Everything about Jahiliyya totally explained
Jahiliyyah,
al-Jahiliyah or
jahalia (
Arabic:
جاهلية) is an
Islamic concept of "ignorance of divine guidance" or "the state of ignorance of the guidance from God" or "Days of Ignorance" referring to the condition Arabs found themselves in
pre-Islamic Arabia, for example prior to the
revelation of the
Qur'an to
Muhammad. By extension it means the state of anyone not following
Islam and the Qur'an.
Background
The term is used several places in the Qur'an, for example:
Is it a judgment of the time of (pagan) ignorance [jahiliyya] that they're seeking ? Who is better than Allah for judgment to a people who have certainty (in their belief) ? (5:50)
and also 3:154, 33:33, 48:26
Medieval Islamic scholar
Ibn Taymiya was probably the first to use the term to describe backsliding in contemporary Muslim society (in other words to describe groups of people who thought they
did have the benefit of God's guidance from the Qur'an). In the 20th century, Indian Islamist writer
Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi wrote of it.
Sayyid Qutb popularized the term in his influential work
Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq (Milestones), with the shocking assertion that "the Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries."
When a person embraced Islam during the time of the Prophet, he'd immediately cut himself off from Jahiliyyah. [Thestate of ignorance of the guidance from God.] When he stepped into the circle of Islam, he'd start a new life, separating himself completely from his past life under ignorance of the Divine Law. He would look upon the deeds during his life of ignorance with mistrust and fear, with a feeling that these were impure and couldn't be tolerated in Islam! With this feeling, he'd turn toward Islam for new guidance; and if at any time temptations overpowered him, or the old habits attracted him, or if he became lax in carrying out the injunctions of Islam, he'd become restless with a sense of guilt and would feel the need to purify himself of what had happened, and would turn to the Qur'an to mold himself according to its guidance.
—Sayyid Qutb
Jahiliyya in contemporary society
Use of the term for modern Muslim society is usually associated with Qutb's other radical ideas (or
Qutbism) -- namely that reappearance of
Jahiliyya is a result of the lack of
Sharia law, without which Islam can't exist; that true Islam is a complete system with no room for any element of
Jahiliyya; that all aspects of
Jahiliyya ("manners, ideas and concepts, rules and regulations, values and criteria") are "evil and corrupt"; that Western and Jewish conspiracies are constantly at work to destroy Islam, etc.
Non-Muslim societies may also be termed
jahili. One western academic has compared the idea of contemporary Jahiliyya in some radical Islamic circles to the
secular Marxist idea of
false consciousness - in each case the masses being unaware they're not following their true consciousness by rising up to overthrow the
capitalist system and replacing it with
socialism (in the case of Marxism); or overthrow the secular state and replace it with the true Islam of strict
sharia law (in the case of Qutbism).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Jahiliyya'.
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