Jahiliyyah

Jahiliyyah (جَاهِلِيَّة d͡ʒæːhɪˈlɪj.jæ, "ignorance") is an Arabic term used to refer to the opposite of Islam. It usually refers to the Age of Ignorance, the period of time and state of affairs in pre-Islamic Arabia in 610 CE. The term jahiliyyah may be derived from the verbal root jahala (جهل), "to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly". Alternatively, it is an abstract noun derived from jāhil, referring to barbarism. 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. For Islamist scholars like Muhammad Rashid Rida, Abul A'la Maududi, and others, Jahiliyyah refers to secular modernity and modern Western culture. In his works, Maududi asserted that modernity is the "new jahiliyyah." Sayyid Qutb viewed jahiliyyah as a state of domination of humans over humans, as opposed to their submission to God. Radical groups have justified armed struggle against secular regimes as a jihad against jahiliyyah. The term jahiliyyah is derived from the Arabic verbal root jahala "to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly". 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. 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.