كيف كان المجتمع العربي قبل الإسلام؟

It was a tribal society built on group loyalty (asabiyya). Women were honoured among the nobility and held in low esteem in other circles. It had several forms of marriage, the burying of daughters, and widespread adultery. Its livelihood came from trade in the sacred months, and from herding. It also had noble qualities such as generosity, loyalty to one's word and self-respect ^{1 2}.

Al-Raheeq al-Makhtum describes a society whose circles differed. Among the nobility, women were respected and protected, with freedom of choice and an effective voice. In other circles there were various forms of mixing. The book reports, in a hadith of Aisha, four kinds of marriage, of which Islam kept only the form of marriage practised by people today. There was polygamy without limit, divorce in the hands of men, and adultery, which the author considers widespread across all these circles except for a few individuals ^{1 3}. The subject is treated in more detail in The social condition and Forms of marriage in the jahiliyya.

The foundation of the social order was tribal group loyalty, under the saying "Help your brother whether he is wronging or wronged". Relations between tribes were loose, eased by the sacred months and by alliances. Some of them buried daughters for fear of shame and of the cost of supporting them, although the author does not count this as a common custom ⁴. See Asabiyya and Burying of daughters.

Their livelihood was trade, which could only flourish with security in the sacred months, and with markets such as Ukaz, Dhu al-Majaz and Majanna. They also farmed, kept livestock and spun wool. There was poverty and widespread hunger. Manufacturing took place in Yemen, al-Hira and Syria, not inside the Arabian interior ². The subject is treated in The economic condition.

The author counts among their admirable qualities generosity, even in wine and gambling, faithfulness to covenants, self-respect, perseverance in resolve, forbearance despite their pride, and the simplicity of the desert that produced truthfulness and trustworthiness. He sees this as the reason the Arabs were chosen to carry the message ^{2 5}. The subject is treated in The virtues of the people of the jahiliyya.

This is the portrait of a contemporary Sunni author who combines description and judgement. The view of recent studies on Arab society before Islam, and the status of women within it, is a matter of disagreement, and has not yet been added.