Chapter Five
Clarifying the reality of each of the following: jāhiliyyah, fisq, ḍalāl, and riddah—together with their categories and legal rulings

1 – Jāhiliyyah (the age of ignorance): This refers to the condition in which the Arabs lived before Islam—ignorance of Allah, His messengers, and the laws of the religion; pride in tribal lineage; arrogance; oppression; and similar traits (1). The word is derived from jahl, which denotes either lack of knowledge or failure to act upon knowledge.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said: “Whoever does not know the truth is afflicted with simple ignorance, whereas one who believes the opposite of the truth is afflicted with compound ignorance. In light of this, it is clear that humanity before the Prophet’s mission ﷺ was immersed in a jāhiliyyah traceable to ignorance, for every statement and deed they followed had been introduced to them by an ignorant person and was carried out only by an ignorant person. In the same way, everything that contradicts what the messengers brought—of Judaism