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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Man and Ignorance What does Jahiliyah mean? Islam calls the pagan life of Arabs ` Jahiliyah ' (ignorance). This label specifically identified the lifestyle to be found in the land of the Arabs before the Islamic Mission began. It included the beliefs and customs of the pagan Arabs who lived in a most decadent and perverse manner. This stage in history was full of chaos and corruption, and witnessed a decline in the sociology and ideology of the age.

This was because the signs of truth had disappeared in that dark historical stage. The aspects of deviation from truth and justice had become embodied in the society, much in the same manner as the perverse practices of Sodom and Gommorah in the time of Prophet Lot, so that evil was acknowledged as good and good was acknowledged as evil.

Islam calls this lifestyle of the Arabs desert dwellers, ` Jahiliyah ', to identify the ideological and social nature of that age and to compare it to general ` jahiliyah ' of nations and peoples that have arisen during man's evolution.

Therefore, where we have written ` jahiliyah ' with a capital “J” we mean specifically the Age of Ignorance of the Arabs in the pre-Islamic age, and when it is specified with a “j” it refers to global ignorance at any stage in man's evolution where ignorance has buried truth, as is found in our social and ideological values today.

Islam calls that miserable historical period of Arab lifestyle ` Jahiliyah ' because it is a word which represents ignorant beliefs, practices, rules, laws, customs, values and behavior of a perverse society.

Islam does not call the Arabs, ` Jahiliyah ', before the emergence of its blessed mission because of academic ignorance, nor does it call them ignorant ` jahilin ' because of illiteracy nor for backwardness in the areas of sciences, so we understand that ` Jahiliyah ' had a specific and special meaning.

Islam called the Arabs of that age ` jahiliyah ' because even in the presence of academic and artistic knowledge, the social manner and behavior of the people and its acceptable lifestyle were such that the word, `Jahiliyah' , is suitable for them. The Holy Qur'an has told us about other nations with capabilities in science, engineering, and skills. Still, it regarded them as ` jahiliyah ' (ignorant). The Qur'an describes nature as equal among nations of `jahiliyah' .

In the Qur'anic viewpoint, all of these nations were ignorant.