الصلاة في العصر الجاهلي : قراءة دلالية في اللغة و النصوص الجاهلية

Abstract EN

This study sheds light on an important aspect of religious life in the Pre-Islamic era.

The significance of this study lies in its elucidation of the fact that there was a lack of a religious authority guiding the Arabs insofar as religious rituals, whereby the latter would be uniform for all of them, given the religious differences existing among them, and the fact they did not follow a single religion.

The aim of the study is achieved by studying prayer in Pre-Islamic times relying on the texts of Jahili (Pre-Islamic) poetry, and utilizing stories and reports narrated by Arab narrators in works of literature, philology, lexicographical works, history, works of Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir ar.) and the Prophet's biography (Al-Sira Al-Nabawiyyah ar.).

The author relies in his research on his knowledge of prayer, pillars and requires as prescribed in Islam, due to the fact that prayer in Pre-Islamic times is unclear in the classical sources that address it, and due to the dearth of poetry and reports that deal with it, and he pursues all that may indicate- in his classification of the topics of his study- the (form) of the prayer of the Pre-Islamic Arab; hence, he addresses the etymology of the term prayer (Al-Salat ar.) which is rooted in the vowels (waw or ya`a ar.), and its meaning according to the linguists and exegetes.

His aim from this discussion is to shed a light on the knowledge of the Arabs of prayer in Pre-Islamic times insofar as its linguistic features, based on the treatment of the scholars of this matter: he prayed in the sense that he supplicated, led him to discuss its forms which, it became evident to him, were four in number, namely: prayer as supplication, dawn prayers, the prayers of the forenoon and evening, and their prayer around the Ka`ba by clapping and whistling.

He, moreover, attempts to expound it by studying the significations of the other religious concepts insofar as prayer, namely bowing and prostration, and the two terms were in fact used in Pre-Islamic times to denote bowing- even though prostration is indicative of greater humility than bowing- their denotation of submission did not mean the submission of the Muslim person in his performance of prayer, which is accompanied by veneration where his bodily parts evince tranquility and modesty, but is rather a condition of weakness and meekness which were utilized in other than this usage, and their utilization in them- that is bowing and prostration- were necessitated by the laws of the Universe, so that the two terms (bowing and prostration)- and likewise prayer- become alive and present in the consciousness of the Pre-Islamic Arab, in order to prepare him on the one hand, and to ready him for accepting the subsequent phase on the other.

The same may be said of prayer (Al-Salat ar.) in its denotation of supplication (du`aa ar.), whereby with the advent of Islam supplication became a part of it, and became added to bowing and prostration; it became purified of its Jahili significations, and prayer became distinctively Islamic, and its trajectory became fixed for him, and hence its religious signification became clearly defined for him.

He likewise expounds the prayer in Pre-Islamic times by reference to what he termed the requirements of prayer in terms of texts and reports that are indicative of the location of prayer, and which show that PreIslamic Arabs performed ritual ablution when fine poetry was recited, and veneration (khushu`u) was known to them, even though it did not carry the religious signification relating to worship, and they used to know glorification (tassbih ar.) as denoting prayer and supplication.

The author, while expounding the topics according to the foregoing, achieves his aims by means of logical elaboration that is rooted in rational argument and persuasion.