Religious Background of Arabia

Understanding the religious background of Arabia will help us to know the environment in which Rasoolullah (sallallaahu alaihi wassalam) lived.

Religion in Arabia obviously started with thouheed (oneness of God) because it was started by Ismail (aliahissalam). He was a Prophet to the Arabs and they followed as Muslims believing in the oneness of Allah. So what went wrong down the line to reach to the level they were at when Rasoolullah (SAW) was sent to them?

In the time of Rasoolullah (SAW) there were three religions in Arabia – idol worshipping, Christianity and Judaism.

Start of Idol Worshipping in Arabia

Amir bin Luhai al Khuzai, the leader of Khuza (mentioned in session 2), was very generous, strong and much respected and admired by his people in such a way that his words were taken as law. He travelled to sham (according to the translation its today’s Syria even though it includes Syria, Palestine and Jordan) and finds idols over there.

He asked the people, “What are these?”

They told him, “Well these are intermediates between us and Allah. So if we want to ask for rain, we ask them. They appeal on our behalf to Allah. When we want children, we go to a different idol. When we are at war, we have a certain idol. We have idols for anything we want. They appeal to God for us and perform things for us.”

Amir bin Luhai said, “Excellent, this is what we need. We need someone to appeal to our Lord for rain, for wealth. How about you hand me over one of these idols so I can take it back home?”.

They gave him a pretty good , huge idol called “hubel”. He carried hubel back to Mecca and established it next to al-Kaaba in al-Haram. He told the people, “these will intercede on your behalf to Allah (subhaanahu wa thaala). Ask them whatever you want.

Mecca being the centre and authority of Arabia, bring an idol to Mecca carried with it such a heavy weight. Arabs coming to Mecca from all over the peninsula were exposed to this new bid’a (innovation in religion). It started spreading like wild fire to all corners of Arabia because it was coming from the religious centre and it was adopted by Amir bin Luhai al Khuzai who was so respected by his people.

Now it became a business in Mecca making idols and exporting to other tribes. Every tribe would come to Mecca and carry back home a replica of idol because they cannot all the time come to Mecca to ask from hubel.

It started as small, but then the concept extended further making portable ones. They could carry it in their backpack wherever and whenever they are travelling. . They were made in different shapes and forms; an idol for each and every purpose. Al-kaaba was polluted with idols – 360 idols surrounding it. Shirk is now in every direction. What started with one idol imported turned now into a huge exporting business and shirk in every direction in Mecca.

That’s how the religion of Ismail (a) changed down the line. Rasoolullah (SAW) says, “I’ve seen Amir bin Luhai al Khuzai dragging his intestines in hell fire, because he was the first one to change the religion of Arabs.”

A story from the life of Umar bin Khathab (radhiyallaahu anhu)

A story of Umar bin Khathab relates – he was once seen crying and laughing; and was asked about it. He said, “The reason I was laughing is I remembered in the time of jahiliya (ignorance), I was travelling and wanted to pray. But then I remembered that I forgot to bring my god with me. So what I did is I tried to think of a way to pray. I had some dates with me and molded them into a form of an idol. I worshipped it. Later on that night I became hungry, so I ate my idol.” He was looking back and thinking – what was I doing?

This is how Islam changed them. See who the Sahabah were and how they are transformed by Islam in a very short period. That’s a miracle Islam where it could change a people of nothing to the greatest status is history.  

Who would Umar bin Khathab be without Islam? Abbas Mahmood al Waqqad asked this question in his book about Umar bin Khathab. He said may be Umar could become the leader of his clan, family of Banu Udhaib which was a very small branch of Quraish. Or may be he could have been one of the leaders of Quraish. Or to extend it further, he might be the head of Quraish which is a far fetched assumption because the other clans of Quraish who held power in the past would never allow such a thing to happen to start with. But the most likely scenario would be that Umar bin Khathab would die at a young age because he used to drink a lot before Islam and would have been an obscure figure in history.

With Islam, he not only became the leader of Quraish or Arabia but became the ruler of two-thirds of the world at that time – one of the greatest ever lived in history.

Be first to comment this article

Registered users are allowed to provide comments.
Please login or register.