2.1.5 Religion and Beliefs

Overview of Religious Life in Pre‑Islamic Arabia

Religious life in Arabia before Islam was not empty of belief in God. Many Arabs accepted that there is a Creator, yet their daily worship, rituals, and loyalties were directed to idols, spirits, and tribal symbols. Judaism and Christianity were also present in certain regions, and a few individuals, known as Hunafa, rejected idolatry and tried to follow the way of Prophet Ibrahim عليه السلام.

This chapter gives a broad picture of those beliefs as a whole. Detailed discussion of specific groups such as idol worshippers, the Hanifs, Jews, and Christians will be treated in the following chapters, so here we focus on the overall religious atmosphere.

Belief in Allah Mixed with Shirk

The Quran itself describes how many Arabs acknowledged Allah as the ultimate Lord of the universe, yet still worshipped others alongside Him.

Allah says about the polytheists of Makkah:

وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُم مَّنْ خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَاتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ لَيَقُولُنَّ ٱللَّهُ
“And if you ask them, ‘Who created the heavens and the earth?’ they will surely say, ‘Allah.’”
(Quran 31:25)

They believed that Allah is the Creator, the one who sends rain, and the one who controls life and death. Yet they did not devote their worship purely to Him.

Allah criticizes this contradiction:

وَمَا يُؤْمِنُ أَكْثَرُهُم بِٱللَّهِ إِلَّا وَهُم مُّشْرِكُونَ
“And most of them do not believe in Allah except while they associate others with Him.”
(Quran 12:106)

This verse explains that their “belief” in Allah was not true tawhid. They used Allah’s name, made duʿa in hardship, and swore oaths by Him, but they also called upon idols and intermediaries, thinking these would bring them closer to Allah or defend them from harm.

The Ka‘bah and its Central Religious Role

Long before Islam, the Kaʿbah in Makkah was recognized by Arabs as a sacred sanctuary. They traced its origin back to Ibrahim and Ismaʿil عليهما السلام. Certain rituals of Hajj also existed, such as circumambulation and certain forms of sacrifice, but they had been changed, corrupted, or mixed with pagan practices.

The Quran reminds Quraysh of the special status Allah gave to the Kaʿbah:

أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا أَنَّا جَعَلْنَا حَرَمًا آمِنًا وَيُتَخَطَّفُ ٱلنَّاسُ مِنْ حَوْلِهِمْ
“Have they not seen that We made [Makkah] a secure sanctuary, while people are being snatched away all around them?”
(Quran 29:67)

This sanctuary gave Makkah religious prestige and also economic advantage. People came from all over Arabia for pilgrimage seasons. Yet, instead of worshipping Allah alone at His Sacred House, Quraysh allowed and promoted idol worship. Thus, the House built for tawhid became covered with symbols of shirk.

Idols and Their Place in Daily Life

Idol worship was widespread and deeply embedded in Arab life. Idols were found in and around the Kaʿbah, in tribal centers, and even in individual homes. The famous Makkan idols such as Hubal, al‑Lat, al‑Uzza, and Manat will be discussed separately under “Idolatry,” but it is important here to understand the meaning of this worship in daily practice.

Arabs believed that these idols represented gods, saints, or powerful beings who could intercede with Allah on their behalf. The Quran says about them:

وَيَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا يَضُرُّهُمْ وَلَا يَنفَعُهُمْ وَيَقُولُونَ هَٰؤُلَاءِ شُفَعَاؤُنَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ
“And they worship besides Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them, and they say, ‘These are our intercessors with Allah.’”
(Quran 10:18)

They offered sacrifices, made vows, and performed tawaf naked in some cases, claiming this showed greater devotion. Idols were also attached to tribal identity. Each tribe had its own sacred object, and loyalty to it was part of loyalty to the tribe itself.

Superstitions, Omens, and Soothsayers

When revelation is absent or forgotten, people often turn to superstition. In pre‑Islamic Arabia, omens and fortune telling were common. People consulted soothsayers, called “kahin,” for guidance in important decisions such as war, marriage, and travel.

Soothsayers claimed to have contact with jinn or spirits. They spoke in rhymed prose and gave mysterious answers. Many Arabs considered their words as a kind of “unseen knowledge.” After Islam, these practices were clearly rejected.

The Prophet ﷺ later said:

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ، قَالَ رَسُولُ اللهِ ﷺ: «مَنْ أَتَى كَاهِنًا أَوْ عَرَّافًا فَصَدَّقَهُ بِمَا يَقُولُ، فَقَدْ كَفَرَ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ»
“Whoever goes to a fortune teller or a soothsayer and believes what he says has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad.”
(Sunan Abu Dawud)

Although this hadith is from the time of Islam, it describes a behavior that already existed before. Their reliance on such figures shows a religious world filled with fear of the unseen but without clear guidance.

They also used omens from birds and other signs. For example, if a bird flew to the right, they took it as a good sign. If it flew to the left, they considered it bad luck and cancelled their plans. Islam later called this “tatayyur” and forbade it.

Beliefs About Jinn, Spirits, and the Unseen

Belief in jinn and spirits was strong. Arabs camped in unfamiliar valleys and called upon the “lord of this valley” or resident spirits to protect them. The Quran mentions this habit:

وَأَنَّهُ كَانَ رِجَالٌ مِّنَ ٱلْإِنسِ يَعُوذُونَ بِرِجَالٍ مِّنَ ٱلْجِنِّ فَزَادُوهُمْ رَهَقًا
“And there were men from mankind who sought refuge in men from the jinn, so they [only] increased them in burden.”
(Quran 72:6)

This shows that people feared unseen beings and tried to appease them instead of placing their trust fully in Allah. Some also believed that poets received inspiration from jinn, and that special jinn could assist people with secret information or hidden powers.

Islam did not reject the existence of jinn, since they are a creation of Allah, but it corrected the relationship with them. Seeking refuge from jinn and obeying them in disobedience to Allah became clearly forbidden.

The Concept of Fate and Time

Another aspect of their belief was a confused understanding of fate and destiny. Some Arabs blamed “time” itself for misfortunes such as death, sickness, or loss. They said words similar to what the Quran reports:

وَقَالُوا مَا هِيَ إِلَّا حَيَاتُنَا ٱلدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلَّا ٱلدَّهْرُ
“And they say, ‘There is nothing but our worldly life; we die and we live, and nothing destroys us except time.’”
(Quran 45:24)

They saw life as a cycle of chance and accident, run by “time” or “fate,” without recognizing Allah’s wisdom and decree. This outlook encouraged despair, arrogance, or carelessness, since they did not have a clear belief about the Hereafter and accountability in front of Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ later said in a hadith qudsi, clarifying their mistake:

قَالَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى: يُؤْذِينِي ابْنُ آدَمَ يَسُبُّ الدَّهْرَ، وَأَنَا الدَّهْرُ، أُقَلِّبُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ
“Allah Most High said: ‘The son of Adam offends Me. He curses time, while I am time; in My Hand is the night and the day.’”
(Sahih al‑Bukhari, Sahih Muslim)

The meaning is that Allah is the One who controls time and events. To curse time is indirectly to blame Allah. This hadith is part of the correction that Islam brought to their pre‑existing ideas.

Fragmented Moral and Religious Guidance

Religious beliefs in pre‑Islamic Arabia were scattered and inconsistent. Some religious principles from the way of Ibrahim عليه السلام survived in a weak form, such as respect for the Kaʿbah, some memory of sacrifice, and certain invocations mentioning Allah. At the same time, those remnants were surrounded by idolatry, superstition, and tribal customs.

Different tribes followed different laws and taboos. For example, certain animals or foods were declared forbidden without any divine authority. The Quran refers to such invented practices:

مَا جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ مِنۢ بَحِيرَةٍ وَلَا سَآئِبَةٍ وَلَا وَصِيلَةٍ وَلَا حَامٍ وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ يَفْتَرُونَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ٱلْكَذِبَ
“Allah has not instituted [superstitions like] bahirah, sa’ibah, wasilah, or ham. But those who disbelieve invent falsehood about Allah.”
(Quran 5:103)

These were special names for animals that they declared sacred or taboo for themselves, not based on revelation but on tribal stories. Such customs show a religious life that borrowed the language of holiness yet lacked clear, authentic legislation.

Without a revealed law to guide them, people mixed true ideas about Allah with personal desires, local habits, and inherited myths. This spiritual confusion prepared the ground for the final message. When Islam came, it did not begin in a vacuum. It came to a people who already knew some truths, but whose beliefs needed purification, correction, and completion.

Coexistence of Different Religions in Arabia

Alongside Arabian paganism, other monotheistic religions were also present in different regions of the peninsula. Jewish communities lived in places such as Yathrib (later Madinah), Khaybar, and some southern areas. Christian groups and churches existed in Najran, parts of Yemen, and among some Arab tribes of the north.

Because of trade, travel, and war, Arabs were aware of Jews and Christians and sometimes interacted with their beliefs and scriptures. The Quran refers to this shared awareness when it addresses the “People of the Book,” and when it mentions that some Arabs said:

لَوْلَا نُزِّلَ هَٰذَا ٱلْقُرْآنُ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍ مِّنَ ٱلْقَرْيَتَيْنِ عَظِيمٍ
“Why was this Quran not sent down upon a great man from [one of] the two towns?”
(Quran 43:31)

Behind such statements lies the knowledge that revelation had come before to certain peoples, and the expectation that leadership in religion belonged either to them or to powerful Arab elites.

At the same time, the presence of Jews and Christians offered an example of scriptural religion that some Arabs admired and others mocked. This complex relationship will be explored in later chapters dedicated to Jews and Christians, but here it is enough to note that Arabia was religiously diverse. It was not an isolated land cut off from the ideas of monotheism.

Longing for Pure Monotheism

In the middle of widespread shirk and confusion, a few individuals looked at the idols around the Kaʿbah, the superstitions of their people, and the stories of earlier prophets, and felt dissatisfied. They were convinced that the religion of Ibrahim عليه السلام must be different from what they saw.

These seekers are called “Hunafa” from the word “hanif,” which in the Quran describes the pure, upright monotheism of Ibrahim:

إِنَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ كَانَ أُمَّةً قَانِتًا لِّلَّهِ حَنِيفًا وَلَمْ يَكُ مِنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ
“Indeed, Ibrahim was a nation, devoutly obedient to Allah, inclining to truth (hanifan), and he was not of those who associate others with Allah.”
(Quran 16:120)

Some of these Hunafa rejected idol worship, refused to eat meat sacrificed to idols, and tried to practice whatever they understood from the legacy of Ibrahim. Their existence shows that the fitrah, the natural disposition to recognize one God, was still alive in hearts, waiting for the clear call of Islam.

The Need for Guidance and Revelation

When we look at this religious scene as a whole, we see belief in Allah but also widespread shirk, remnants of the way of Ibrahim but also deep corruption of rituals, knowledge of previous scriptures but also misuse and distortion, fear of the unseen but dependence on jinn and soothsayers, and a longing for truth in a minority of seekers.

The Quran describes the mission of the Prophet ﷺ as coming to remove people from such darkness to light:

الر ۚ كِتَابٌ أَنزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ لِتُخْرِجَ ٱلنَّاسَ مِنَ ٱلظُّلُمَٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِ بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ إِلَىٰ صِرَٰطِ ٱلْعَزِيزِ ٱلْحَمِيدِ
“Alif Lam Ra. [This is] a Book which We have revealed to you, that you may bring mankind out of darkness into light, by the permission of their Lord, to the path of the All‑Mighty, the Praiseworthy.”
(Quran 14:1)

The “darkness” here includes the religious confusions and misguidance of pre‑Islamic Arabia. Understanding this background helps us appreciate why the message of tawhid, the rejection of idolatry, and the guidance of revelation were so central to the Seerah of the Prophet ﷺ.