Another practice that was incorporated from Jahiliyah is marriage. During Jahiliyah there were certain type’s marriages. One type of marriage which is used in today’s Islam is temporary marriage. This type of marriage is also known as “Mutwa”. This marriage would consist of a marriage contract where by both husband and wife agrees to marry for a set period of time. During Pre- Islamic Arabia era the women would get paid to get married. The main reason why this marriage was very common was because men would continually be travelling as they would be fighting during war. This left women alone therefore short term marriage was acceptable. With this kind of marriage there was no need for divorce as you would sign to marry for a certain amount of time. People of Arabia would take advantage of this type of marriage which led to prostitution. Men would pay women to marry them for a certain amount of time to please themselves; this also meant that men would be able to have mistresses. Even though Mutwa was abused during the Pre- Islamic Arabia period it is still allowed in modern Islam. Certain Muslims groups today use the Mutwa; it is mainly Shi’aa Muslims who use it. They believe that it is the Halaal way to get to know your partner before marrying them. Sunni Muslims however do not believe in Mutwa because they believe it is Zinaa (adultery) as you pay to get married to a woman for a set time.
The Dowry is another practice that has been used in modern Islam which has come from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia. The dowry is also known as Mahr in Arabic, this was gift given to the bride from the groom’s family, and an example would be a property. The bride was allowed to do whatever she liked with it i.e. she could have sold it. The purpose of this in Pre-Islamic Arabia was to give your daughter away at a price so that she was not grouped as cheap; this was also another way of making money. In contemporary Islam Mahr is not given for the above reason however it is provided to the bride in case she may have a divorce. If the divorce was the bride’s fault then she would have to return her dowry back to her husband. However if it is the man fault then the bride is allowed to keep the dowry. This is the same principle in contemporary Islam today.
Polygamy is another practice which has been picked up from the Pre- Islamic Arabia period. In Pre- Islamic it was very common for a man to have up to six wives or more. Polygamy may have been common during this period because many women had been widowed as their husbands had been killed during the tribal wars. Polygamy was to basically safeguard women. In modern Islam today Polygamy is allowed. However a man is only allowed to have four wives and no more. They would also have to make sure that all their wives were treated equally. This is stated in Quran “Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice” (4:3 An-Nisa). This quote emphasises that you can have up to four wives as long as you treat them all equal.
During the Pre- Islamic Arabia period many Arabs would worship Idols. Many of the idols would be made by the Arabs themselves out of wood, mud and stone. The Arabs had placed three hundred and sixty Gods in the Kabah. The Kabah is cubed shaped buildings placed in the middle of Mecca were Muslims believe it is God’s house. They would worship these idols by going around the Kabah. In today’s Islam the Kabah does not consists of any idols, all the idols have been destroyed. All that remains is an empty Kabah which Muslims refer to as the house of God. However Muslims in the present day do go round the Kabah during Pilgrimage, this is also known as Tawaf. Muslims believe that it shows their devotion and love to God.
In conclusion I conclude that during Jahiliyah people were ignorant however they had no knowledge about the norms due to lack of education. Even though that this period was very ignorant many of the beliefs and practices have been used in contemporary Islam, this therefore suggest that this period was extremely important for the religion Islam to emerge. There have been many changes from this period, for instance infanticide is known forbidden in Islam.
