Assalam alaikum,
I just attended my first Seerah class and it was wonderfully insightful. The focus of the class was on understanding the term Jahilliyah, which is commonly refered to as 'the age of ignorance', the period prior to the advent of Islam. I had never really given much thought to the meaning of the word and therefore missed the importance that understanding the term has, to understanding what Islam came to remove.
We looked at pre-Islamic Arabic poetry to be able to have a better and more thorough understanding of the word. People often think that the word jahl refers to an ignorance that is born of lack of intelligence. We were shown that the word Jahiliyya, as used here, does not refer to that type of ignorance. It rather, refers to this quality of being rash and acting in the heat of the moment, out of ones anger and emotion, a haughty type of behaviour. It refers to people who make decisions without actually thinking and using reason and intellect, but instead just act out of their anger and emotion, without much consideration for what is the right way to go about something.
To help us understand the word we looked at its opposite, which is Hilm, forebearance. A person who acts with hilm has a calmness about them, and utilises what they find around them to come to the best decision possible, they don't act out of emotion, but rather use their intellect and reason to make decisions.
I just attended my first Seerah class and it was wonderfully insightful. The focus of the class was on understanding the term Jahilliyah, which is commonly refered to as 'the age of ignorance', the period prior to the advent of Islam. I had never really given much thought to the meaning of the word and therefore missed the importance that understanding the term has, to understanding what Islam came to remove.
We looked at pre-Islamic Arabic poetry to be able to have a better and more thorough understanding of the word. People often think that the word jahl refers to an ignorance that is born of lack of intelligence. We were shown that the word Jahiliyya, as used here, does not refer to that type of ignorance. It rather, refers to this quality of being rash and acting in the heat of the moment, out of ones anger and emotion, a haughty type of behaviour. It refers to people who make decisions without actually thinking and using reason and intellect, but instead just act out of their anger and emotion, without much consideration for what is the right way to go about something.
To help us understand the word we looked at its opposite, which is Hilm, forebearance. A person who acts with hilm has a calmness about them, and utilises what they find around them to come to the best decision possible, they don't act out of emotion, but rather use their intellect and reason to make decisions.
We also looked at examples of how The Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, used the word. It was so interesting to see that in one instance He (PBUH) addessed Believers and Companions, and warned them against returning to a state of Jahilliyah. This made it clear that Jahilliyah is relevant to muslims, so relevant to me, that any one can fall back into that way of acting out of anger and without proper thought, that just being a muslim doesn't mean you are safe from being of those in Jahilliyah. That it isn't necessarily about the amount of knowledge you have, but again, coming back to what my studies have shown me is a most central theme, it is about character and how we behave.
Having a better understanding of the word jahl opened up a whole new door of understanding. In the past whenever I have learnt anything about the seerah, this word Jahilliyah has been simply mentioned but no explanation has been given. So now, taking this class I am excited about what knowledge is to come, and how having this foundation of having a better understanding of Jahilliyah, will impact how I recieve the knowledge to follow. It's exciting stuff, I am keenly awaiting the time we reach learning about the entry of The Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, into the world.
If you would like to join the study circle, please go to the AGC Website
