Jahiliyya: Difference between revisions

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==In the Quran==

The word "Jahiliyya" is used 4 times in the [[Quran]], and in all cases it was reproached and disapproved. Such a disapprobative tone is present in some other Quranic verses in which other cognates of the word, such as "yajhalūn" ({{InlineArabic|یجهلون }}, they ignore) and "jāhilūn/jāhilīn" ({{InlineArabic|جاهلون/جاهلین }}, the ignorants), are used. In general, the Quran points to a certain period of the Arabic history before Islam and it calls it the Age of Ignorance (Jahiliyya) because people displayed ignorant (jahili) conducts.

* The [[Quran, 3]]:154, "they think of Allah thoughts that were not true, the thought of ignorance (jahiliyya)", reproaches some people because of untrue thoughts about [[God]]. [[Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari|Al-Tabari]] takes the verse to refer to [[hypocrisy|hypocrites]] who thought wrongly about God and [[the Prophet (s)]]. [[Fadl b. Hasan al-Tabrisi|Al-Tabrisi]] takes the "thought of ignorance" to be the thought entertained by hypocrites to the effect that God will not help the Prophet (s) and his [[Companions of the Prophet (s)|companions]]. However, [['Allama Tabataba'i]] maintains that the "thought of ignorance" refers to the thought entertained by some Muslims that because they converted to [[Islam]], they should definitely win all the battles, and God is required to unconditionally help His religion and its followers.

* The [[Quran, 5]]:50: "do they then seek after a judgment of ignorance (jahiliyya)?" The judgment of ignorance refers to a sort of whimsical judgment not based on any [[revelation]] or a book. The verse encompasses anyone who seeks after a judgment other than that of God. 'Allama Tabataba'i appealed to a [[hadith]] from [[Imam al-Sadiq (a)]] to conclude that judgments are either divine or out of ignorance (jahiliyya).

* The [[Quran, 33]]:33: "make not a dazzling display, like that of the former times of ignorance". [[:Category:Wives of the Prophet (s)|The Prophet (s)'s wives]], as well as other Muslim women, are [[Haram (forbidden)|prohibited]] by this [[verse]] from displaying themselves the way women in the Age of Jahiliyya displayed themselves, such as arrogant walking or showing their ornaments to men.

* The [[Quran, 48]]:26: "when the unbelievers established in their hearts zealotry, the zealotry of ignorance (Jahiliyya)". The "zealotry of ignorance" refers to the bigotry of Arabs in the Age of Ignorance for their [[idol]]s preventing them from enlightened thinking, such as thinking about the Prophet (s)'s message. According to [[Fakhr al-Din al-Razi]], zealotry is a bad personal character, and "zealotry of ignorance" is doubly so.

Contemporary Orientalists, and in particular, researchers in Islamic and Arab studies as well as the Prophet (s) and [[Quran]]ic studies, shed more light on the concept of Jahiliyya.

Although Golziher's view was later put into doubt, and later translators of the Quran did not take his view into account when they translated the word "jahl" and its cognates, his research as well as newer researches about the Arabic culture before [[Islam]] provided material for later researchers.

In his book, ''Ethico-religious concepts in the Quran'', the Japanese scholar of Islamic studies, Toshihiku Izutsu, drew upon a research based on [[Quranic verses]] and evidence from hadiths and history to develop Godziher's view, and he arrived at the conclusion that in the Quranic usage, the word "jahl" and its cognates refer to the hostility of the Prophet (s)'s opponents to [[monotheism]]; they thought that monotheism was a strict and onerous belief. During the period of Jahiliyya, people of Arab did not take [[Allah]] to be the only god; rather they believed that there was a hierarchy of gods none of whom was to be obeyed in an absolute manner. Thus the belief that Allah was the only god would make a drastic change in their conception of the relation between God and humans, because it requires that one be unconditionally obedient of one and the same God. In fact, such obedience requires that one give up one's arrogance and selfishness, whereas Jahiliyya requires the idea of human autonomy. Drawing on Quranic verses, Izutsu took arrogance to be the origin of all characters of Jahiliyya.

Moreover, Rosenthal has—in addition to a lexicological investigation of the word "jahiliyya"—compared Jewish sources and Quranic verses in this regard.

According to evidence from the Quran and hadiths, as well as scholarly researches, Jahiliyya did not end by the emergence of Islam, rather many of its residues remained among early Muslims such that the early centuries of the Islamic history can rightly be called the period of conflict between the culture of Jahiliyya and new Islamic values.

[[ur:جاہلیت]]