Did Arabs Live in Ignorance Before Islam?

What is ignorance? Were the Arabs before Islam or on the verge of the emergence of Islam truly ignorant as some Muslims claim? Is it appropriate to label the historical period before Islam in the Arab world as the Age of Ignorance? What does ignorance before Islam really mean? Were all women truly buried alive before Islam? There are groups that provide different answers to these questions. They argue that there was no ignorance before Islam. Sajad Nik-Ain, a religious researcher, and Hassan Yousefi Eshkouri, a religious scholar, are the guests of this week's taboo discussion. I start today's discussion with Mr. Eshkouri and the central question of this week's taboo discussion. Mr. Eshkouri, some Muslims, perhaps not a small group, refer to the period before the emergence of Islam or the period on the verge of the emergence of Islam as ignorance. Was there such ignorance specifically among the Arabs at the time of the emergence of Islam? Hassan Yousefi Eshkouri: One could say yes and one could also say no. If ignorance means lack of knowledge, illiteracy, lack of civilization, and lack of culture, then this statement is not generally correct. Because before Islam, we had ancient and old civilizations in various regions of Arabia or the Arabian Peninsula, such as the civilization of Hira in Yemen and other ancient civilizations that have been uncovered by archaeology. In the north as well; there were old civilizations at the borders of Byzantium and the Roman Empire. The Quran itself refers to the people of Aad, Thamud, and the people of Sheba, among others. All of these were ancient civilizations that existed in this region. No, there was really no such ignorance; rather, on the contrary, there were ancient and old civilizations in various regions. However, I say yes in the sense that this lack of civilization can be found in the central regions of Arabia, namely Hijaz, where the two small cities of Mecca and Medina exist today; there were no very prominent and clear civilizations here, which relates to the nature of the area, its conditions, its desert-like nature, and lack of water. After all, it was not fundamentally a residential area where civilization could arise. Because we know that civilization is defined by settled living, urbanization, and the expansion of architecture, art, construction, and roads, and such a thing could not have existed there at that time, and for this reason, one can say that yes, there was a lack of civilization in the central region of Arabia. But the important thing is that if we refer to the Quran itself, we see that the word ignorant or ignorance, which apparently appears in four places in the Quran, does not mean illiteracy, lack of civilization, ignorance, or scientific and cultural backwardness. Jawad Ali in his book 'Al-Mufassal' shows that ignorance means foolishness, stupidity, humiliation, anger, and non-compliance with Islamic law. In Islam and the Sharia, which is our main document, Islam does not stand in opposition to ignorance, and as Izutsu has shown in his book 'God and Man in the Quran,' their peak is shown under Arab anthropology, where ignorance means the opposite of wisdom and reason; it means fanaticism and violence. The concept of ignorance, as used by Muslims or later Muslims, does not mean a period that was absolutely devoid of civilization and culture, and then Islam came and brought all of this. Mr. Nik-Ain, you heard Mr. Eshkouri's explanations; why do you think a not-so-small group of Muslims refer to the period before Islam and what existed on the verge of the emergence of Islam among the Arabs as ignorance? Sajad Nik-Ain: The term ignorance, as used in the Quran and in narrations, refers to the ignorance of the Arabs at that time regarding monotheism and also has characteristics such as fanaticism and violence in the Quranic interpretation of ignorance. Well, Mr. Nik-Ain, I must ask you and Mr. Eshkouri if this ignorance refers to fanaticism and violence, do you mean to say that after the emergence of Islam, there was no fanaticism and violence? Muslims also had fanaticism regarding their beliefs. Nik-Ain: I will address this issue with what later happened in history. The aspect that Muslims mention is that during the period of ignorance, the people of ignorance did not recognize religious freedom, whereas this was not the case. This is the perception of Muslims or more the Quranic perception and the Islamic perception of ignorance. In the same Arabian Peninsula, in Mecca and Medina, historical reports show that people from various religions came to pilgrimage in Mecca; Jews and Christians were present in Mecca before Islam, and there was no problem among them. Even after the invitation of Islam came, there was still no problem with the invitation itself; they did not accept the invitation, but Islam, if it wanted to remain as just an invitation and promote alongside other religions, would not have had a problem with it. However, the issue was that Islam invited acceptance and wanted to spread. Another characteristic that Muslims recognize as ignorance, while Islam never presented this term as ignorance, is that women had rights during the same era that Muslims refer to as ignorance. For example, Khadijah, the wife of the Prophet of Islam, was one of the five major capitalists of the Arabian Peninsula who married the Prophet and donated her wealth to him. Women also had significant participation in politics. For instance, you see Abu Sufyan's wife, who was among the planners, instigators, and warriors against the Prophet of Islam. Therefore, this description that Muslims give of the age of ignorance is not an accurate description. From the perspective of poetry and eloquence, one of the aspects of art, you see that at that time the Arabs were at a high level in terms of eloquence and poetry. Given your statements, questions arise for me. Mr. Eshkouri, Mr. Nik-Ain said that the Arabs were ignorant regarding monotheism, and they also mentioned women's rights, stating that it was not as such. There has been extensive discussion about burying daughters alive among the Arabs during that period referred to as ignorance. Some groups also argue that they believed in a form of monotheism in their worship of what they worshipped, which has been labeled idolatry, and many oppose this term. Eshkouri: Yes, some of these Muslim thinkers in recent times, because they realized that the traditional meaning of ignorance in opposition to Islam is not defensible, have resorted to this explanation. As far as I remember, Muhammad Qutb in one of his writings has a similar theme; he says that they were ignorant, but their ignorance was in relation to monotheism. However, the reality is that what has been prevalent among Muslims since perhaps the second century onward and has later become a comprehensive theory accepted by Muslims is that even some of these we see in the sentences of Nahj al-Balagha of Imam Ali, who mostly refer to the age of ignorance as a period of backwardness and ignorance and speak of it in a derogatory manner. Of course, this is not exclusive to Muslims, and if we look realistically at history, we see that in every nation that has come or every religion that has emerged, there has been a kind of contempt for the religions and nations of their predecessors, considering them inferior and themselves superior. In any case, the issue of ignorance is something that later Muslims raised to show themselves in relation to the Arabs before Islam, but what is important is that in the Quran itself, in Islam itself, and in the primary sources of Islam, ignorance did not mean this. Mr. Nik-Ain, I put this to you. Specifically, you mentioned that Mr. Eshkouri also discussed that ignorance relates to fanaticism or violence. Do we not see this fanaticism and violence after Islam? Or do we even see rituals that have been transferred from the age of ignorance and continued in Islam, such as the pilgrimage before Islam or the stoning of the devil, or the sacred months? Can we say that the religion of Islam has been completely free from what is referred to as fanaticism and violence in the era of 'ignorance'? Nik-Ain: Look, Islam presents several key phrases or golden slogans. One of them is that it places itself in opposition to ignorance; for example, 'There is no compulsion in religion' or the expansion of wars; that two tribes, for example, Aws and Khazraj in Medina, fought each other for several decades over trivial matters that even by the standards of that time, their elders acknowledged the triviality of. Islam, for example, advocates that all of you enter into peace and reconciliation, and this is placed directly in opposition to the violence that existed at that time. However, the fact that this tribal culture, this culture of violence, could not change overnight, re-emerged and prevailed after the Prophet, and the same conflicts took on an ideological hue is another issue. Therefore, this issue was indeed in direct opposition to the ignorance and the conditions that existed at that time. But the fact that some of these rituals are derived from the age of ignorance must be understood that the Hanafis or monotheists who were followers of Abraham had been present in the peninsula before Islam. Abdul Muttalib, Abu Talib, and Banu Hashim, according to historical reports, were followers of the monotheistic faith of Abraham, and the pilgrimage rituals as they existed at that time were derived from the Hanafite faith of Abraham and the monotheistic faith of Abraham. Now, during the age of ignorance, they imitated those rituals and made some changes to them, and they were practiced. The Prophet came and the Quranic expression returned to that original belief and corrected those traditions, and it was not a mere copying from ignorance. The claim that everything that existed at that time was ignorance and that everything was violence is not an accurate description. This description is a political one. Mr. Eshkouri, the question here is whether this concept of ignorance was used at the time of the emergence of Islam and in the early Islamic period when Islam had just emerged? Did they consider the Arabs before Islam ignorant at that time and use this term? Or is it a term that arose over time among a group of Muslims? Eshkouri: This term of ignorant and ignorance and the division of the history of Muslim Arabs into the age of ignorance and the age of Islam emerged later. That is, a significant and important conceptual shift occurred here, which has misleadingly transformed that ignorance into a period of absolute backwardness. Relatively or at certain points in certain areas, yes, it can be used, just as it can be used in other regions of the world in other religions or areas. But the reality is that this later became a matter of pride, and that Arabs wanted to boast about themselves, saying that the Quran is in the Arabic language, Islam is in our language, in our culture, and they wanted to boast about this to the Arabs, not just to the Arabs, the Arabs who now considered themselves ignorant and backward. But unfortunately, after this issue of boasting, it became a political capital for some of the Muslim Arabs, a tool of domination, a tool of violence. You mentioned whether violence disappeared after Islam. No, it did not disappear; of course, it may have diminished in some periods, but unfortunately, beneath the surface of Islam and the Islamic faith, we see that the same violence was utilized in a different form for the Islamic empire, and those tools were used. Therefore, this became a political tool later, as a political tool for the expansion of the empire, for conquests, the issue of initial jihad was raised, which it is obligatory for every Muslim caliph to engage in jihad at least once and go to the land of the infidels. Where did these come from? From this very pride. One must interpret Islamic history through the wars of the Banu, the Umayyads, and the Banu Hashim. In fact, part of the conflict between Shia and Sunni goes back to tribal roots. We see that in history, these wars of the Banu are also mentioned under the surface of Islam. Therefore, when you ask whether this was mentioned at the beginning, if you mean the beginning during the time of the Prophet, I would say that at most it was during the first half-century; this story is not from the first half-century onward; it continues to expand, and ignorance becomes a dark period of the Arabs before Islam and then becomes an element or one of the main elements of Islamic faith, Islamic beliefs in opposition to knowledge, science, culture, awakening, morality, and spirituality. While neither was everything dark in that Islamic period, nor was everything good and spiritual after Islam. Under the cover of Islam, there were also religious and sectarian wars, and unfortunately, a dark period in human history was marked, not only in the history of Islam.