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{{short description|Islamic term referring to the period of time before the rise of Islam in the 7th century CE}}
{{redirect|Jahalia|the Romanian village|Râşca, Suceava}}
{{Islam}}
'''''Jahiliyyah''''' ({{lang-ar|{{wikt-lang|ar|جَاهِلِيَّة}}}} {{transl|ALA|jāhilīyah}} {{IPA-ar|d͡ʒæːhɪˈlɪj.jæ|}}, "[[wikt:ignorance|ignorance]]") is the negative, Islamic-[[Arabic]] argument used to describe the culture of pre-Islamic Arabia in Islamic Understanding.<ref name=EI>{{EI2|title=Djāhiliyya|volume=2|pages=383–384}}</ref>

It is often used in a phrase of the form '''Age of Jahiliyya''' to refer to the time period in [[pre-Islamic Arabia]] and the culture of belief, worship and behavior.<ref name=OEIW>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Eleanor Abdella Doumato (rev. Byron D. Cannon)|title=Jāhilīyah|encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World|editor=John L. Esposito|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-530513-5 |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001/acref-9780195305135-e-0406|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The term ''jahiliyyah'' may be derived from the verbal root ''jahala'' ({{lang|ar|جهل}}), "to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly".<ref name="ambros">Amros, Arne A. & Stephan Pocházka. (2004). ''A Concise Dictionary of Koranic Arabic'', Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden</ref> Alternatively, it is an [[abstract noun]] derived from ''jāhil'', referring to barbarism.<ref name=EI/>

In modern times various Islamic thinkers have used the term to criticize what they see as the un-Islamic nature of public and private life in the Muslim world.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Eleanor Abdella Doumato (rev. Byron D. Cannon)|title=Jāhilīyah|encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World|editor=John L. Esposito|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-530513-5 |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001/acref-9780195305135-e-0406|url-access=subscription }}</ref> For [[Islamist]] scholars like [[Muhammad Rashid Rida]], [[Abul A'la Maududi]], and others, ''Jahiliyyah'' refers to [[Secularism|secular modernity]] and modern [[Western culture]]. In his works, Maududi asserted that modernity is the "new jahiliyyah."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Worth|first=Robert|date=13 October 2021|title=The Deep Intellectual Roots of Islamic Terror|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/13/arts/the-deep-intellectual-roots-of-islamic-terror.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091111063054/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/13/arts/the-deep-intellectual-roots-of-islamic-terror.html|archive-date=11 November 2009|website=The New York Times }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=L. Esposito|first=John|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=0-19-512558-4|location=New York|pages=154 }}</ref> [[Sayyid Qutb]] viewed jahiliyyah as a state of domination of humans over humans, as opposed to their submission to God.<ref name="ODI">[http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1157 Jahiliyyah] The Oxford Dictionary of Islam</ref> Radical groups have justified armed struggle against secular regimes as a [[jihad]] against jahiliyyah.<ref name=ODI/>

== Etymology ==
The term ''jahiliyyah'' is derived from the Arabic verbal root ''jahala'' "to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly".<ref name="ambros"/>
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).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bjorsnes|first1=Amund|title=Jāhiliyya and Rahbāniyya in the Qur'ān|journal=Reading Slowly: A Festschrift for Jens e. Braarvig, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz |url=https://www.academia.edu/35825585|access-date=8 July 2018|date=2018|doi=10.2307/j.ctvckq4dr.9 }}</ref> 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]]<ref>({{cite quran|3|154|s=ns|b=n}})</ref>
*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 ]]<ref>({{cite quran|5|50|s=ns|b=n}})</ref>
*Remain in your homes, and do not display your adornments, as was the case with the earlier ''Age of Barbarism''. [[Quran 33:33]]<ref>({{cite quran|33|33|s=ns|b=n}})</ref>
*For the unbelievers had planted in their hearts a zealotry, the zealotry of ''lawlessness'' ... [[Quran 48:26]]<ref>({{cite quran|48|26|s=ns|b=n}})</ref>

==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]] 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]] in the "[[hanifs]]" figures, their religious beliefs were based mostly on idol adorations<ref>{{cite web|last=Ali Tajddin S. Ali|first=Mumtaz|title=Jahiliyya|url=http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Jahiliyya/1066249}}</ref> and social congregations once a year around the [[Kaaba]] for trading and exchanges.
Since the term is, in its deep sense, used as a condition, and not as an historical period,<ref>{{cite book|last=Colla|first=Elliott|title=Conflicted antiquities: Egyptology, Egyptomania, Egyptian modernity|year=2007|publisher=Duke University Press|location=U.S.A|pages=265, 266|isbn=978-0822390398|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mLkEUbyHYWEC&q=historical+period+of+jahiliyya&pg=PA266}}</ref> 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]] is from the 13th-century theologian [[Ibn Taymiyyah|Ibn Taymiyyyah]] (d. 1328 C.E/ 728 A.H) who pronounced ''[[Takfir]]'' (excommunication) upon the [[Ilkhanate|Mongol Ikhanid]] monarchs who had publicly professed themselves as Muslims; yet implemented a legal system which was based on [[Yassa|Yassa code]], instead of ''[[sharia]]'' (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]]'' (Islamic testimony of faith), or regular observance of Salah (prayers), ''[[Fasting in Islam|Sawm]]'' (fasting) and other outward expressions of religiosity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sivan |first=Emmanuel |title=Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-300-04914-5 |location=Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton, N.Y., USA |pages=96–98 |chapter=Four: The Sunni revolution}}</ref> Classical ''[[Mufassir]]'' (Qur'anic commentator) [[Ibn Kathir]] ( d. 1373/ 774 A.H), a prominent pupil of Ibn Taymiyyah, propounds the same belief in his ''Tafsir'' (exegesis) of the [[Quran|Qur'anic]] 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]] ''[[Al-Ma'idah]]''); writing: <blockquote>"[These verses] refer 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]]. This was the case with the inhabitants [of Arabia] during the ''jahiliyya'' . . . and (today) with the Mongols who follow the Yasa code set down by [[Genghis Khan]], 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 [[Sunni Islam|Sunna]]. Those who follow such (man-made) laws are [[Kuffar|infidels]] and should be combated until they comply with the laws of God."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sivan |first=Emmanuel |title=Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-300-04914-5 |location=Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton, N.Y., USA |pages=97–98 |chapter=Four: The Sunni revolution}}</ref></blockquote>

=="Modern Jahiliyyah" argument and Islamic revivalism==
{{Further|Qutbism}}

During the 1930s, militant [[Islamism|Islamist]] movements began to increasingly assert that [[Islamic culture|Islamic civilisation]] was threatened by the encroachment of Western values. At this juncture, the concept of ''Jahiliyya'' was revived by leading Islamic scholars [[Rashid Rida|Sayyid Rashid Rida]] (d.1935 C.E/ 1354 A.H) and [[Abul A'la Maududi]] (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]]; regions that were being impacted by increasing [[Westernization]]. These scholars saw in the doctrines of classical theologians like [[Ibn Taymiyya]] (d. 1328 C.E/ 728 A.H), [[Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya|Ibn Qayyim]] (d. 1350 C.E/ 751 A.H), [[Ibn Kathir]] (d. 1373 C.E/ 774 A.H), etc. various remedies to the influx of foreign cultural infuences.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Worth|first=Robert|date=13 October 2021|title=The Deep Intellectual Roots of Islamic Terror|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/13/arts/the-deep-intellectual-roots-of-islamic-terror.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091111063054/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/13/arts/the-deep-intellectual-roots-of-islamic-terror.html|archive-date=11 November 2009|website=The New York Times }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sivan |first=Emmanuel |title=Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-300-04914-5 |location=Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton, N.Y., USA |pages=101 |chapter=Four: The Sunni revolution}}</ref>

[[Syrians|Syrian]]-[[Egyptians|Egyptian]] [[Salafi movement|Salafi]] theologian Rashid Rida was the first major 20th-century [[Islamism|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''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sivan |first=Emmanuel |title=Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-300-04914-5 |location=Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton, N.Y., USA |pages=101–102 |chapter=Four: The Sunni revolution}}</ref> Rida asserts in ''[[Tafsir al-Manar]]'' that the Qur’ānic verse 5:44 condemning those who don't judge by [[Sharia]] (Islamic Law) refers to:<blockquote>".. those Muslim [rulers] who 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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sivan |first=Emmanuel |title=Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-300-04914-5 |location=Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton, N.Y., USA |pages=101 |chapter=Four: The Sunni revolution}}</ref></blockquote>

[[Abul Ala Maududi]], characterized modernity with its values, lifestyles, and political norms as the "new Jahiliyyah" which was incompatible with [[Islam]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=L. Esposito|first=John|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=0-19-512558-4|location=New York|page=154}}</ref> 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 [[Abul Ala Maududi|Maududi]]'s work.<ref name="OEIW" /> The concept of modern Jahiliyyah attained wide popularity through a 1950 work by Maududi's student [[Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi|Abul Hasan Nadvi]], titled ''What Did the World Lose Due to the Decline of Islam?''<ref name="OEIW" /> 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.<ref name="OEIW" />

in Egypt, [[Sayyid Qutb]] popularized the term in his influential work ''[[Ma'alim fi al-Tariq]]'' "Milestones", which included the assertion that "the Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries."<ref>Qutb, ''Milestones'', p. 9</ref><blockquote>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]]<ref>Qutb, ''Milestones'', p. 19</ref></blockquote>

In his commentary on verse 5:50 of the Quran, Qutb wrote:<ref>William E. Shepard [https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/1647/files/294990 SAYYID QUTB'S DOCTRINE OF JAHILIYYA] Int. J. Middle East Stud. 35 (2003), 521-545.</ref>

{{quote|Jahiliyya [...] is the rule of humans by humans because it involves making some humans servants of others, rebelling against service to God, rejecting God's divinity (''ulahiyya'') and, in view of this rejection, ascribing divinity to some humans and serving them apart from God. [...] People—in any time and any place—are either governed by God's shari'a—entirely, without any reservations—accepting it and submitting to it, in which case they are following God's religion, or they are governed by a shari'a invented by humans, in whatever form, and accept it. In that case they are in jahiliyya [...]|author=|title=|source=}}

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.<ref>Miroslav Volf [http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2014/03/11/3960854.htm Exclusion or Saturation? Rethinking the Place of Religion in Public Life] ABC Religion and Ethics. 2014</ref>

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 cannot exist;<ref>Qutb, ''Milestones'', p.9, 82</ref> that true Islam is a complete system with no room for any element of ''Jahiliyya'';<ref>Qutb, ''Milestones'', p.32, 47</ref> that all aspects of ''Jahiliyya'' ("manners, ideas and concepts, rules and regulations, values and criteria") are "evil and corrupt";<ref>Qutb, ''Milestones'', p.9, 132</ref> that Western and Jewish conspiracies are constantly at work to destroy Islam,<ref>Qutb, ''Milestones'', p.110-111, 114, 116</ref> etc.

The Islamist group [[Hizb ut-Tahrir]] adds the concept of the [[caliphate]] 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.khilafah.com/the-re-establishment-of-the-khilafah-is-an-obligation-upon-all-muslims/ |title=The Re-establishment of the Khilafah is an obligation upon all Muslims |website=khilafah.com |date=24 June 2007 |access-date=5 April 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1= Baran|first1=Zeyno |url=http://www.bits.de/public/documents/US_Terrorist_Attacks/Hizbut-ahrirIslam'sPoliticalInsurgency.pdf |title=Hizb ut-Tahrir: Islam's Political Insurgency |publisher=Nixon Center |date=December 2004 |access-date=2016-03-30 |page=18 |ref=ZBHTIPI2004}}</ref>

==Jahili poetry==
{{Main|Pre-Islamic 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]] as {{transl|ar|al-shiʿr al-jāhilī}} ({{lang|ar|الشعر الجاهلي}}) or [[Arabic poetry#Pre-Islamic poetry|Jahili poetry]] – literally "the ignorant poetry".

==As iconoclastic rationale==
{{See also|Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL}}

Jahiliyya is associated with iconoclasms. In 2015, the ancient history scholar Lucinda Dirven noted that in the destruction of antiquities by the [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|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."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Dirven|first1=Lucinda|title=Iconoclasm in the 'Islamic State'|url=https://www.academia.edu/14876309|access-date=8 October 2015|date=2015}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gonzalez|first1=Susan|title=ISIS' destruction of cultural antiquities: Q&A with Eckart Frahm|url=http://news.yale.edu/2015/03/16/isis-destruction-cultural-antiquities-qa-eckart-frahm|website=Yale News|access-date=8 October 2015|date=March 16, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Shaheen|first1=Kareem|title=Isis attacks on ancient sites erasing history of humanity, says Iraq|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/09/iraq-condemns-isis-destruction-ancient-sites|website=The Guardian|access-date=8 October 2015|date=March 9, 2015}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Arabic poetry]]
*[[Hanif]]
*[[Pre-Islamic Arabia]]
*[[Rahmanan]]
*[[Takfir]]
*[[Year Zero (political notion)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
* {{cite book |last1=Qutb |first=Sayyid |title=Milestones |url=http://www.kalamullah.com/Books/Milestones%20Special%20Edition.pdf|publisher=Maktabah |date=2006 |access-date=5 April 2016 |ref=SQM2006}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite web|url=http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=1535_0_25_0_C|title=Terrorism: A Return to Jahiliyya|author=Dr. Hina Azam|work=alt.muslim|access-date=2005-12-01|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060320235314/http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=1535_0_25_0_C|archive-date=2006-03-20}}
*{{cite book | author=Kepel, Gilles | title=The Prophet and Pharaoh: Muslim Extremism in Egypt | publisher=Al Saqi | year=1985 | isbn=0-86356-118-7 }}
*{{cite book | author=Qutb, Sayyid | title=Milestones | publisher=Mother Mosque Foundation | year=1981 }}
*{{cite book | author=Sivan, Emmanuel | title=Radical Islam : Medieval Theology and Modern Politics | publisher=Yale University Press | year=1985}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{wiktionary-inline|jahiliyyah}}
{{Pre-Islamic Arabia}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Arabic words and phrases]]
[[Category:Islamic terminology]]
[[Category:Conversion to Islam]]
[[Category:Pre-Islamic Arabia]]
[[Category:Ignorance]]

Jahiliyyah - Revision history

Amanshrbiz: update section additionally and updated info

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article