We will shed some light of the religious status of the arabs and the world befor

e the coming of the prophet PBUH. And we talk about this to appreciate the bless
ings the rophet PBUH came with. When we understand pre islam we will understand
islam. Just like when we understand jahiliyah and the idolutry we will appreciat
e the blessing of sending the prophet PBUH to the world.
We know every nation had a prophet and the prohpet of the arabs was Ibrahim AS.
And Ibrahim AS sanctioned many practices which remained for thousands of years.
Some included:
1. To make mecca sacred - masjid al haram. It's called that because many things
that are halal outside are haram inside. For example you cannot hunt animals. Yo
u cannot take a leaf of a tree. You can't touch natural things. Allah says in th
e Quran "whoever enters the haram is safe". And this is a ruling we apply in our
shariah. Ibn Abass said: "a person would see the murderer of his father doing t
awaaf and he wouldn't touch a hear on his head". Because this is the haram.
2. Sacred months - four months were decreed sacred. In these months there must b
e peace between tribes. No fights and arguments and of course this boosted the e
conomy.
3. Hajj - with all of its rights and ritiuals - doing tawaaf, sacrifising animal
s, decerating animals, doing sa'ee. This was all upheld by the arabs.
Many non muslims say these aspects of Islam was taken from pagans culture - but
this is all persepctive. For the non muslim they aren't looking at the fact that
this is coming from Ibrahim AS. So according to them they say the prophet PBUH
took stuff from paganism. But we say no, he adhered to the original teachings of
Ibrahim AS and removed paganism.
Now if the arabs had a prophet who was Ibrahim AS and he taught tawheed, where d
id paganism and worshipping idols come from? Ibrahim is upon tawheed, where does
paganism come from? The prophet PBUH said when and where and how it began. Sahi
h muslim "I saw Amr ibn luhay al cuzee wondering around in hell with his entrail
s cut open behind him - being punsihed in a humuliating manner. Why? He was the
first to change Ibrahim AS's religion." And he was the first to introduce supers
titions. If you have the second male of the third female etc. that animal has to
be killed by the Gods - weird things like this. He began this. It is narrated h
e travelled to Syria and visited the Amalyk - and these were a tribe of tall peo
ple. He found them to be a powerful civilisation who worshiped idols. And he ask
ed them "what are these idols you worship". And they told him "these are our sou
rces of power - when we are in hunger we pray to them and miracles happen". He s
aid "can you gift me one of these?" And they gave him an idol by the name of "Hu
bal". And so this became the first idol of the arabian penencillia and also was
the main idol of Quraysh. And this is why 100s of years later in the battle of u
hd when abu suffyan thought they had won he shouted "O'lo Hubal" - "Hubal has wo
n". He mentions the very idol Amr first brought. So the prophet PBUH said "respo
nd back to him and said say they "Allah is our protector and you have no protect
or"". The point being that Amr brought this idol back and put it in front of the
ka'bah and this was the first time paganism started. And he also changed the ta
lbiyah. What is it? We say "Labayk" - I am responding oh Allah to your call. Amr
changed it - he has to change it because the talbiyah says "La sharikalak" - i.
e. you have no partners. But now they are ascribing partners to Allah. So in sah
ih muslim it's said he changed it - there's an 'illah' - 'except' - 'you have no
partner except for a partner who belongs to you, and you contorl the partner an
d you control all that he controls'. So you have partners but you are the big bo
ss. So they invented this new talbiyah and thus new religion.
Now Amr ibn luhay - when did he live? When we can never know precisely because t
he arabs had no real measure of dates. They didnt record in dates - rather in oc

casion "Am'al feel - the year when the elephants attacked'. They didn't use the
roman calenders, nor did they import the persian calenders. They didn't have a c
alender until Umar RA brought in the islamic calender. So they used to say "2 ye
ars before this battle - or 3 years after the elephants attacked etc". But we kn
ow Arm belonged to the generation around the same time as F'ir - the founder of
Quraysh. So roughly the 1st century of the christian era and so 500 years before
the coming of the prophet PBUH Amr introduces Hubal. So over 500 years paganism
spread.
The question now is how can one man single handly change the entire religion of
their four fathers ibrahim AS and ismail AS. Two factors:
1. Inferiority complex Amr had towards the Amlytkes: these people were an advanc
ed cicvilisation who had history, architecture, large buildings, known to be und
efeated its said they were a "nation that is indestructible" in Old Testemant. A
nd also they known to be giants. So Amr ibn luhay felt a complex that these are
the mighty nation. We should take from them. So because the syrian society the A
mlytkes were so powerful Amr assumed they must be correct in everything. So we s
hould take from this lesson: simply because a nation is powerful, has technology
etc dosen't mean it has morality or the right religion etc. So Amr said surely
they must be amongst guidance so he took Hubal from them.
2. Amr ibn luhay was the chief of khuza'a. So Quraysh didn't introduce idolotry.
Amr was the chiefton of the khuza'a and he was one of the most respected - had
alot of power, was a generous man, won lots of different battles etc. So the peo
ple followed him as he is prestigious and has high credentials.
3. There was at least 2000 years between Amr ibn luhay and ibrahim AS - so there
is a long time where their is no guidance and ignorance prevails.
So we should look at these factors and apply it to our lives. Simply because a n
ation is more powerful dosen't mean they are closer to the truth than us. We hav
e people who have credentials etc from the best universities but aren't adhered
to sunnah and Quran. And thirdly ignorance: it's very easy to fall prey to peopl
e if you don't know Islam properly.
So Amr lived around 500 years before the prophet PBUH. There are even narrations
that shaytan inspired Amr ibn luhay - indeed, shaytan gives wasaws as does Alla
h but Allah's wahih is pure. Allah says "shaytan inspire their people". So some
books mention shaytan inspired Amr ibn luhay with the names of the very first id
ols - the idols of the people of Nuh AS (who inveted idolotry). Ibn Abbass menti
ons the story of the five rightous men who were good people, who when they died
people built statues of them to remind them of their piety. But as generations p
assed instead of just looking at the statues people began worshipping them. It w
as a stepping stone. So it's said shaytan inspired Amr to resurrect these five i
dols - and indeed they were worshipped in Arabia. When the prophet PBUH one one
tribe had one statue, another had another etc.
Further he put one stone in front of the ka'bah and from this people began proli
firating idols. Firstly they began worshipping the stones the kab'ah was built w
ith. We learn whenever a caravan left mecca, they would take a rock from the kab
'ah and worship it. But indeed as muslims we know the place of the kab'ah is hol
y. NOT the bricks of the kab'ah itself. Not the building itself. And its reconst
ructed and rebuilt regularly. The current kab'ah is only 10 years old. There is
nothing holy about it but the people didn't realise it so they would take bricks
of the kab'ah and worship them. Another sahabi mentioned "before Islam came we
worshipped rocks and stones and if we found a rock that looked more beautiful we
would instead worship that rock. And if we were travelling the desert and we co
uldn't find a rock, we would gather sand, bring a goat, squeeze some milk out of
it to make the sand firm and then do tawaaf around that sand". It's mind boggli

ng intellegant people would do this but some places on Earth - people do this. T
hey build pagan structures where people sacrifise for rocks. They prostrate to a
wood, rock or a stone. Its just crazy. And sadly we see it in muslim countries
- people bow to graves and do tawaaf around it.
One of the most disgusting stories is that of Naeela and Asaaf. They were two id
ols - Naeela was put of safa and Asaaf on Morowa. And so the quraysh would touch
Naeela and Asaaf when they went back and forth doing sa'ee. When Islam came the
muslims felt hesistant "how can we do sa'ee when its meant to commemerate Naeel
a and Asaaf?" So Allah says in the Quran "Safa and Morewa are from the signs of
Allah" before Naeela and Asaaf ever came. Meaning don't feel guilty. Aisha RA sa
ys "since we were children we heard stories of Naeela and Asaaf". The books of h
istories say they were two lovers, and they could not find a place to be intiman
t except the interior of the kab'ah. And so as a punishment Allah destroyed them
and solidified right then and there. So the Quraysh found them and took them as
a miracle and put them on Safa and Morewa. This shows the paganism the arabs we
re on.
When the prophet PBUH conquered mecca there were around 360 idols around the kab
'ah of various shapes and sizes. Some in the shape of humans, animals - most in
the shape of half human, half animal. Like the childrens fairytails. Most idols
were humonoid all around the kab'ah. Also the Quraysh had the theology Allah had
daughters who were the angels. The arabs also didn't have a creed - societies t
hat were paganistic don't have creeds. Hindus don't have creeds - there is no un
ified creed. No akeeda. One worships one God, 6 million worship 6 million Gods.
All legit in their religion. Same for the arabs - no unified creed. Many believe
d something that others didn't. But they all agreed upon the fact they needed to
worship idols to come closer to Allah.
History records there are some exceptions to this. The books of seerah mention t
here were a handful of people that were hanifs "turning away from". So they turn
ed away from shirk and TO Allah. One hunafa was Kus ibn sa'ida from the Banu-iya
ad. And kus ibn sa'ida was a old man when the prophet PBUH was a young man. So k
us came to do kab'ah and was preeching against idolotery. And he was one of the
most elequent of the arabs - and it closely related to the Quran. And he said "o
h people listen and understand and when you hear then benefit because whoever li
ves of assurity will die, and who dies is finished and everything Allah has decr
eed will come about". And to his tribe: "oh people where is Thamud? Where is Aad
? Where are your grandfathers? And who will reward the one who does good but was
never rewarded. And who will punish the one who does evil but was never punishe
d? I swear by Allah there is a better religion than the one you are on". 50 year
s after the prophet PBUH met Kus ibn sa'ida in 9th year of hijra, he went to kus
's tribe and asked "where is kus?" they said he died 4 decaded ago. And the prop
het PBUH said "I remember him on a camel and that he had mesmorising speech can
anyone remind me of it?" And they related what we know (above). And the prophet
PBUH liked what Kus had said. So there was some remininse of tawheed.
Most important was four hunafa: before the coming of the prophet PBUH the qurays
h held a huge festival and exalted the idols, did tawaaf etc. When the entire ci
ty of mecca left the party, four people left behind. And they realised they are
on the same wavelength... tawheed etc. So when the four people realised they wer
e the only ones left behind they befriended each other. They were:
1. Waraqah ibn nawful ibn assad
We know Kadijah bint kuwalid ibn assad. So waraqah and kadhijah are cousins but
waraqah was 40 years older around.
2. Ubaid'illah ibn jahsh

This is the cousin of the prophet PBUH through his mother. So the prophet PBUH's
aunt is his Ubaid's mother. Aunt meaning Abdul Mutalib's daughter.
3. Uthman ibn huwaryth
4. Zaid ibn Amr ibn lufay - first cousin of Umar RA (but again Zaid is 40 years
older)
So they befriended each other and said "we all know these people have left the r
eligion of Ibrahim AS. Let us search for the original religion. The hanafiyah this is why Allah calls Ibrahim AS hanif. The arabs knew he was hanif. So they a
ll split up and left mecca searching for the truth.
Waraqah eventually chose christiantity and rejected the religion of the Quraysh.
He was an old blind man in his 80s when the prophet PBUH heard 'Iqra'. Every on
e knew he was learned scholar who reads and writes. So when 'Iqra' came khadija
RA said lets go to Waraqah. And he recognised that this is the religion we are w
aiting for. And indeed Waraqah is the first male convert to Islam after Khadija
RA. Even before the prophet PBUH realised what happened, Waraqah knew straight a
way. HE said "this is the namoos (secret companion) who came to Moses, Ibrahim A
S etc". He says "how I wish I was a young man so that I can support you when you
r people persecute you and expel you". And the prophet PBUH was shocked "my peop
le will expel me?" And waraqah said yes: "never has a prophet AS come except his
own people expelled and opposed him away". And just a little while after this h
e passed away.
Ubaid'illah ibn jahsh converted to christianity and was the cousin of the prophe
t PBUH so reverted to Islam when the prophet PBUH began preaching. He married Um
i Habiba (Ramla bint Abi Sufyan) and migrated to Abyissina and became a murtad went back to christianity. And that was when Umi salama left him, and he died s
hortly after that. And then of course umi Habiba married the prophet PBUH. And o
f course this shows our shariah tells us in lands that are not ruled by Islam, a
nyone can revert to any religion.
Uthman ibn huwaryth accepted Christianty and remained this until he died - and w
e don't know if heard the prophet PBUH's message. As he left mecca and never ret
urned. Uthman ibn huwaryth travelled to rome and became an interprator for Rome.
Zaid ibn Amr did not christianity or judaism. And he told both the rabbis and pr
iests "this is not the religion of IBrahim AS and you know it". So he returned b
ack to mecca and said "oh you people you have all rejected the religion of Ibrah
im AS except for me". Asma bint abu bukr (older daugther of Aisha RA) said she r
emembers seeing Zaid ibn Amr refuting the quraysh for worshiping idols, giving m
eat to idols, burying their daughters alive. And in face Zaid ibn Amr said give
me your daughters I will bring them up. And he forbade any daughter to be killed
and raised them himself. THe prophet PBUH met him when he was young and asked "
why is there animosity between you and your people?". This shows the inqusitive
mind of the prophet PBUH. And so Zaid ibn Amr said "I cannot worship idols etc"
and the prophet PBUH himself never worshipped an idol ever so he found a kinship
with Zaid ibn Amr. So he continued on this and died five years before the proph
et PBUH preached tawheed. And his son, Saeed ibn Zaid was a sahabi - and one of
the 10 who was promised Jannah. Ashura mubashara. And he said "oh prophet of All
ah tell me the fate of my father in the akhira". And the prophet PBUH said "he w
ill be resurrected on the day of judgement as his own ummah - one man ummah" and
when he went back from israwil mi'waj he said to Sa'eed "I saw your father in J
annah and Allah had blessed him with two gardens". So this shows even before the
coming of ISlam people entered JAnnah because their fitrah told them something
is wrong. So Zaid ibn Amr is a one man ummah. The only ummah without a prohpet.
This shows us the status of the arabs. Outside - the romans were on christianity

and the persians upon Zoroastrianism who worshiped fire etc so a pagan-religion
. Christianity however: well after Allah raised Isa AS, there were three underst
andings:
1. Nosticism - a mystical understanding.
2. Jewish christians - they believed that they are jews and have to follow the l
aw of Moses AS; eat kosher, circumicised etc. And that Jesus was sent to the jew
s. This is exactly what we believe.
3. Pauline christians - who wasn't even a disciple and just claimed to see Jesus
AS began a whole new theology that Jesus AS is not just a man. That he was divi
ne and he came to replace the law; and began trinity etc.
For 300 years christians debated who is Jesus? God, son of God, prophet etc? And
up until 300 AD christians were killed and lit alight as tree lamps in Rom etc.
Until eventually the emporer of Rome converted to christianity and this was qui
te a shock. Constantine was the first convert and he is the emporer. So he conve
nes a whole council - and he is a pagan from before so from that we get 25th dec
ember, trinity, son of God etc. And in 325AD he decrees official christianity is
pauline trinitarian christianity and all the unitarians/jewish christians died
and were killed. So pauline became the standard and from that we get orthodox, c
atholics etc i.e. all christians today.
The interesting story is Salman Al Farasi. He was the son of the priest in Iran,
Persia. His father was the one who kept the fire lit. Zoroastrians have to keep
the fire lit 24/7. It's not allowed to cut the fire off. And even when the buil
t the new temple they have to import an ever lit fire - they believe it is etern
al. So they have to take a fire from another temple wherein the fire is already
lit! So anyway Salman al Farasi was the son of the fire keeper. So his fire taug
ht him how to keep the fire going. So his job was to keep the fire lit and take
care of it - he was a zoroastrian priest. He said "on the way there, there was a
monk who had his small monostery and he would be worshipping, praying all day a
nd night - and it intruged this person had a different religion and it was mesmo
rising listening to his hymms. So one day I had the 'guts' to go and ask him 'ca
n you tell me about your religion?'. And so the monk began to preach christianit
y to Salman Al Farasi and he realised this was the right path and that what he w
as doing was idolotry. So he secretly converted to christianity. When his father
found out, his father totured him, locked him up and attempted to kill him. So
Salman Al Farasi escaped and ran away to Syria which is the land of christianity
. Of course the monk had been executed already but the monk told Salman Al Faras
i if you go to a paticular place you will find people like me thus we know the m
onk was on tawheed i.e. not pauline christianity. So Salman Al Farasi went to th
e temple instructed by that monk and he became the disciple of the monk at the t
emple. When that monk died he went to another temple and this happened four time
s. When each one died he went to another monk etc. When he went to the fourth mo
nk and that monk is about to die, he says "my group of people - I don't know any
one remaining upon our understadning of christianity. But you are in a special t
ime when the chosen messiah is upon us (he is about to come)". Now note tConstan
tine chose the four books apart of the new testamant and burnt all the other boo
ks that didn't affirm his beliefs. They were burnt in front of his presence. So
this knowledge the monk has is highly plausible since he is on the right path. W
hen the dead sea scrolls were discovered these were some remininse of jewish chr
istians - the real christians.
So the monk told him "You are just about to come to the time when the man Jesus
predicted is about to come. (We don't know the signs but these people knew). So
go seek this prophet out".
So the monk told him three signs:

1. He shall appear in the land full of dates.

2. He shall have a physical mark (small pretusion of multicoloured hair between
the shoulder blades) on his back 'seal of the prophecy'.
3. He will accept gifts but never charity (indeed we cannot give charity to the
ahlul bayt).
So by now Salman is around 50 years old. He asks "what is the land most known fo
r producing dates?". The answer is the land of Kabar - close to Yathrib. So he i
s told there are arab caravans that go there so he asked a caravan who is going
can I join you. But note Salman is a monk with no money or titles or prestigue.
He isn't a member of Rome or Persia - this is a lawless society. So these people
took advantage of him and 'kidnapped' him by enslaving him. He is sold as a sla
ve and is a slave in Yathrib, later to be Madinah (!) So for decades he is a sla
ve in Medina as a 70 year old man - rumours spread of a man being a prophet and
that he is immigrating over to Medina. And Salman says that he was collecting da
tes and he heard his master speak to his brother that 'the king of the arabs has
arrived'. Upon hearing this Salman jumps down runs to his master and asks "did
he come did he come?". And the master slaps him and says 'go back to your work'.
After Salman finishes his work he comes to the prohpet PBUH on the 2nd/3rd day
in Medina and says 'I heard you are a stranger here is some charity for you'. So
the prophet PBUH told his sahabah 'eat' but didn't eat himself. The next day Sa
laman brings a plate and says 'today I have come to you and this is a gift for y
ou'. So both signs of being a land of dates and not accepting charity have been
met! Now Salman is wondering what do I do to get to the third sign? So he stands
up and goes behind the prohpet PBUH and tries to peers and peeks at the seal (i
f it is there or not). So prohpet PBUH understood and lowered his shirt to revea
l the seal and show him the pigeon mark. And when Salman saw this he began cryin
g and whailing and kissed the hands and feet of the prohpet PBUH and told him hi
s whole story. And the prohpet PBUH said 'we must help you for his freedom'. And
they put a ridiculous price on his freedom i.e. 150 date trees. So the prohpet
PBUH said 'next time it's the season to plant dates call me'. So the prohpet PBU
H came with his own hands planted the seeds. 150 of those trees and within a yea
r they were full trees and he was hence free.
The point here is Salman story shows how few REAL christians were left. Another
story in Bhukari that shows how few christians were left is a story of the emper
or Heraclius. He was intellegant and educated and a scholar - trained in christi
anity. And whent he prohpet PBUH wrote a letter to the emporers, he wrote one to
the governer of Bahrain so it reached Heraclius. But at that time Heraclius was
in Jerusalum anyway so he got the letter earlier. When he read it, it said the
letter was from Muhammad messenger of Allah "accept Islam and you will be safe b
ut if you reject Islam you shall bear the penalty of your whole people because y
ou are the leader". So Heraclius quizzed 'are there any arabs?'. And yes it just
so happened that trading caravan from arabia was in Jerusalum. So Heraclius ord
ered these arabs to come to his palace. So immediately the guards march with the
quraysh and lo and behold its abu suffyan who meets the emporer of Rome Heracli
us. At the end Heraclius after quizzing him tells him "if what you tell me is tr
ue, then this is the prophet which our scriptures predicted". PAUSE: there is no
clear prediction in the current new testament so there must have been scripture
s that are hidden from the public. So clearly Heraclius has access to these scri
ptures (much like the vatican) and realises this is indeed the prophet PBUH. And
he said 'i knew he was coming but never occured it would be from the arabs'. An
d Heraclius wrote to one of the bishops of rome and the bishop confirms 'yes he
meets all the signs'. Yet Heraclius did not accept Islam as he could not give up
being the emporer of Rome and so died upon his misguided faith.
So in this dismal darkness the prophet PBUH was sent. This is what the prophet P
BUH said: "my Lord has commanded me to teach that which you are ignorant off. An
d Allah looked at the whole world and he despised everyone, except for some remi
ninse of the people of the book". So the prophet PBUH describes how the world wa

s and this is why we call it Jaheleyah. This is why the prohphet PBUH is called
'noor' and 'mercy for mankind'. This shows us:
1. Living in the current situation, guidance comes only from Allah. Not from our
intellect or philosophy. The world didn't have a prophet for 100s of years and
no intellectual could guide mankind. Allah revealed the Quran and the hidayah ca
me. The Quran is the shifaa - without Allah's guidance there is no guidance. And
people believe guidance is the ongoing experiance - but it's not! It's the Qura
n and sunnah from Allah. We won't change to conform to society. Even the prophet
PBUH didn't know the truth until it was revealed to him. Thus NO ONE can know t
ruth without Allah.
2. We really understand most of mankind is like sheep - they follow whatever the
leaders say. The Quraysh knew the religion they were on isn't the one of Ibrahi
m but everyone was doing it so they just followed. Allah says if you follow the
majority of mankind they will leave you astray. Indeed the majority just want to
follow their desires.
3. The story of Salman tells us, whoever is sincere will be guided. If there is
good and sincerety it dosen't manner if you are in a pagan society, if your hear
t is pure Allah will guide you to the truth. Allah took Salman out of the depths
of Jaheleya until he brought him to the feet of the prophet PBUH.