The Islamic Enlightenment

The political system that existed among the tribal peoples in Saudi Arabia before the birth of Islam.

Before the birth of Islam the people of Saudi Arabia lived in family-based clans. These clans were dotted all over Saudi Arabia and only trusted and were loyal to family and close friends. Each clan was lead by the senior male of the family. This meant, that before Islam, they too, believe males were superior to females in the sense that they couldn’t hold a powerful position in their “system” of loyalty.

The clans absolutely loathed each other to the point where if a dehydrated warrior came to clan “A” for a drink from their well, they would most usually be denied just because they came from clan “B.” These clans were in constant war-fare meaning that not many advancements were made except military at the time because they were just too busy fighting.

Another factor that divided these clans were beliefs. Each clan had their own god and believed their god was the right one and the others were wrong. This was just another reason to spark war. Each clan’s god would be betrayed in an idol form. The one place these tribes didn’t fight was the Ka’Ba’. it was considered to be a no violence zone, and all of the tribes knew it. This being the case, trade flourished here. Every tribe could have traders there selling their tribe’s goods in exchange for other valuable goods like water, herbs, or food.

In our age and time everything is stored on paper or computers. If someone wished to learn about our history, they could simply look it up online, barrow a book from the library, or go to a bookstore, and buy a book pertaining to the topic. The clans in Saudi Arabia didn’t have the technology of paper making yet, or the technology of computers, so they used animal hides and wrote poems of the great events and people of their past.

Most people at that time weren’t literate, so they had a special leader sing them the poem, which in end taught the clan members of their beginnings, wars, and leaders of the past. It was the way of knowing what happened and was passed orally from generation to generation.

The central message of Islam that Muhammad preached.

Muhammad preached that people should unite, there should be one nation and believe in one god which was hard for all tribes to accept. The fact that Muhammad preached that there should be one people meant that the tribes couldn’t fight anymore and grudges would have to be dropped.