Sins of the Tongue, - Use of the Word “Jahiliyyah” (Period of Ignorance).

Is it permissible to use the word Jahiliyyah to refer to societies
after the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him), whether they are kafir non-Muslim) or Muslim societies?
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
The word Jahiliyyah is used to refer to the period before the coming
of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). It refers
to two things that are combined in this period: jahl (ignorance) and
jahaalah (foolishness).
The word Jahiliyyah is a blameworthy word. Ignorance and foolishness
together are sufficient for a person todisavow himself of them,even if
he has these attributes, and knowledge and guidance are sufficient for
a person to feel proud of, if he has these attributes, and even if he
does not.
In al-Mu'jam al-Waseet itsays:
Jahiliyyah refers to the ways of the Arabs beforeIslam, namely
foolishness and misguidance. End quote.
Al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
Jahiliyyah refers to that which came before Islam. Fath al-Baari.
Al-Mannaawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
Jahiliyyah refers to the time before the Prophet (peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him) was sent; they called it that because of the
extent of their ignorance. Fayd al-Qadeer.
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-'Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
What is meant by Jahiliyyah is the time before the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) was sent, because at that time the
people's ignorance was great; it included ignorance bothof the rights
of Allah andthe rights of His slaves. Al-Qawl al-Mufeed 'ala Kitaab
al-Tawheed; Majmoo' Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen.
And he said:
Wailing is an act of Jahiliyyah which inevitably continues to exist
among this ummah (nation), although it is something that belongs to
the Jahiliyyah, either because of ignorance which is the opposite of
knowledge, or because of foolishness which is the opposite of wisdom.
Al-Qawl al-Mufeed 'ala Kitaab al-Tawheed; Majmoo' Fataawa al-Shaykh
Ibn 'Uthaymeen.
Secondly:
Allah sent His Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) with guidance and the religion of truth, and Allah filled the
world with light because of him, and brought peopleforth from darkness
into light. By means of him, Allah dispelled the darkness of ignorance
and kufr (disbelief). Withhis coming, the era of Jahiliyyah ended, but
has ignorance disappeared from all places and all eras? Of course not.
Hence it is not permissible to describe all societies as ignorant
after his coming (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), but we
cannot say that all societies are free of ignorance either. Some
societies are still living inthe depths of Jahiliyyah, so they are not
free of this attribute. But the societies on which the light of Islam
has shone cannot be described in these terms, and even if they are
falling short in some aspects of Islam they cannot be described as
jahili. The scholars are agreed on this point.
1. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
Before the sending of the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) the people were in a state of Jahiliyyah or ignorance. Their
words and actions had either been invented for them by one who was
ignorant or they were done by one who was ignorant.
Similarly, everything that was contrary to the message brought by the
Messengers, namely Judaism and Christianity,was Jahiliyyah. That was
Jahiliyyah in the general sense. But after the coming of the
Messenger(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), it may exist in
one place and not another – as it exists in the lands of the kuffar
(non-Muslims) – and it may exist in one person and not another; a man
is in state of Jahiliyyah before he becomes Muslim, even if he lives
in a Muslim land.
But in general terms of time, there is no Jahiliyyah after the coming
of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), because among
his ummah there is a group which will continue to prevail and follow
the truth until the Hour begins.
In specific terms, Jahiliyyah may appear insome Muslim lands, and in
many Muslim individuals, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him) said: "Four things among my ummah are of the Jahiliyyah"
and he said to Abu Dharr: "You are a man in whom there is some
Jahiliyyah" and so on.
And he said in this hadeeth: "Someone whotries to follow a jahili way
after becoming Muslim." This refers to Jahiliyyah in general, specific
types of Jahiliyyah, Judaism, Christianity, Magianism, Sabianism,
idolatry, or a combination of all or some of these or a way that has
adopted some of these jaahili religions,because all of them are
innovated and were abrogated and became Jahiliyyah with the coming of
Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him); although the word
Jahiliyyah is usually usedto refer to the Arabs and their former ways,
the meaning is still the same.Iqtida' al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem.
2. Explaining what is wrong with the phrase "The Jahiliyyah of the
twentieth century", Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd (may Allah have mercy on him)
said: The great scholar al-Albani said that this phrase involves
exaggeration and overlooking the fact thatIslam prevailed over all
other religions. In Hayaat al-Albani (the Lifeof al-Albani) it says:
The phrase "The Jahiliyyah of the twentieth century" in al-Albani's opinion:
Question: The da'iyah (caller to islam) Sayyid Qutub (may Allaah have
mercy on him) used a phrase that is often repeated in some
Islamicschools of thought of which he is the figurehead, namely
"TheJahiliyyah of the twentieth century". Howprecise and correct is
this phrase? To what extent does it correspond to the Jahiliyyah of
ancient times in your opinion?
Al-Albani replied:
Praise be to Allah and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of
Allah and his family and companions and those who followed him after
that. What I think is that this phrase, "The Jahiliyyah of the
twentieth century", is not free of exaggerationabout the current
century – the twentieth century. The fact that Islam is alive in this
century, even though it has been infiltrated by things that are not
part of it, means that we cannot say that this century is like the
first Jahiliyyah of old. We know that what is meantby the first
Jahiliyyah is the Arabs only: they were idolaters, they were clearly
misguided, and it applies to the religions that existed around the
Arabs, namely Judaism and Christianity, which are distorted religions.
Therefore, at that time there was no pure religion left that had
notbeen changed and altered. Undoubtedly describing that era as
Jahiliyyah is correct. But that is not the case in the present era,
because Allah blessed the Arabs first, then the rest of mankind, by
sending to them Muhammad (peaceand blessings of Allah be upon him),
the Seal of the Prophets, to whom He revealed the religion of Islam,
which is the final religion, and Allah has promised to preserve this
religion as He says (interpretation of the meaning): "Verily, We, it
is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (i.e.the Quran) and surely, We will
guard it (from corruption)" [15:9]. His Prophet (peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him) told us that the Muslim ummah (nation), although
it would be faced with some deviation as befell the nations before it,
he said: "You will certainly follow the ways of those who came before
you hand span by hand span,cubit by cubit, to the extent that if they
entered the hole of a lizard, you will enter it too." We said: "O
Messenger of Allah, (do you mean) the Jews and the Christians?" He
said: "Who else?" I say, Although the Messenger (peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him) told us that the Muslims would deviate to a
large extent and they would imitate the Jews and Christians in that
deviation, at the same time he (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) also gave his followers the glad tidings that they would continue
to follow the line that he drew for them. He (peace and blessings of
Allah be upon him) said: "My ummah will divide into seventy-three
sects, all ofwhom will be in Hell except one." They said: What is it,
O Messenger of Allah? He said: "It is the jamaa'ah (main bodyof the
Muslims)" and according to another report he said: "It is the group
that follows the same path as me and my companions."
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) confirmed that
when he said in a hadeeth (narration) the authenticity of which is
agreed upon: "A group of my ummah will continue to prevail adhering to
the truth and they will not be harmed by those who oppose them, until
the decree of Allah comes to pass."
So there is still in this ummah a good and blessed group that is
following the guidance of the Quran and Sunnahand is far removed from
the Jahiliyyah of the pastor present. Hence I think that using the
word "Jahiliyyah" to refer to the twentieth century is exaggeration,
because this may give the impression that all of Islam has deviated
completely from Tawheed (maintaining the Oneness of Allah) and
sincerity in worshipping Allah alone.So this century – the twentieth
century – has become like the time of Jahiliyyah in which the
Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was sent
to bring them forth from darkness into light.In that case, this usage
in general terms should be limited to the kuffar (non-Muslims) first,
those of whom Allah says(interpretation of the meaning): "Fight
againstthose who (1) believe not in Allaah, (2) nor in the Last Day,
(3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His
Messenger (Muhammad), (4) and those who acknowledgenot the religion
of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and
Christians), until they pay the Jizyah (a tax) with willing
submission, and feel themselves subdued" [9:29]. Describing the
twentieth century as Jahiliyyah can only be applied to non-Muslims who
do not follow the Quran and Sunnah. But using it in general terms may
imply that there is no goodness left in the Muslims, and this is
contrary to what has been explained above inthe ahaadeeth (reports) of
the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said that
there would remaina group of this ummah that would adhere to the
truth, such as the hadeeth in which he (peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him) said: "Islam began as something strange and will go back
to being something strange so glad tidings to the strangers." They
said: Who are they, O Messenger of Allah? There are several versions
of this hadeeth, in some of which the Messenger of Allah (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) described the strangers as: "The ones
who will revive what the people neglect of my Sunnah (prophetic
teachings) after I am gone." According to another report he (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "They are people who are
righteous and few in number among many people and those who disobey
them will be more than those who obey them." Hence it is not
permissible to use this description (Jahiliyyah) in general terms to
refer to the current era, because among them – praise be to Allah –
there are somegood ones who still adhere to the guidance of the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and his Sunnah, and
it will continue like that until the Hour begins. Moreover, in the
words of Sayyid Qutub – may Allah have mercy on him – and in some of
his books there is that which makes the researcher think that he may
have been somewhat over-zealous in the way in which he explained Islam
to people. Perhaps his excuse for doing so may be that he was writing
in a literary style. With regard to some matters of fiqh
(jurisprudence), such as when he spoke about workers in his book
al-'Adaalah al-Ijtimaa'iyyah (Social Justice), he started to write
about Tawheed, and with phrases all of which are strongly worded and
instill in thehearts of believers confidence in their religion and
faith. In that sense he did indeedrenew the call of Islam inthe hearts
of the youth. Even if we feel sometimes that he said some things which
indicate that he did not have the time to examine thoroughly some of
the issues that he wrote about, in brief we may say that using this
word (Jahiliyyah) to describe the modern agein sweeping terms is not
free from some element of exaggeration which leads to undermining the
group that is still prevailing and adhering to the truth. And this is
all that I have to say about this matter. End quote. Mu'jam al-Manaahi
al-Lafziyyah.
3. Shaykh Salih ibn Fawzan al-Fawzan (may Allah preserve him) was
asked: Is it permissible touse the word Jahiliyyah with reference to
contemporary Muslim societies?
He replied:
Jahiliyyah in general terms ended with the coming of the
Messenger(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), so it is not
permissible to apply this word to Muslim societies in general terms.
As for applying some of its characteristics to describe certain
individuals, or some groups, or some societies, that is acceptable and
permissible. The Prophet(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
said to one of his Sahabah (companions): "You are a man in whom there
is some Jahiliyyah." And he(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
said: "There are four matters of Jahiliyyah in my ummah that they will
not give up: pride in one's forefathers, slandering lineages, seeking
rain by the stars and wailing." Al-Ajwabah al-Mufeedah 'an As'ilah
al-Manaahij al-Jadeedah.
Thirdly:
It is not permissible for the Muslim to regard Muslim societies with a
sense of arrogance or to look down on them. That includes regarding
all of them as ignorant, deviant and doomed.
It was narrated that Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him)
said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) said: "If a man says 'the people are doomed,' he is the one who
caused their doom." [Muslim]
Imam Ibn 'Abd al-Barr (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
What this refers to, according to the scholars, is when a man says
this by way of looking down on them and showing contempt towards them,
and expressing self-admiration. But if hesays that out of sorrow and
regret, and out of fear for them because ofwhat he sees of their
reprehensible actions, then he is not one of those referred to in this
hadeeth. The difference between the two is that in the first case the
speaker is pleased with himself and admires himself, and he is envious
of those who are above him and scornful of those who are below him,
whereas in the second case he is scolding and rebuking himself and is
not pleased with himself. [Al-Tamheed]
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