Jahilliyah

Jahiliyyah (Arabic: جاهلية‎‎ ǧāhiliyyah/jāhilīyah "") 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 barbaric condition in which Arabs found themselves in pre-Islamic Arabia (in the non-Islamic sense), i.e. prior to the revelation of the Quran to Muhammad. The root of the term jahiliyyah is the I-form verb jahala'jahil' "to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly".

The term Jahiliyyah is used several places in the Quran, and translations often use various terms to represent it:

This term can be used in reference to the Arabic culture before the arrival of Islam.

Before the Islamic conversion the Arabe 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 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, the Jahiliyya is used to describe the period of ignorance and darkness that preluded the arrival of Islam. It refers to the general condition of those that haven't accepted the Muslim faith.

Medieval Islamic scholar ibn Taymiyyah was probably the first to use the term to describe backsliders in contemporary Muslim society. In the 20th century, Indian Islamist writer Abul Ala Maududi wrote of it.

Sayyid Qutb popularized the term in his influential work Ma'alim fi al-Tariq "Milestones", with the shocking assertion that "the Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries."

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