The Humanity Need
for Global Mercy
You can view the Arabic source post by Dr. Mohammad Ahmad Al-Mubaiydh in this link
No one can know the
extent of change that took place for humanity after the mission of Mohammed
-peace and blessings of Allah be upon him- unless he examines how far the human
degeneration was globally
spreading at that era, before Islam message; and we cannot know the greatness
of Islam unless fully understand the conditions of pre-Islamic era (Ignorance Age).
The unanimous fact among historians is that sixth century A.D. was one of the
degraded pages of human history, where this degradation was like a circle going
to its decline from centuries before that time. There were no forces of any
kind able to stop humanity from declining, as it rather increased
quickly and severely. We can have a general overview as in the following:
Arabian Peninsula -Cradle of Islam- Conditions:
Arabian Peninsula
(also known as Arabia) looks like uneven rectangular shape. In the north, there
is Palestine and the desert of Levant region. Indian ocean is in the south.
From its east, the Arabian (Persian) Gulf and Euphrates and Tigris rivers. And
in the west, the Red Sea. Most of life in the Arabian Peninsula was nomadic, and
depended on animals grazing and browsing leaves and grasses. In addition, there
were some areas of small civic communities which took trading in the road
between Levant (north) and Yemen (south) as a profession. Moreover, there were
three important sides in Arabia which were civic areas: Yemen in the south,
cities of the Lakhmids or Muntherids (in southern Iraq) and
cities of the Ghassanids in north.
The Religious Conditions:
Most parts of
Arabia were polytheistic; or, on the other hand, believing on what left from Ibrahim's
(Abraham) religion. The sides of Arabia were mostly either believing in
Christianity or Magianism (Zoroastrianism). Although most of the people in
Arabia then worshiped idols, they claimed that they were practicing faith
according to Ibrahim -peace be upon him- but the truth that they were so far
from his teachings and high morals which he called for. In fact, Arabs religion
-before Islam- was a mixture of habits and traditions with pagan superstitions
governed by inclinations and personal interests. In another word, religion for
them was like a human fabric originated by some of them to conform with the
interests and desires of the powerful ones without any kind of moral specific
restrictions or tenets. According to this manner, their idols and pagan
imageries and tools were numerous, and false traditions and vicious moralities
infiltrated to their lives. So they ended up with many perverse and disgraceful
beliefs and actions. Furthermore, their mental situation had been deteriorated and
deformed in a way that every rock in Arabia -the homeland of the Meccan
Sanctuary- was fit to be worshipped as a god! For example, it was known about
an Arab man when he used to travel away from his home, he would take four stones
with him, three for starting fire, and the fourth one was to be worshiped as a
god. If he did not find a stone, he would pile up some dirt and milk a sheep on
its place then roam around it (as a sacred spot). In addition, their
intellectual absurdity and decay reached to an extent that they did not stop at worshiping a stone, but if they discovered that there is a better one, they
would throw the previous one and worship the new. Likewise, they invented some
ugly rituals such as circumabulation around the Kaabe in nude publicly, on the
pretext that keeping clothes on -which their sins may still stained on- is not
acceptable during going around the House of God. That was Arabs situation who
inherited the religion of the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail (Abraham and
Ishmael), as they changed its essence, even though they kept some of its
aspects like veneration of the Holy place of Kaabe and the ritual of going back
and forth between Al-Safa and Al-Marwah. Just few people were still practicing
the religion of Ibrahim, but they could not change that bitter realty. So they
fled away from that hell of ignorance which extended to all tribes of Arabian
Peninsula.
On the other
hand, Judaism was there in Arabia among number of tribes inhabited therein
waiting for their Messiah, whom they anticipated to descend at that time.
Nevertheless, Jews were not in better situation than pagans, hence adulation
and lust for power overwhelmed them, and their rabbis made themselves lords and
gods equal to the Almighty Allah. Also they deviated from the path and guidance
of Moses -peace be upon him- to fall into invented tenets by them, and they
concentrated their efforts in having more money and power. Jews did not care to cure
the phenomenon of atheism and infidelity, they rather took advantage of it in
order to achieve their own private goals. As for Christianity, it was also not
better in any case. It was transformed into complicated symbols, and mixed the
conception of divine entity with the mortal humanity in a rather confusing
fashion, and overturned to function as monastic order which does not try to fix
the awful reality.
The Social & Moral conditions:
The religious chaos in Arabia had afflicted social and moral
aspects. It was clear that an Arab had only cared for himself along his interests and inclinations. Nonetheless, the tribal nature of community had left some marks of
virtuous moralities such as bravery, giving aid to tribe and feeling proud of
the clan. But many obnoxious habits had resulted out
of it, like praising inequity, indulging in manipulating
and exploiting the weak, spreading of the hateful social discrimination, where
the slave was only something material like a home luggage whom his master could
have done with him/her whatever he liked, and clinging on the tribe had led to
dismantling the societies inside tribes, which had sometimes come up with many
wars between them, as an Arab fought for his tribe whether it had right or
false pretexts. While other reason for ferocious wars was the competition to
gain ultimate honor and higher rank inside the same tribe.
An Arab man usually
viewed woman as a sinister, so that he used to be unhappy when he had a
female baby, and he depraved her from her own rights, where sometimes he used
to treat females as home furniture as he could marry limitless number of women. He
even could have stripped her the right to live, where the phenomena of female
infanticide had been widely practiced. Above that, the sin of fornication was common, where women had been abused in rather humiliating way by
exploiting them through brothels widespread in Arabia which were known as
"red flag houses." Because of
that, bondwomen had been exploited their masters for gaining money, so they
used to raise a red flag on the slave house for anyone wanted to commit this
sin. At the same time, free women were making secret relationships with paramours.
Equally
important, many of vices had transformed to become virtues such as drinking
alcohols, and this act was praised and enhanced by famous poets in their poems which
were publicized to the society. Furthermore, Arabs had not felt shame by being
bastards, as this has been very clear as a result of the spreading of Estibda'a and Estilhaq marriages phenomena[1].
Needless to say,
one of the most bad practices, which was based on exploitation and infiltrated
its way deeply inside the society because of Jews advocacy, was usury, which
they received doubled many times as much of the real value. The outcome of
usury had lead the society to be sharply divided into economic classes, which
caused malevolence and grudge.
The Political Conditions:
Political Situation
One can generally
see that Arabian peninsula consisted of tribes living in deserts, where they
depended mainly on grazing and
browsing. This fact left its marks deep rooted inside
Arabian man's psychology, who was always showing the desire to rebel against
everything around him. Therefore, tribal feuds could be easily broken out for
the most trivial reasons. In fact, the whole Arab society had been living the law
of jungle where dog-eat-dog was the prominent factor, and no safety for any
victim fell under tyranny of the mighty. Furthermore, spoliation, robbery and
raiding were part of Arab man culture, which he had been proud of, and took
them as professions. Accordingly, he usually could not afford to sleep
peacefully at night, because he either was preparing for a raid or expecting it
from others. Evidently, some of the main examples of tribal triviality wars were
the war of Dahis and Ghabra between tribes of 'Abs, Dhoubyan
and Fozarah, the war of Bassous between tribes of Bakr and
Taghleb, and the war of Bo'ath between tribes of Aos and Khazraj.
In other words, Arab tribes were dismembered and shattered to fragments because
of their conflicts, and could not be united on a joint opinion as every tribe would
not submit or yield to another. In short, they have deserved to be called
desert dogs and beetle eaters.
Levant And Egypt Situation
Both of Levant and
Egypt regions were under the Roman rule which its religion was Christianity. In
the southern skirts of Levant, there were Arab Ghassanids who had been pledging
allegiance to the Romans, where Ghassanids had functioned as governors looking after Roman
interests by protecting their frontiers and raiding against any aggressor on
Roman Empire's southern and eastern sides. Ghassanids situations were not
better than Arabs of the peninsula, as they were divided into many clashed
emirates for having higher honor and nobility, and even they presented their
sons to be grinded for Roman mills.
On the other hand,
people of Egypt were forced to Christianity in a period where it had fallen
into the lowest levels because of the various religious differences then
between the numerous Christian doctrines and faiths. These hard differences
consequently led to religious persecution between those factions, inasmuch as the
doctrine officially approved by Roman rule persecuted and over dominated other
doctrines which resulted in fleeing of its men with their lives from their oppressors
into deserts and wilderness. In fact, some types of persecutions were so ugly
and horrific. For example, victims were tortured then killed by drowning, starting fire with torches to point them on
the face until they melt away, or prisoners were put inside bags full of sands
to be thrown in the sea. At that time, Christianity was only about symbols and
violent debates between its factions, which did not serve the reality of people
and did not change their lives to the best.
In addition of the
mentioned religious differences, tyranny of the Roman rulers was as obvious as
they regularly doubled taxation and attributes which outburst into deep hatred
against the rulers by the subjects. Needless to say, Levant situation, along
with Eastern Roman Empire itself, was not better than Egypt's which made people
wait for salvation from Constantinople's despots Caesars paws. So, many
revolutions and unrest were taken place every now and then as a normal
consequence of the utmost unfairness and tyranny. For instance, thirty thousand
people had been perished because of the unrest just in Byzantium's capital
alone.
Persian Empire Situation
Persian Empire was
the eastern great power (of the ancient world) opposite to the western Roman
Empire. The Persian society consisted of genuinely classified society. One of
its principles was that everyone must be convinced with his status which was
acquired by his ancestries, in a way that he cannot aspire to have a higher one.
This disproportion between social classes was very insulting to the humanity of
Man, where individuals usually paid respects to princes and staid inferiorly in
their presence, as if they were breathless objects in a rather humiliating and
disgraceful way. On the other hand, Persian kings claimed that divine blood is
running inside their veins, while common Persians considered their monarchs as
gods and they were above law, faith and humanity it self. Moreover, they thought they
had rights over everyone, whom have, in return, none on them. Also kings of
Persia viewed people's gifts as charities and obligatory right unjustifiably,
which had never been questioned or disputed, and no one can compete them on
that but villains. Therefore, If the Kiani House, which was the place of kings,
was without a ruler, they would instal women, and even children, as monarchs.
As for their
religion, it was mainly fire worshiping, which was the case Zoroastrianism
eventually ended to be, after distortion and modification of its teachings. So
special temples were built to perform Zoroastrianism's rituals in specific
hours. But there was not whatsoever affect on the public or private life by
their religion, whom were free to do whatever they inclined to do.
From ethical side, the
morals were as worst shape as possible, particularly after Mazdak (founder of
Mazdakism) disastrous thoughts, in which he proclaimed that all people are
equal in a way that no boundaries shall separate them from each other,
specially women and money. Hence, monies and women should be all shared,
according to Mazdak, as people share air, food and water. As a result,
contemptible persons took advantage of Mazdak's thoughts and promoted them
among the Persian society until they became stronger. Accordingly, a man was usually assaulted in
his home and watched his money taken and his wife and daughters forcefully
raped and he cannot do a thing. After a time, neither a man could tell who are
his born children, nor they could tell the opposite; generally, no one could
have owned anything to enjoy.
China Situation
There were two
religions dominated China: Confucianism and Buddhism. The first is interested
in wisdom, and its followers worship trees, rivers, or whatever they like.
There was no any kind of light of certainty out of it, nor momentum out of
faith. It was simply a practice of expert and wisdom.
On the other hand,
we have Buddhism, which was originally a simple faith, then was dominated by Brahmanism,
which had transformed it into a pagan religion, which carried idols everywhere
it goes, and built temples and huge colossuses of Buddha everywhere it reached,
until these idols overwhelmed peoples' lives. Added to the thousands of idols
which filled the land and festivals made for them with participation of entire
society from the king to the minor man, many of sorceries, conjuration and
illusions have crept into its worshiping cult. Even though Buddhism and Brahmanism
cults cared for religious exercises, devotions, self-suppression and marked by
virtues, they, however, did not solve problems of the society. Instead,
Buddhism has become as monastic as Christianity; needless to mention the harm
affect of dividing society into classes, where Brahmanism endorsed that, which
minimized non-Brahma status.
India position
Brahmanism, which
legalized The Hindu Caste System, dominated all over India. This official system, which was considered one of
the worst systems on Earth, has divided society into four classes:
Brahmin: represents monks and temple priests.
Kshatriya: the rulers and warriors class.
Vaishya: the farmers and merchants.
Shudra: the unskilled labor classes.
This classification law gave Brahmins privileges can be described as
divine, and considered them as the elite chosen by God, as they are much like kings
over the people without throne. In fact, everything in the world belong to
them, they can take from Shudras whatever they want of their money because a
slave does not own a thing and all his money belong to his master. Moreover ,
the king cannot in any case collect any kind of levies from Brahmins.
furthermore, if a Brahmin deserves to be executed, the ruler is not allowed to
execute the punishment over him, the best for the ruler to do is to shave the
Brahmin hair. Execution as a punishment is not for Brahmins, but for others.
As for Kshatriyas (
the second class), although they are above the two other classes, they are
lower than Brahmins. Actually, a Brahmin younger than 10 years old has better
status than a Kshatriyan who is near to 100 years old. Shudras, on the other
hand, are lower than stray animals; they do not have the right to sit with
Brahmins nor gaining or saving money. equally important, the compensation of
killing a dog, frog, crow and a Shudra are alike.
The woman in Brahminism is like a slave, to the
extent that a man can lose his wife in gambling. Sometimes a woman can have
many husbands. If her husband is dead, she will not have the right to marry
again, and she will be a target for insults and calumniation. the widow always has to stay at her late husband's house and serves
her brothers-in-law. She might burn herself after the death of her husband to
release her soul from life torture and earthly misery.
Brief of humanity state before the message:
Probably, the exact
description of humanity state was clarified by the messenger of the
revelation -peace and blessings of Allah be upon him-
when he said:
<<Behold, my Lord commanded me that I should teach you
which you do not know and which He has taught me today. (He has instructed
thus): The property which I have conferred upon them is lawful for them. I have
created My servants as one having a natural inclination to the worship of Allah
but it is Satan who turns them away from the right religion and he makes
unlawful what has been declared lawful for them and he commands them to ascribe
partnership with Re, although he has no justification for that. And verily,
Allah looked towards the people of the world and He showed hatred for the Arabs
and the non-Arabs, but with the exception of some remnants from the People of
the Book.>>
The previous saying
points out how far humanity degraded, and explains why Allah abhorred them
because of their infidelity, tyranny and
following the path of devils. It clarifies the humanity's great need for new
dawn, which leads them away from that stygian darkness. A new dawn that
humanity have never seen like it before, where the most sublime aspects of
mercy of Allah is bestowed upon them. It is a new dawn marked with the name of
Mohammed -Peace and Blessings of Allah be Upon him- the prophet of mercy, the
concentration of all efforts of prophethood, their essence, and the last chosen one of them along the whole course
of humanity. "Before Mohammed's prophecy, Arabs homeland was submerged
under the lowest troughs to the extent that it
is extremely difficult for us to depict what was going on of fables everywhere
then," wrote the American orientalist Edward Warmsey who continued
describing the state of humanity before
the message and impact of Mohammed on humanity "The causes of savageness
were various and multiple, such as the great chaos among people of that age,
children crimes and female infanticide, human sacrifices and oblations in the
name religions, the endless wars waging between different tribes every time and
then, the continuous shortage of numbers of people in the region, and the lack
of strong government. In addition, all that made crimes and violations to
increase. This undeniably true recorded by history; inasmuch as Arabs lands was
in the midst of confusion, disorder and mess unprecedented in the whole history
of world. on the other hand, other heavenly religions of Moses and Eisa (Jesus
Christ) lost their original purity and virtue at that epoch. Because some
abusers messed in them and distorted the words of God, and they contaminated
their creeds with lies and superstitions without any solid proof. Hence, people
could not differ virtue from vice, or righteousness from false. Then, a new
dawn has risen on the far horizon, and the coming days ushered in the shining
of sun of recognition and disappearance of dark clouds of ignorance which
veiled the heavenly lightness from the peoples' sights a long period of time.
It is that day when the great reformer Mohammed brought back what was lost of
justice, tolerance and virtue."
In his book
(Movements as the Basics for Civilization), Winson says: "In the fifth and
sixth centuries -i.e. before Islam Message- the world was about falling into a
deep hole of chaos. Because the creeds and faiths, which supposed to assist
establishing civilizations, had already collapsed. At the same time, there was
not really anything could replace them. Eventually, it seemed then that the
great civilization, which the world had been accumulating for four thousand
years, was on the brink of decline and dissolution, and that humanity was on the verge of going back to savageness;
inasmuch as the tribes were fighting and combating without laws or limits that regulate
their lives, where they insisted on keeping differences and conflicts rather
than unity and order. In fact, we can describe civilization at that time as a
huge dispersed tree which its shadows extended to the whole world but stood
faltering as the decay swept in to reach its kernels. Amidst this universal corruption,
the man who would have united all people, was born."
The French writer
Jules La Pomme says: "Around the time Mohammed prophet of Islam -Peace and
Blessings of Allah be upon him- was born
in the 6th century, the world's skies were Overcasted with brutal strives and disorder everywhere, in a way that people depended on evil means for their lives
more than good ones. At such dark times, Mohammed Ibn Abdullah the messenger of
Islam - Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him- was born to complete his way toward releasing
the nations from its stagnancy, and to inducing them to the direction of advancement and prosperity, until they have finally managed to achieve the far
ends which they were created for."
[1] Author:
1- Estibda'a marriage phenomena: It's something like
"cuckolding" (Prof. Ahmad Allaithy) where a husband gives his wife to another man in order
to be pregnant from him. The purpose of such outrages act was socially approved
as some men thought that if they've done this with famous men as knights,
chieftains or even famous poets they would have brightest sons like them.
Another reason for this " Estibda'a " was the sexual
incompetence by husbands. 2- Estilhaq marriage: It's rather like orgy where less than 10 men make sexual
intercourse with a woman, whom, if became pregnant, would be the only one who
can decide who is the fetus's father.
