Abdullah Hakim Quick – Seerah Of Prophet Muhammad Muhammad #02 Idol Worship In Pre-Islamic Arabia
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There was, for instance, in a particular tribe,
a great teacher who taught them the belief
in one God. And when he died,
then people wanted to continue, you know, so
they would talk about him. The next generation
comes along and, would say, okay. Could you
draw a picture of him or some sort
Real minus of him. And then eventually, they
would make a why why don't you make
a statue of him so he can actually
know how he looked? The next generation comes
along and the only thing they have left
Is the statue. Of this teacher is the
statue, so they start to worship the statue.
And many idol worshipers will tell you that,
we're not just worshiping the idol. We're we're
worshiping the creator through the idol.
Shaha'Dalla.
Welcome back.
Very exciting time for us to talk about
the seed of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. Today, I actually wanna
get right into it, Bina Laha'u'llah,
and let's talk. The last time we talked
about Mecca, we talked about how he came
about, we talked about,
a little bit about the building of the
Kaaba, but I kind of want to get
into more details of that inshallahahu ta'ala.
The prophet
was a religious leader. He's the one who
called people to an actual specific religion. What
was the religion of the people, before the
prophet came about?
When you look at human beings, you will
find that there's a natural
belief in one God. And prophets were sent
to all the nations and the tribes around
the world.
But there's a tendency for people to worship
material things. Mhmm. And,
it is a human weakness in the sense
that you
follow your senses, your taste, your smell, your
sight, you know, your hearing. Yeah. And so
sun worship was one of the biggest
forms of worship in the ancient world
and also idol worship.
Now, places where people live near rivers,
they would tend to worship the river itself.
Places like in West Africa, they have this
baobab tree. Mhmm. It has a very big
base.
They would worship this tree trees.
In the desert itself,
because you don't have a lot of physical
objects in front of you, they would tend
to move toward,
sun worship
or they would
create their own
idols.
So literally, they would form structures
because they didn't have the trucks structures like
the baobab tree or Yeah. Or the great
river or things like that. So they would
form structures,
and and they would worship to the sun
through these structures.
Or eventually, they would actually worship
the structure itself.
There are some,
traditions that say that
there was, for instance, in a particular tribe,
a great teacher who taught them the belief
in one god and when he died,
then people wanted to continue, you know, so
they would talk about him. The next generation
comes along and, would say, okay. Could you
draw a picture of him or some sort
of him. And then eventually, they would make
a why don't you make a statue of
him so he can actually know
how he looked? The next generation comes along,
and the only thing they have left Is
the statue. Teacher is the statue, so they
start to worship the statue.
And many idol worshipers will tell you that,
we're not just worshiping the idol, we're we're
worshiping the creator through the idols,
And that's shirk.
Mhmm. So that is when you associate partners
with God.
You do believe in a in a in
a an eternal being. And the word Allah,
the concept of Allah was amongst the Arabs.
But they went through the different,
idols
and the demigods that they had in order
to get,
to the creator and that is classical,
polytheism. So even though,
the Kaaba itself was established by prophet Ibrahim
alaihi salam for the belief in one God,
with this generational weakness that people have,
they went back into this idol worship
in order to deal with the different issues
facing them. So that's just in in modern
in in Arabia, really, is really what you're
talking about. Can we talk a little bit
more about, I guess, really outside of Arabia
now at this point? So I guess, really,
in Arabia, they they worship idols.
How about,
the Christian kingdoms? How about the those kingdoms
that were surrounding the Arabia? Like, did they
know about, did the Arabs know about Christianity?
Did they know about Judaism? Did they know
about,
Persians, for instance, and how they worshiped and
so on? Yeah. Well, the Arabs who traveled
north,
and did business with the, Byzantines, with the
Romans and the Greeks Yeah. They came in
contact with Christianity because we recognize the fact
that in 325
AD,
Constantine,
who was the Roman,
emperor.
Okay? The power of Rome shifted from Italy
to Constantinople.
And Constantine brought the bishops together.
In 325,
they put together the modern day bible. They
chose the trinity as their belief, and they
began to spread this with Roman power. Mhmm.
So the Roman missionaries went all the way
up the Nile,
and they reached Ethiopia.
All that region there in Africa, they they
were in different places.
And the remnants of those Christians who did
not
accept the trinity,
they also hid and ran away to different
parts of the world. So therefore, the Arabs
who were in the middle and, you know,
they would
they had some contact,
you know, with the main trinitarians
of the Byzantines. Yeah. But they also met
Christians
who believed in one god.
So there was no unified teachings
that, that they had at that time, but
they had come in contact with them. What
did they How did how did they think
of them? Did they think highly of them?
Like, did the Arabs think highly of Christians,
or did they just thought that they were
they were crazy, that they were just worshiping?
Like, I I kind of want to know
the perception of how the Arabs saw
those people of of the book who came
before the prophet because that's really important on
how they accepted the prophet himself. Right? Well,
we we we have to recognize the fact
that,
communication was very weak at the time. Yeah.
So the Arabs living in the Arabian Peninsula
did not have that much of an understanding
of what Rome actually was.
They did not have that much of an
understanding of Persia itself.
Now the Arabs who who went on the
on the peripheries, on the borders,
they came in more contact,
you know, with Rome and Persia,
and and with Ethiopia. But in the center,
they looked at them as
foreigners,
who are coming from different lands, people do
business with. Yeah.
They had their own beliefs, but they didn't
really give much prominence,
to it. We don't have written literature,
you know, from amongst it. And from the
oral literature,
that has come in the poetry
that there's not much,
discussion about Christianity itself,
you know,
as a way of life. Yeah. Because we
do know that, like, you have certain Arab
tribes that, you know, the Hassan, for instance,
those are the ones that lived in there.
They were actually Christians, right, for for a
long long even during the times that the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, just when they
came and visited him. Right?
That,
so that's why I was kind of just
wondering, how how at that time okay.
Okay. So that's how they worshiped Sheikh.
So clearly then, I guess, at that time,
there was,
I guess, clear
freedom of worship, if you if I wanna
say if I if I can even say
that. Right? Because people worship whatever they want
to worship. Even if you want to make
your own god,
you would do it.
What was religion like, what was the importance
of religion itself as an actual thing to
do for for human beings?
In the Arabian Peninsula, especially in Mecca and
Hejaz area,
religion is tied with economics.
Mhmm. Because Mecca itself
was not only a religious center,
where the people put their idols because,
the Kaaba eventually had 360 idols put in
it. People would take a stone even from
Mecca or the Kaaba area, take it back
to their village and make an idol out
of it. Mhmm.
But they would also do business.
So so religion was connected to their business.
We couldn't say that they had much spirituality
in the sense. Yeah. They didn't really care.
They figured you live and you die and,
you know, it's based on power. Yeah. We
don't really get much spirituality
coming from,
the people, you know, living in in the
center of Arabia. Yeah. But again, the peripheries,
the people on the peripheries,
they did come in contact with other nations,
and they started to change Yeah. To the
point where
just before the time of prophet Muhammad,
there were people called the Hanif, the Hunaf.
So these were people who were not idol
worshipers.
They believed in 1 God.
They were not mainstream Christians. They were not
Jews. They believed in 1 God.
And,
but they didn't have an actual identity itself.
You also have in the south, in the
Yemen because because of Yemen being in the
south and the trade
routes. At some points, they were conquered by
the Persians. Mhmm. And there is discussion about,
a a Jewish king,
you know, who took over in the Yemen
area. So Judaism was there. And then the
the Christianity
of the the Ethiopians,
came across.
So down in the south,
there was contact that's different than in in
Arabia. But because of the lack of communications,
what goes on in Yemen,
doesn't affect the people Yeah. Really in the
center of Arabia.
Maybe every 2, 3 years, you you get
some information,
you know, about what happens,
in the Yemen. But they didn't have direct
contact. Yeah. But generally, people were actually, I
guess, really then you would say open to
new ideas, open to challenges to their own
religion and so on. I think this is
important to actually set because when the prophet
came and talked about a religion, this wasn't
a new thing to them. It wasn't like
we've never heard of a prophet before. Right?
They actually kind of this before. Okay. This
is really wonderful.
So, that's, I guess, really the story of
Mecca and how it became a major hub.
I guess, the next thing that I want
to talk about is
the style of leadership within Quraish itself. How
did they there's a society itself. How did
they rule each other? How did they,
work with one another? What what what I
mean, just just generally, how how do they
live as a society within Mecca? Generally speaking,
when we look at Mecca and again the
nobility which is coming out of the family
of Ishmael alaihi salam, you know, who had
a number of sons. He had like, you
know, 12 sons, 10, 12 sons.
You know? So from his family and then
Jeroham,
you know, and and the other tribes, because
there were other Arabel Araba from the Yemen
who were coming into Mecca as well. Mhmm.
And you even have struggle that goes on
between the different tribes of the Arabel Araba.
So so so it is within this milieu,
this
mixture of people that the Quresh,
took the leadership.
And one of the descendants of Ismail in
particular, whose name was Kosei. Mhmm. And, Cosei,
was a very organized
type of person.
So he actually developed,
ministries
where where he would give ministries for
feeding people, for giving water,
you know, military,
political.
So he he sort of set ministries there,
which is the basis of our organized,
society.
And then, you know, it it is through
his,
descendants,
that these
ministries,
started to actually take fall.
And out of Husay's sons,
you see different people who are ruling,
the ministries.
It's a long complicated story, but basically,
his one of his sons, Abdou Manaf,
he was able to
seize authority
and to be one of the major,
if not the major leader,
in
Mecca at the time,
and he
especially
was in charge of,
feeding pilgrims
and giving water.
And, obviously, when you're in a desert,
water and food is one of the most
important thing,
in life. It's more important than clothing or
anything like that. You have to survive. So
Abdu Manaf
really, you know, organized,
himself and that leadership that was coming from,
you know, Pusse coming from the Quresh because
this is all part of the Quresh lineage.
Yeah. They are the prominent people,
you know, who are in charge of the
leadership.
You have the the the masses of the
people who are there,
but the ones who control the ministries
are coming from
the the the Quraysh,
coming from Abdul Manaf's family.
They even struggle with each other.
Some of them, and Abdul Uzzah, they know
that they struggle with Abdul Manaf. Yeah. You
know, overpowered. Even prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam even witnessed the struggle that went on,
you know, between
the different,
families of Quresh or sections of Quresh
that that were were power groups because they
were controlling ministries.
Mhmm. So so this really, Sheikh. Sorry, Sheikh.
So you you seems to me like you're
describing,
a leadership style that
is in the service of the people. Right?
Like, not
like like, I mean, these guys, they didn't
tax people. They didn't do any any of
these things. The leadership was actually a position
of,
service. Like, you if you're the leader, then
you have to feed the people. If you're
the leader, then you have to, you know,
you're responsible for the sub day. Right? If
you're the leader, you're responsible for the cleaning
of the,
of the And I kind of just want
to really, I guess, really kind of unpack
that a little bit about the style of
leadership, right? Because when we talk about, the
prophet's family, for instance, we know that they
were noble, respected
families, but they weren't rich. Right? Like, that
wasn't a thing that they were actually talking.
So if you could just talk a little
bit about that, Shifan, so we can kind
of get a better understanding of what these,
what what they saw at that time. Well,
this is important because when you look at
the different,
areas of leadership Yeah. Whether it be the
the the the water, the water, or feeding,
or whether it was a, was it was
the political leadership, Liwa Yeah. Which is really
military leadership.
It sort of shapes personalities.
And so and so the people who control
the political leadership
and the military leadership,
they ruled more with power and fear.
But the people who control the water and
the feeding,
they would be they would be loved by
by the masses of the people. Oh, yeah.
And that is where,
the great descendant,
of Ishmael
coming out of Abdul Manaf,
that is his son Hashem
where Hashem comes in. Hashem is a key
individual
because he took over,
as the leader of
the the the feeding, you know, of of
the people giving water. And because of this
and something within his personality, some even say
there was something about the look,
you know, of this particular son and and
his descendants.
People gravitated toward them. Mhmm. So he was
really,
the first to establish
organized
trade routes from north to south.
Okay? So this very important thing that, you
know, that he did, it was there before
from time immemorial. But he really organized it,
and he really made it a key part
of of the economics, you know, of,
Mecca itself. And so he was he was
beloved by the people. He eventually,
went north.
He married a woman, Salma, you know, from
Yasserib was was Medina. And then surprisingly enough,
he died in Gaza.
So that's how important Gaza is to us.
You can never forget Gaza. Mhmm. So he
actually died, up there, you know, in that
area on the coast. He was doing his
trade.
Mhmm. Okay? And so this is how that
connection was there. And these are very important
points because,
the younger our younger generation has to make
the connection
between what is happening in Palestine today,
in Gaza, other parts. You have to connect
it directly with our history, with sira, with
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, so that these
places, no matter what happens to them physically,
they will never be forgotten
because they are a key part of our
history
and a key part, of the lineage
of our beloved prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. These are the things that unite us
as Muslims. I think it's really important to
also note that that the name Hashim,
is really basically the actual the the the
family name of the prophet, you know, they're
considered Banu Hashim.
But I also just want to mention, I
don't know why I thought of this, but
the name Hashim itself means the one who
breaks food. Right? Like, that's the actual name.
So, he was the one who anybody would
depend on for food, right, if they actually
knew him? Yeah. So this is a very
important point. Because, again, you know, he he's
breaking up the food and making Yeah. You
know, porridge or whatnot. Hamar. His name was
Hamar, actually. Yeah. Hisself. But then he takes
on that name, and and and Hashem is
important.
If you get a Jordanian passport, it says
the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. That's right. If
you are a king in Morocco,
you say that you're, you know, a Hashemite.
Mhmm. The Ayatollahs
in Iran that wear black turbans,
they claim to be Hashemites. Yep.
The Mahdi
that we believe will come at the end
of time, you know, will be coming from
Enu Hashim. From Enu Hashim. I mean, so
this is very important concepts that we link,
these together with what is happening to us
today. And I think it's also important, Shafa,
to to to understand the fact that these
are, like, were noble men. But, again, I
just wanna press on that point. They're considered
noblemen based on the service that they were
giving to the community as opposed to,
the way that they were ruling with tyranny
or the way that they because they didn't
have it. They didn't have armies. They didn't
they were just families, basically. And, obviously,
the larger the family, the more the more
you'll have of it. Okay. So, this is
really actually important. Jazakulokel. This is the lineage
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Next
time, inshallah, we'll get into more deeper, discussion.