Jahiliyyah - Moral Aspects of Pre-Islamic Arabia

Jahiliyyah - Moral Aspects of Pre-Islamic Arabia

• In order to create a ‘communal spirit’ among the qawm, the Arabs developed the moral of muruwah
• Muruwah = manliness
• Muruwah meant courage in battle, patience in suffering and a dedication to duties of avenging wrong done to the tribe, protecting its weak members and defying the strong.
• Each tribe would have its own special brand of muruwah, which was believed to be inherited by blood.
• To preserve the muruwah of the group, each member had to be ready to leap to the defence of a fellow-tribesman and obey his chief without question.
• Muruwah also taught the idea of dahr
• Dahr = time or fate.
• Dahr was a hard fact of life and had to be accepted with dignity.
• Life would be impossible if people did not accept that some disasters were inevitable.
• Arabs believed that there was nothing a person could do to either prolong their life or ensure that they would have enough provisions to survive.
• The emphasis on muruwah meant that within such a society only the strong survived; the weak were either eliminated or exploited.
• Infanticide was the normal means of population control: female babies survived infancy more frequently than boys and, since no tribe could support more than a certain number of women, female babies were killed with no regret.
• Indeed , women were treated like slaves; they had no human or legal rights and were viewed like possessions, men could take as many wives as they wanted.
• Another important virtue was that of largesse,
• Largesse = ‘generosity in giving gifts’.
• A chief could show his power by means of extravagant and generous hospitality to his people and his friendly confederates (allies).
• Hospitality had a practical importance.
• A tribe which was rich one day could easily become poor the next day.