levo
Log inStart

An Introduction to Islam

Arabia before Islam and the early life of Muhammad

  • 3 things to know
  • AS

Overview

What Muslims mean by the Jahiliyyah, religious situation in Mecca before Islam and three deities worshipped in Mecca before Islam.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

How was Arabian society organised in the sixth century?

Key term

Describe the religious situation in Mecca before Islam.

Key term

Name three deities worshipped in Mecca before Islam.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Explain what Muslims mean by the Jahiliyyah.

    Model answer

    Jahiliyyah means the age of ignorance, the period in Arabia before the revelation of the Qur'an, when tribal custom and the worship of many gods governed life.

  2. 2

    How was Arabian society organised in the sixth century?

    Model answer

    Arabian society was organised by kinship rather than by any state, so a person's security, legal standing and protection came from clan and tribe, and a killing was answered by the blood feud.

  3. 3

    Describe the religious situation in Mecca before Islam.

    Model answer

    Mecca was a pilgrimage centre whose Ka'bah housed the idols of many tribes, so the Quraysh drew both prestige and income from the pilgrim trade; the city also stood on the caravan route between Yemen and Syria and sent out a winter and a summer caravan each year, while Jewish and Christian communities lived elsewhere in Arabia and a few Arabs known as hanifs worshipped one God alone.

  4. 4

    Name three deities worshipped in Mecca before Islam.

    Model answer

    Hubal, al-Lat and al-Uzza were among the deities worshipped in Mecca before Islam.

  5. 5

    Who were the hanifs?

    Model answer

    The hanifs were Arabs who rejected idol worship and sought the pure monotheism of Ibrahim without joining either Judaism or Christianity, and Zayd ibn Amr is one of those remembered by name.

  6. 6

    What does the Qur'an say about the treatment of infant girls in that society?

    Model answer

    Surah 81 pictures the buried infant girl being asked at the judgement for what sin she was killed, a rebuke to the practice of female infanticide.

See the rest and revise

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

See a huge jump in your memorisation

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

An Introduction to the Gospel of Luke
An Introduction to the Acts of the Apostles
An Introduction to Themes in the Old Testament
The Origins and Development of the Early Christian Church to AD 325

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Amos came from in Judah.
TekoaBethelSamaria

Blank Blitz consolidates the facts

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AOne guest has bought a field and must go to see it.
BAnother has bought five yoke of oxen and must try them out.
CA third has just been married.

Build It trains answer structure

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Atheism asserts that there is no God.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in An Introduction to Islam, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Start revising, £5 a monthSee how the method works

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.