The Truth Message – Part – 3.3
Arabia At The Time Of The Prophet’s (Saw) Birth
Rational thinking indicates that the world was in dire need of revelations from God for spiritual guidance at the time when the Holy Prophet appeared: All the laws & teachings of the previous prophets had been forgotten and man was living in the worst possible immoral way.
Meccans claimed descent from Abraham through Ishmael. They revered Abraham as patriarch and prophet, and had vague notions of a Supreme God.
They believed, however, that it was not possible for ordinary mortals to obtain access to Him save through intercessors. For such intercession, they sought the aid of gods and goddesses, whom they worshiped in the form of idols (39:4).
Though idol-worshiping was ‘stamped-out’ by almost all of the prophets of past times, it came back!
So grievous was the condition that as many as three hundred and sixty idols were worshipped and a few of the idols were also placed in first house of The One Lord – in the Kaa’ba itself!
Such were the heights of degradation in matters of faiths and religion!
Idolatry was prevalent throughout Arabia: Other towns had their own major and minor gods and goddesses.
Philosophy, and learning were at a low ebb. The spirit, the mind, and the intellect languished.
In terms of civilization and social advance the Arabs were a very backward people.
Slavery was widespread: Weak tribes were made slaves who had absolutely no status. Every master did as he liked with his slaves – there was no limit to the hardship and indignity to which a slave might be exposed. A master could murder his slave without having to answer for it.
Woman in this Arab society had no status and no rights on the contrary it was thought honorable to put baby girls to death. Women-slaves were used to satisfy sexual desires. The children born of such unions were also treated as slaves. Women-slaves who became mothers remained slaves. When a man died his sons inherited all his wives (except their own mothers).
Tribal Wars: The worst treatment was meted out by combatant sides to one another in war. They did not hesitate to mutilate the bodies of their enemies, to take out parts and eat them in cannibal fashion. Cutting off the nose or ears, or plucking out an eye was a common form of cruelty practiced by them.
Vices: Their principal vices were indulgence in liquor and gambling, and promiscuity in sexual relations. Kindness and consideration to one another were unknown.
Christianity & Judaism: A like moral and religious corruption was to be found among the Christians and the Jews who, for ages had established themselves in the Arabian Peninsula, and had there formed very powerful parties. … It is not easy to conceive of anything more deplorable than the condition of Christianity at this time. The scattered branches of the Christian Church in Asia and Africa were at variance with each other, and had adopted the wildest heresies and superstitions. They were engaged in perpetual controversies and torn to pieces by the disputes … whilst the simony, the incontinence, the general barbarism and ignorance which were to be found amongst the clergy caused great scandal to the Christian religion, and introduced universal profligacy of manners among the people.
In Arabia the deserts swarmed with ignorant and infatuated Coenobites, or recluses, wasting their lives in vain but fiery speculations, and then rushing, often armed, in mobs into the cities, preaching their fantasies in the churches, and enforcing assent to them by the sword. The grossest idolatry had usurped the place of the simple worship instituted by Jesus — …
… Relics and carved and painted images were objects of the most fervid worship on the part of those whom the word of Christ commanded to address their prayers to the living God alone. Such were the scenes which the Church of Christ presented in Alexandria, in Aleppo, and in Damascus.
On the whole in the entire Arabia the gloom was almost unrelieved: The peninsula was an outlying and neglected region.
To conclude: At the time of Mohammed (saw)’s advent all had abandoned the principles of their religion to indulge in never-ending wrangling, and the Arabian people could not but see that they had lost sight of the most essential point of every religious doctrine — the pure and true worship of God — … [Taken from An Apology for Mohammed and the Koran by John Davenport]
Mankind had entered upon a decline. The earth seemed to be dying. Such were the heights of degradation in matters of faiths; and religion and moral qualities in humans were extinct as if they’d never existed. It was the darkest period of the Dark Ages. As the Quran says:
Corruption had overtaken both land and water, in consequence of that which the hands of men had wrought” (30:42).
It was among such people that the Holy Prophet (saw) of Islam was born.
“He it is Who has raised among the unlettered people a Messenger from among themselves who recites unto them His Signs, and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and Wisdom though before that they were in manifest error;” Surah Al-Jummah 62:3
Muhammad was a descendant of Abraham, the great Patriarch, who is designated as the Friend of God in the Holy Quran (4:126), through his eldest son, Ishmael. We have already discussed this point.
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So let us now take A Glimpse into the Family Life of Prophet Muhammad (saw)
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