The change brought by Islam
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
During Jahaliya, the Arabs were very arrogant about their lineage and they were very boastful about it. Their respect for people would depend on that person's family background. So, Rasulallah (saw) said: you are from Adam because Adam is from dust and some of you should stop being so proud of your forefathers for something so foolish (being proud of their ancestory and family lineage) otherwise Allah will make you so little (humiliated much less than the insects.)
In front of Allah (swt), there are two types of people:
- Righteous (muttaquin)
- Disobedient: insignificant due to their disobedience to Allah (swt).
There’s no third type. So it’s your choice – you want to obey and seek towards being in first group or be in the second group who disobeys Allah (swt) publicly.
Umar (RA) used to say: we are so humiliated and then Allah (swt0 gave us izza (dignity) through islam. Anywhere else but islam, Allah will give us himulity.
The Arabs were the greatest of the poets and the used poetries in all occasions and also they had poetries for each categories such as for love, description of something/place, people, praising someone, hating someone etc. Al-Fakr (pride) was a huge thing and these poetries used to be taught to kids and that’s how they used to learn about their ancestors and that they are the descendants of so and so tribe. There were poetries for each category: - for love - description of beauty - to praise the kings - to insult other tribes/people - nature - people and so on ...
During Jahliya, the poets of each tribe used to represent their media/spokesperson. They used to fight using their skills of poetries. So, when a tribe would get a poet, people would feel very proud as it would strengthen their power in the society with a better spokesperson.
Banu Anfinnaka (which literally means the descendants of the nose of the camels): During Jahiliya there was a tribe called Banu Anfinnaka and people from this tribe used to feel very bad disclosing their identities. One poet from that tribe came and wrote a poetry saying, ‘they are the nose and the rest are the tail.’ So, after that they became very proud and used to say that ‘min anfinnaha’ – meaning I’m from the tribe of such and such. So, for the Arabs poetries meant a lot and for them the poetries were strong. [“The Sun of God, shinning from the west”, German orientalist female author. Who wrote about the contribution of Muslims in western civilization.]
And this is what Rasulallah (saw) came to correct! He (saw) was changing that attitude and trying to teach people that they should be proud of something good but not of their ancestry to the extent that it makes you arrogant and ignorant, as that’s jahiliya. How did he change that? By replacing it and by trying to teach the people that the tribes do not belong to any other tribe – but we all belong to Allah (swt).
The story of Abu Dharr-Al Ghifari :
Once Abu Dharr (RA) and Bilal (RA) got into a fight and Abu Dharr was so angry that he said to Bilal (RA), ‘ya ibn sauda’ – O you the son of Black woman. Bilal (RA) was very upset hearing this and he was extremely hurt. However, he did not respond and reported this to rasulallah (saw). When rasulallah (saw) heard of this, he said, ‘Look at Abu Dharr! You are a person who is still carrying some of the baggage of jahiliya in him and it didn’t completely go away.’ Abu Dharr (RA) collapsed hearing these words and realized what his anger did and turned him into. So, he (RA) went to Bilal (RA) and put his head down on the ground and asked Bilal (RA) to put his foot on his head so he may overcome that jahiliya and may never forget this. Of-course Bilal (RA) didn’t do that.
The success of rasulallah (saw) was not just changing some individuals; but using the potentials of each individual and working in a collective form. That takes patience and true dedication for the sake of Allah (swt). Every one of us are responsible and everyone is responsible for himself. When we see something wrong, we are responsible to correct that. If we cannot correct that - the least we can do is dislike that wrong from our heart. The orphans, the poor etc. – the rest of the peopl in the society are responsible for these underprivileged; and mostly the rich are in great responsibility when it comes to taking care or ensuring the needs of these people. The rulings of zakaah makes the rich of the nation responsible for the poor. If there are orphans’ not being taken care of – it’s the responsibility of the people who are capable of supporting them - and they would be the ones answerable on the Day of Judgment.
Story of DHULM :
It’s been a concept during the time of Jahiliya, “Give support to your brother whether he is wrong or being wronged” – this was the concept of Jahaliya and once the sahabas accepted Islam their mind set changed. So, one of the sahabas asked – fine we can assist our brother when he is being wronged, but how can we assist him when he wrongs others? “ You support him by stopping him from commiting the dhulm” – was the response of rasulallah (saw). This is how the same concepts of jahaliya were used but explained effectively and given new dimension with the teaching of Islam.
~~~~
From Imam Djaffar's halaqa
Continued in the next entry...
During Jahaliya, the Arabs were very arrogant about their lineage and they were very boastful about it. Their respect for people would depend on that person's family background. So, Rasulallah (saw) said: you are from Adam because Adam is from dust and some of you should stop being so proud of your forefathers for something so foolish (being proud of their ancestory and family lineage) otherwise Allah will make you so little (humiliated much less than the insects.)
In front of Allah (swt), there are two types of people:
- Righteous (muttaquin)
- Disobedient: insignificant due to their disobedience to Allah (swt).
There’s no third type. So it’s your choice – you want to obey and seek towards being in first group or be in the second group who disobeys Allah (swt) publicly.
Umar (RA) used to say: we are so humiliated and then Allah (swt0 gave us izza (dignity) through islam. Anywhere else but islam, Allah will give us himulity.
The Arabs were the greatest of the poets and the used poetries in all occasions and also they had poetries for each categories such as for love, description of something/place, people, praising someone, hating someone etc. Al-Fakr (pride) was a huge thing and these poetries used to be taught to kids and that’s how they used to learn about their ancestors and that they are the descendants of so and so tribe. There were poetries for each category: - for love - description of beauty - to praise the kings - to insult other tribes/people - nature - people and so on ...
During Jahliya, the poets of each tribe used to represent their media/spokesperson. They used to fight using their skills of poetries. So, when a tribe would get a poet, people would feel very proud as it would strengthen their power in the society with a better spokesperson.
Banu Anfinnaka (which literally means the descendants of the nose of the camels): During Jahiliya there was a tribe called Banu Anfinnaka and people from this tribe used to feel very bad disclosing their identities. One poet from that tribe came and wrote a poetry saying, ‘they are the nose and the rest are the tail.’ So, after that they became very proud and used to say that ‘min anfinnaha’ – meaning I’m from the tribe of such and such. So, for the Arabs poetries meant a lot and for them the poetries were strong. [“The Sun of God, shinning from the west”, German orientalist female author. Who wrote about the contribution of Muslims in western civilization.]
And this is what Rasulallah (saw) came to correct! He (saw) was changing that attitude and trying to teach people that they should be proud of something good but not of their ancestry to the extent that it makes you arrogant and ignorant, as that’s jahiliya. How did he change that? By replacing it and by trying to teach the people that the tribes do not belong to any other tribe – but we all belong to Allah (swt).
The story of Abu Dharr-Al Ghifari :
Once Abu Dharr (RA) and Bilal (RA) got into a fight and Abu Dharr was so angry that he said to Bilal (RA), ‘ya ibn sauda’ – O you the son of Black woman. Bilal (RA) was very upset hearing this and he was extremely hurt. However, he did not respond and reported this to rasulallah (saw). When rasulallah (saw) heard of this, he said, ‘Look at Abu Dharr! You are a person who is still carrying some of the baggage of jahiliya in him and it didn’t completely go away.’ Abu Dharr (RA) collapsed hearing these words and realized what his anger did and turned him into. So, he (RA) went to Bilal (RA) and put his head down on the ground and asked Bilal (RA) to put his foot on his head so he may overcome that jahiliya and may never forget this. Of-course Bilal (RA) didn’t do that.
The success of rasulallah (saw) was not just changing some individuals; but using the potentials of each individual and working in a collective form. That takes patience and true dedication for the sake of Allah (swt). Every one of us are responsible and everyone is responsible for himself. When we see something wrong, we are responsible to correct that. If we cannot correct that - the least we can do is dislike that wrong from our heart. The orphans, the poor etc. – the rest of the peopl in the society are responsible for these underprivileged; and mostly the rich are in great responsibility when it comes to taking care or ensuring the needs of these people. The rulings of zakaah makes the rich of the nation responsible for the poor. If there are orphans’ not being taken care of – it’s the responsibility of the people who are capable of supporting them - and they would be the ones answerable on the Day of Judgment.
Story of DHULM :
It’s been a concept during the time of Jahiliya, “Give support to your brother whether he is wrong or being wronged” – this was the concept of Jahaliya and once the sahabas accepted Islam their mind set changed. So, one of the sahabas asked – fine we can assist our brother when he is being wronged, but how can we assist him when he wrongs others? “ You support him by stopping him from commiting the dhulm” – was the response of rasulallah (saw). This is how the same concepts of jahaliya were used but explained effectively and given new dimension with the teaching of Islam.
~~~~
From Imam Djaffar's halaqa
Continued in the next entry...
posted by Seeking nearness to Allah at
10:40 AM
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