The Age of Ignorance ( ar, / , "
ignorance
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge and understanding. The word "ignorant" is an adjective that describes a person in the state of being unaware, or even cognitive dissonance and other cognitive relation, and can describe individuals who are unaware ...
") is an
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic concept referring to the period of time and state of affairs in
Arabia before the advent of Islam in 610 CE.
It is often translated as the "Age of Ignorance".
[ The term ''jahiliyyah'' is derived from the verbal root ''jahala'' () "to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly".][Amros, Arne A. & Stephan Pocházka. (2004). ''A Concise Dictionary of Koranic Arabic'', Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden]
In modern times various Islamic thinkers have used the term to criticize what they saw as the un-Islamic nature of public and private life in the Muslim world. For Islamist scholars like Muhammad Rashid Rida
Muḥammad Rashīd ibn ʿAlī Riḍā ibn Muḥammad Shams al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn Munlā ʿAlī Khalīfa (23 September 1865 or 18 October 1865 – 22 August 1935 CE/ 1282 - 1354 AH), widely known as Sayyid Rashid Rida ( ar, ...
, Abul A'la Maududi
Abul A'la al-Maududi ( ur, , translit=Abū al-Aʿlā al-Mawdūdī; – ) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist and scholar active in British India and later, following the parti ...
, and others, ''Jahiliyyah'' refers to secular modernity and modern Western culture
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
. In his works, Maududi asserted that modernity is the “new jahiliyyah.” Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid 'Ibrāhīm Ḥusayn Quṭb ( or ; , ; ar, سيد قطب إبراهيم حسين ''Sayyid Quṭb''; 9 October 1906 – 29 August 1966), known popularly as Sayyid Qutb ( ar, سيد قطب), was an Egyptian author, educator, Islamic ...
viewed jahiliyyah as a state of domination of humans over humans, as opposed to their submission to God.[Jahiliyyah](_blank)
The Oxford Dictionary of Islam Radical groups have justified armed struggle against secular regimes as a jihad
Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...
against jahiliyyah.[
]
Etymology
The term ''jahiliyyah'' is derived from the Arabic verbal root ''jahala'' "to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly".
Recent scholarship has begun to suggest that ''al-Jahiliyya'' (or simply ''Jahiliyya)'' did not originally express any temporal connotations but instead a state of being. It was only after several centuries following the emergence of the Quran that it began to represent a period of time preceding Muhammad's revelations.
It has been suggested that the word ''jahiliyyah'' in the Quran means "ignorant people", against both the traditional Islamic interpretation "Age of Ignorance", and the Orientalist interpretation "(state of) ignorance" (Ancient Greek ἄγνοια). The basic argument is that the ending ''-iyyah'' in early Arabic (''Arabiyya'') denotes a collective plural noun rather than an abstract noun, as the word ''jahiliyya'' was later understood.
In the Quran
The term ''Jahiliyyah'' is used several places in the Quran, and translations often use various terms to represent it:
*Then, following misery, He sent down upon you a feeling of security, a slumber overcoming a party among you, while another party cared only for themselves, thinking false thoughts about God, thoughts fit for the ''Age of Idolatry''. Quran 3:154
*Do they truly desire the law of ''paganism''? But who is fairer than God in judgment for a people firm of faith? Quran 5:50
*Remain in your homes, and do not display your adornments, as was the case with the earlier ''Age of Barbarism''. Quran 33:33
*For the unbelievers had planted in their hearts a zealotry, the zealotry of ''lawlessness'' ... Quran 48:26
Historical concept
This term can be used in reference to the Arabic culture before the arrival of Islam.
Before the Islamic conversion a portion of the Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
tribes were nomadic, with a strong community spirit and some specific society rules. Their culture was patriarchal, with rudimentary religious beliefs. Although there were some traces of monotheism
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford ...
in the "hanifs
In Islam, a ( ar, حنيف, ḥanīf; plural: , ), meaning "renunciate", is someone who maintains the pure monotheism of the patriarch Abraham. More specifically, in Islamic thought, renunciates were the people who, during the pre-Islamic perio ...
" figures, their religious beliefs were based mostly on idol adorations and social congregations once a year around the Kaaba
The Kaaba (, ), also spelled Ka'bah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah ( ar, ٱلْكَعْبَة ٱلْمُشَرَّفَة, lit=Honored Ka'bah, links=no, translit=al-Kaʿbah al-Musharrafah), is a building at the c ...
for trading and exchanges.
Since the term is, in its deep sense, used as a condition, and not as an historical period, the Jahiliyya is used to describe the period of ignorance and darkness that pre-dated the arrival of Islam. It refers to the general condition of those that haven't accepted the Muslim faith.
A notable usage of this concept during the Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...
is from the 13th-century theologian Ibn Taymiyyyah (d. 1328 C.E/ 728 A.H) who pronounced ''Takfir
''Takfir'' or ''takfīr'' ( ar, تكفير, takfīr) is an Arabic and Islamic term which denotes excommunication from Islam of one Muslim by another, i.e. accusing another Muslim to be an apostate. The word is found neither in the Quran nor in the ...
'' (excommunication) upon the Mongol Ikhanid monarchs who had publicly professed themselves as Muslims; yet implemented a legal system which was based on Yassa code, instead of ''sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
'' (Islamic law). According to Ibn Taymiyyah, a ruler who claims to be Muslim but codifies man-made laws for governance is guilty of the pagan idolatry of ''Jahiliyya''; in spite of his declaration of the ''shahada
The ''Shahada'' (Arabic: ٱلشَّهَادَةُ , "the testimony"), also transliterated as ''Shahadah'', is an Islamic oath and creed, and one of the Five Pillars of Islam and part of the Adhan. It reads: "I bear witness that there is n ...
'' (Islamic testimony of faith), or regular observance of Salah (prayers), ''Sawm
In Islam, fasting (known as ''Sawm'', ar, ; . Or ''Siyam'', ar, ; , also commonly known as Rūzeh or Rōzah, fa, روزه in non-Arab Muslim countries) is the practice of abstaining, usually from food, drink, smoking, and sexual activity. ...
'' (fasting) and other outward expressions of religiosity. Classical ''Mufassir
Tafsir ( ar, تفسير, tafsīr ) refers to exegesis, usually of the Quran. An author of a ''tafsir'' is a ' ( ar, مُفسّر; plural: ar, مفسّرون, mufassirūn). A Quranic ''tafsir'' attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, in ...
'' (Qur'anic commentator) Ibn Kathir
Abū al-Fiḍā’ ‘Imād ad-Dīn Ismā‘īl ibn ‘Umar ibn Kathīr al-Qurashī al-Damishqī (Arabic: إسماعيل بن عمر بن كثير القرشي الدمشقي أبو الفداء عماد; – 1373), known as Ibn Kathīr (, was ...
( d. 1373/ 774 A.H), a prominent pupil of Ibn Taymiyyah, propounds the same belief in his ''Tafsir'' (exegesis) of the Qur'anic
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
verses “''Whoso judgeth not according to what God hath revealed, they are the transgressors. . . . Do they therefore seek after the Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic times)?''” (Surah
A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...
''Al-Ma'idah
Al-Ma'idah ( ar, ٱلمائدة, ; "The Table" or "The Table Spread with Food") is the fifth chapter (''sūrah'') of the Quran, with 120 verses ('' āyāt''). Regarding the timing and contextual background of the revelation (''asbāb al-nu ...
''); writing: " hese versesrefer to people who abide by regulations and laws set by men, to fit their own misguided desires and whims, rather than adhering to the ''Shari'a'' bestowed upon us by Allah
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...
. This was the case with the inhabitants f Arabiaduring the ''jahiliyya'' . . . and (today) with the Mongols who follow the Yasa code set down by Genghis Khan
''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan''
, birth_name = Temüjin
, successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan
, spouse =
, issue =
, house = Borjigin
, ...
, which is a conglomeration of laws, some taken from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and other legal traditions, and many others decided upon by the whim of the Mongol rulers; the whole amalgam being given priority over the laws of Allah laid down in the Koran and the Sunna. Those who follow such (man-made) laws are infidels
An infidel (literally "unfaithful") is a person accused of disbelief in the central tenets of one's own religion, such as members of another religion, or the irreligious.
Infidel is an ecclesiastical term in Christianity around which the Church ...
and should be combated until they comply with the laws of God."
Modern Jahiliyyah and Islamic revivalism
During the 1930s, militant Islamist movements began to increasingly assert that Islamic civilisation was threatened by the encroachment of Western values. At this juncture, the concept of ''Jahiliyya'' was revived by leading Islamic scholars Sayyid Rashid Rida (d.1935 C.E/ 1354 A.H) and Abul A'la Maududi
Abul A'la al-Maududi ( ur, , translit=Abū al-Aʿlā al-Mawdūdī; – ) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist and scholar active in British India and later, following the parti ...
(d. 1979 C.E/ 1399 A.H); both of whom equated the modern Western culture and its values with ''Jahiliyya''. The notion was revived by prominent scholars of the twentieth century Egypt and South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
; regions that were being impacted by increasing Westernization
Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, economi ...
. These scholars saw in the doctrines of classical theologians like Ibn Taymiyya
Ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328; ar, ابن تيمية), birth name Taqī ad-Dīn ʾAḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī ( ar, تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم ...
(d. 1328 C.E/ 728 A.H), Ibn Qayyim
Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb al-Zurʿī l-Dimashqī l-Ḥanbalī (29 January 1292–15 September 1350 CE / 691 AH–751 AH), commonly known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya ("The son of the principal of he school ...
(d. 1350 C.E/ 751 A.H), Ibn Kathir
Abū al-Fiḍā’ ‘Imād ad-Dīn Ismā‘īl ibn ‘Umar ibn Kathīr al-Qurashī al-Damishqī (Arabic: إسماعيل بن عمر بن كثير القرشي الدمشقي أبو الفداء عماد; – 1373), known as Ibn Kathīr (, was ...
(d. 1373 C.E/ 774 A.H), etc. various remedies to the influx of foreign cultural infuences.
Syrian-Egyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
Salafi theologian Rashid Rida was the first major 20th-century Islamist scholar to revive Ibn Taymiyya's ideas. He described those "geographical Muslims" who nominally adhere to Islam without disavowing the man-made laws as being upon the conditioning of ''Jahiliyyah''. Rida asserts in ''Tafsir al-Manar
''Tafsir al-Manar'' ( ar, تفسير المنار, lit=Interpretation of beacon) is a work of Qur'anic exegesis (''tafsir'') by Rashid Rida, the contemporary Islamic scholar and the major figure within the early Salafiyya movement. The tafsir wor ...
'' that the Qur’ānic verse 5:44 condemning those who don't judge by Sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
(Islamic Law) refers to:".. those Muslim ulerswho introduce novel laws today and forsake the Shari'a enjoined upon them by God. . . . They thus abolish supposedly 'distasteful’ penalties such as cutting off the hands of thieves or stoning adulterers and prostitutes. They replace them by man-made laws and penalties. He who does that has undeniably become an infidel."
Abul Ala Maududi
Abul A'la al-Maududi ( ur, , translit=Abū al-Aʿlā al-Mawdūdī; – ) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist and scholar active in British India and later, following the part ...
, characterized modernity with its values, lifestyles, and political norms as the "new Jahiliyyah" which was incompatible with Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. Such criticisms of modernity were taken up in the emerging anti-colonialist rhetoric, and the term gained currency in the Arab world through translations of Maududi
Abul A'la al-Maududi ( ur, , translit=Abū al-Aʿlā al-Mawdūdī; – ) was an Islamic scholar, Islamist ideologue, Muslim philosopher, jurist, historian, journalist, activist and scholar active in British India and later, following the part ...
's work. The concept of modern Jahiliyyah attained wide popularity through a 1950 work by Maududi's student Abul Hasan Nadvi, titled ''What Did the World Lose Due to the Decline of Islam?'' Expounding Maududi's views, Nadvi wrote that Muslims were to be held accountable for their predicament, because they came to rely on alien, un-Islamic institutions borrowed from the West.
in Egypt, Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid 'Ibrāhīm Ḥusayn Quṭb ( or ; , ; ar, سيد قطب إبراهيم حسين ''Sayyid Quṭb''; 9 October 1906 – 29 August 1966), known popularly as Sayyid Qutb ( ar, سيد قطب), was an Egyptian author, educator, Islamic ...
popularized the term in his influential work ''Ma'alim fi al-Tariq
''Maʿālim fī aṭ Ṭarīq'', also ''Ma'alim fi'l-tareeq'', ( ar, معالم في الطريق, ma‘ālim fī t-tarīq) or ''Milestones'', first published in 1964, is a short book written by the influential Egyptian Islamist author Sayyi ...
'' "Milestones", which included the assertion that "the Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries."When a person embraced Islam during the time of the Prophet, he would immediately cut himself off from Jahiliyyah. When he stepped into the circle of Islam, he would 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 could not be tolerated in Islam! With this feeling, he would 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 would become restless with a sense of guilt and would feel the need to purify himself of what had happened, and would turn to the Quran to mold himself according to its guidance. — Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid 'Ibrāhīm Ḥusayn Quṭb ( or ; , ; ar, سيد قطب إبراهيم حسين ''Sayyid Quṭb''; 9 October 1906 – 29 August 1966), known popularly as Sayyid Qutb ( ar, سيد قطب), was an Egyptian author, educator, Islamic ...
In his commentary on verse 5:50 of the Quran, Qutb wrote:
Qutb further wrote: "The foremost duty of Islam in this world is to depose Jahiliyyah from the leadership of man, and to take the leadership into its own hands and enforce the particular way of life which is its permanent feature.
Use of the term for modern Muslim society is usually associated with Qutb's other radical ideas (or Qutbism
Qutbism ( ar, ٱلْقُطْبِيَّةِ, al-Quṭbīyah) is an Islamist ideology which was developed by Sayyid Qutb, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood who was executed by the Egyptian government in 1966. It has been described as adv ...
) -- namely that reappearance of ''Jahiliyya'' is a result of the lack of Sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
law, without which Islam cannot 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.
The Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir (Arabicحزب التحرير (Translation: Party of Liberation) is an international, political organization which describes its ideology as Islam, and its aim the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) to resume Isl ...
adds the concept of the caliphate
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
to that of shariah law to insist that the Muslim world has been living in jahiliyya since the last caliphate was abolished in 1924 will not be free of it until it is restored.
Jahili poetry
With the pre-Islamic period being defined as the time of "Jahiliyyah" meaning "ignorance era", pre-Islamic poetry is commonly referred to in Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
as () or Jahili poetry – literally "the ignorant poetry".
As iconoclastic rationale
Jahiliyya is associated with iconoclasms. In 2015, the ancient history scholar Lucinda Dirven noted that in the destruction of antiquities by the Islamic State terrorist group, the religious rationale also covers for economic and political factors. "Cultural cleansing is a way to claim political power within a certain territory as well as control over history." The assyriologist Eckart Frahm said, "Such iconoclasm is not specifically Islamic... What is quite unique in the case of ISIS is that the destruction is directed against images that are thousands of years old, often damaged, and no longer worshipped by anyone, and that there is a concerted effort to use these acts of vandalism as propaganda by broadcasting them through videos."
See also
*Arabic poetry
Arabic poetry ( ar, الشعر العربي ''ash-shi‘ru al-‘Arabīyyu'') is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that.
Arabic poetry ...
*Hanif
In Islam, a ( ar, حنيف, ḥanīf; plural: , ), meaning "renunciate", is someone who maintains the pure monotheism of the patriarch Abraham. More specifically, in Islamic thought, renunciates were the people who, during the pre-Islamic perio ...
*Pre-Islamic Arabia
Pre-Islamic Arabia ( ar, شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام) refers to the Arabian Peninsula before the emergence of Islam in 610 CE.
Some of the settled communities developed into distinctive civilizations. Informatio ...
*Rahmanism Raḥmānān ( Musnad: 𐩧𐩢𐩣𐩬𐩬 rḥmnn, "the Merciful") was a South Arabian epithet used by Christians, Jews, and pagans in South Arabia. Raḥmānān is usually followed by " Dhu Samawi", possibly "the out of heaven". During the Himyar ...
* Stunde Null
*Takfir
''Takfir'' or ''takfīr'' ( ar, تكفير, takfīr) is an Arabic and Islamic term which denotes excommunication from Islam of one Muslim by another, i.e. accusing another Muslim to be an apostate. The word is found neither in the Quran nor in the ...
*Year Zero (political notion)
Year Zero ( km, ឆ្នាំសូន្យ, ) is an idea put into practice by Pol Pot in Democratic Kampuchea that all culture and traditions within a society must be completely destroyed or discarded and that a new revolutionary culture m ...
References
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Further reading
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External links
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{{Authority control
Arabic words and phrases
Islamic terminology
Conversion to Islam
Pre-Islamic Arabia
Ignorance