the Qurlan-
"While another band was stirred to anxiety
by their own interes%, moved by wrong suspicions
of God - suspicions due to ignorance (Jahiliyyah).
In addition, the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have told Abu
Dharr, when the latter upbraided a man's mother :
"You are a man within whom there is Jahiliyyah-11
A clear delineation of Jahiliyyah was given by Jalafar ibn AbC jWlib
as he stood before the Negus of Abyssinia seeking asylum for himself
and the group of early Muslims who had fled the persecution of Pagan
Mecca to the safety and liberality of the Christian Kingdom across
the Red Sea. 110 King. " he said. "we were a people of Jahiliyyah
worshipping idols. eating the raw flesh of dead animals. committing
abominations. neglecting our relative$, doing evil to our neighbours
3
and the strong among. us would oppress the weak. " For Jalafar
then., Jahiliyyah was associated with ignorance of and deviation from
the true religion. a deviation which had also moral, social and
political implications. It implied a general way of life. a
pervasive code of behaviourg which was to be supplanted by the new
faith. The Qurlan describes the transformation as a movement
from the depth of darkne sa to the light.
The term of Jahiliyyah is a purely Islamic coinage, a term
implying 'Ignorance'
11 Q. 3.151to
4
- either of the true faith or of the way of
2. See Ali. Jawlaýd. Tgr*fkh al-! Areb Qab - al- IslZ& (The Arab History
before Islam), Po 40.
3. Zakaria Bashier, The Meccan Crucible. P. 18
4. Q. 57
, 9.
2
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