Welcome

Religion of pre – Islamic Arabs

MANOJ .R

Assistant Professor,Islamic History

Maharaja’s college,Ernakulam

Introduction

• Pre Islamic period –Jahilliyah-age of Ignorance

• Sources of Arab history-genealogical traditions-Tribalism

• Poetry the vehicle of history

• Work of Hisham Al Khalbi(819-920),Kitab Al Asnam( The book of Idols)

Chapter Ipractice of worship among Arabs

• What Quran Says?• And if you ask them ,who created

the heavens and the earth and constrained the sun and the moon(to their appointed task) they would say:Allah.How, then,are they turned away?

(29:61)

Tribalism

• Inter tribal conflicts-petty reasons

Pastering fields,camel,etc

• Batttle of basus-Banu bakr X Banu Thaghlib-she camel-40yrs

• Might is right –political as well as social theory

• Tribal spirit-blue blood

Chapter IIIdol worship in Ka’aba

• 365 above idols in ka’aba-the centre

• There was a conept of Monothism

• Daughters of Allah

• Al Manah

• Al Lat

• Al Uzza

Chapter IIIworship of heavenly bodies

• The dead heroes of the tribe

• The trees

• The sun

• The moon

The other religions and Islam

• The Jews

• Migrated to Arabia-the Roman attacks

• Large number inhabited by them

• No religious supremacy

The Christianity

• Made a little progress among the Arabs• Tribes Embraced christanity• Himyar• Ghassan• Rabia• Tagha’ab• Bahra• Tunukh• Tay• Khuda• Inhabitants of Najran and Hira

Muslims

• Area of expansion

Spread of Islam

• Islam flourished in Arabia by the preaching and teaching of the Prophet Muhammed

• He was victorious as a religious head,statesman,deplomat,Politician,leader,supreme commander of the army,Judge and above all a man with great love

• Established Islamic state and Expanded

A glimpse of present scenario• Today there are nearly 65 states or countries with significant or

majority populations who are Muslim.

• They include some of the largest nations in the world in terms of population, such as Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Others are small countries like Qatar and Djibouti.

• Many are secular republics such as Indonesia, or• Monarchies such as Saudi Arabia, or • so-called “Islamic states” such as Iran. • Some are democracies, such as Malaysia. • No majority Muslim state exists in Europe or the Americas. • Almost all of these Muslim states are also developing nations

that have only recently emerged from European colonialism.

A bird’s eye vision

Conclusion• Pre Islamic Arabs are monotheistic

• The Arabs were undoubtedly indifferent towards religion, but that should not lead any one to conclude that they had no notion of religion whatsoever. They had had an idea of an All-Supreme power controlling the Universe, His Wrath and Favour, the life after death and the angels. But all these ideas had been adulterated with idolatry