Examine the attitudes of the Jahiliyyah Arabs to worship.

Answer Details

Before the coming of Islam, the Arabs of the Jahiliyyah period held corrupt and confused attitudes towards worship. These attitudes are examined below.

1. Idol worship: The Arabs worshipped numerous idols made of stone, wood and other materials. The Ka'bah alone housed about three hundred and sixty idols such as Hubal, and each tribe had its own deity.
2. Polytheism and star worship: They believed in many gods and also worshipped the sun, moon, stars and other natural objects, associating partners with Allah.
3. Worship of goddesses: They venerated female deities such as al-Lat, al-'Uzza and Manat, whom they regarded as daughters of Allah.
4. Belief in a Supreme God but with intermediaries: Although they acknowledged Allah as the Creator, they claimed to worship idols only to bring them nearer to Allah, using them as intermediaries.
5. Superstition and divination: They practised divining by arrows (azlam), soothsaying and consulting fortune-tellers to know the unseen and make decisions.
6. Corrupt pilgrimage practices: They performed pilgrimage to the Ka'bah, but mixed it with pagan rites, sometimes going round the Ka'bah naked, clapping and whistling in place of true worship.
7. Superstitious sacrifices and offerings: They dedicated animals and crops to their idols and slaughtered sacrifices in the names of these deities rather than Allah.
8. Denial of resurrection and accountability: Many of them denied life after death, resurrection and judgement, so their worship lacked belief in reward and punishment in the Hereafter.

Conclusion: The worship of the Jahiliyyah Arabs was dominated by idolatry, polytheism, superstition and corrupt rites, a situation Islam later reformed by establishing the pure worship of the One God, Allah.