Jahiliyyah

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Jāhiliyyah (Arabic: جاهلية) is an Arabic term in Islamic salvation history, often translated as Age of Ignorance. It refers to the pre-Islamic era of Arabia as a whole, or alternatively only the Hejaz, leading up to the lifetime of the prophet Muhammad. The expression serves as a form of grand narrative to paint pre-Islamic Arabians as barbarians in a morally corrupt social order. Its people (the jahl, singular jāhil) are portrayed as lacking religious knowledge (ʿilm) and civilized qualities (ḥilm), resulting in practices of polytheism, idol worship, and alleged female infanticide. The narrative holds that these people characteristically had societies rife with tyranny, injustice, despotism, and anarchy, with prejudice resulting in vainglorious tribal antagonisms. The pre-Islamic age was essentialized into a group of attributes and societal functions that was described as a barbaric way of life that stood in contrast with the mission of Muhammad and the way of life he introduced. Today...

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