Hawzah News Agency – Be'that emerged to confront ignorance. In Islamic literature, jahiliyya (Ignorance) is the era before the Holy Prophet's appointment to (s.w.a.) prophethood. It should not be thought that ignorance was particular to the Arabian Peninsula and those Arab peoples living in Makkah, Hijaz and other Arab areas. This was not the case. Ignorance was common everywhere. At that time, Iran was drowned in ignorance as well. The same was true of the Roman Empire.
Islam and the Holy Prophet's (s.w.a.) Be’that (appointment to prophethood) emerged to confront that ignorance. Ignorance does not only mean lack of knowledge. In Islamic terminology and literature, the meaning of jahiliyya (ignorance) is beyond that. Part of ignorance is lack of knowledge, but ignorance in its broad sense means the domination of human lust and rage over one’s life. This is the meaning of ignorance. Ignorance means that human societies lose virtue and get subdued by evil mainly under the influence of their rulers' lust and rage. This is the meaning of jahiliyya.
Ignorance in the lives of the people of those days was so vast in scope. On the one hand, people were involved in lust, sexual desire and other such temptations in an unbridled way—you can take a look at the Arabian Peninsula of those days, but other environments were the same and anyone who had the opportunity indulged in lust in an unbridled way—and on the other hand, these followers of lust exploited all imaginable boundaries of cruelty, destruction and blood-shedding.
They used to kill their own children: "Lost are those who slay their children from folly and without knowledge" [The Holy Quran, 6: 140]. This was done out of folly and this folly equals ignorance. Their cruelty reached as far as killing their own children, let alone others' innocent children and women. This is ignorance.
On the one hand, it was out of lust and on the other hand, it was out of rage. Hence, life becomes a slave of these two unbridled and uncontrolled feelings. Islam emerged to change that condition. Of course, the same thing could be witnessed in the behavior of Sassanid courtiers in Iran and courtiers in the Roman Empire.
The same thing could be witnessed in all those places where empires, courtiers and cruel and tyrannical monarchies existed. Islam rose against all these ugly realities: "That it may be an admonition to all peoples" [The Holy Quran, 25: 1]. The Holy Quran addressed its warning to all the people in the world. This is Islam's message.