Lessons from the Seerah 2 – what was Arabia like pre-Islam?
It is a great honour to talk about the Prophet ﷺ and to learn from his seerah – his life and biography. Previously, we looked at why we study the seerah – what is the benefit and what is the connection between the life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Qur’an and our own reality.
Though many like to jump straight into the seerah, you cannot understand the seerah properly without knowing the world in which the Prophet ﷺ lived. You need some idea of the geography, the social structure, the trade routes and the alliances between different tribes. Otherwise, you not fully understand happened.
Why was the tribal system so important? Why did certain tribes have alliances with others? Why, when Prophet Muhammad ﷺ returned from Ta’if, did he seek the protection (jiwar) of Al-Mut’im ibn Adi, even though Al-Mut’im was not a Muslim? This is where understanding the system makes a big difference.
his is why the classical books of seerah normally have a section on Arabia before Islam and before the birth of the Prophet ﷺ. You find this in Ibn Ishaq, in Sirat Ibn Hisham and in the other major works of seerah. Even many modern books of seerah give some background before beginning the story.
If you look at Ibn Hisham, for example, there is a lot of detail about the tribes and their relationships, because it was so complicated. I am not going to take you through every branch of every tribe, otherwise you might get lost, but we do need see an overview of the bigger picture.
Once you understand the relationships between the tribes, the politics, the religions that existed and their trade routes, you understand why certain people supported one another, what happened during the Hijrah, and why events unfolded differently from one place to another.
I have actually done around fifty pages of research which I have squeezed into this inforgraph:
When you look at the map of Arabian Peninsula, you find Makkah to the west and Yathrib, which later became known as Madinah, north of it. Yemen is in the south. To the east, you have Persia, and to the north you have al-Sham. When we say al-Sham in the classical books, it is not just referring to modern Syria, but includes what we now call Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan.
Around Arabia you also had two enormous powers. To the north, the Byzantine Empire dominated much of the region around al-Sham. To the north-east was the Sasanian Persian Empire, whose influence extended into Iraq and parts of the Gulf.
Across the Red Sea was Abyssinia and the Kingdom of Aksum, in the region of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea. This will become very important later when some of the Muslims migrate there to escape persecution in Makkah. And Egypt and Nubia. To the south was Yemen, and the Arabian Gulf opened Arabia towards the Indian Ocean, East Africa and India.
The structure of Arabian society
The structure of Arabian society was formed through marriages and clientage, protection and sanctuary as well as shared interests. Your tribe gave you your identity and your place within society. The larger and stronger your tribe was, generally the more protection and influence you had. You can compare it, in a very loose way, to relationships between countries today. A small country may seek an alliance with a much more powerful country because that alliance gives it security. You have alliances between America and different countries, Britain and different countries, and so on.
Similarly, a powerful tribe could offer protection to another tribe or to an individual. Marriage was a very important mechanism for forging alliances. They were not always necessary, but sometimes, marriage was the only way of uniting them. It is crucial to understand this point, as many of the marriages of the Prophet ﷺ was a means of creating tribal alliance, as a tribe did not view people outside their tribe as one them. So if you married into their tribe, you would no longer be viewed as an outsider.
The tribe also provided an individual with social standing and collective defence. It offered protection and carried certain responsibilities on behalf of its members. One very important example was blood money. If someone accidentally killed another person, for instance, responsibility did not necessarily fall on that individual alone. The wider tribal structure could share responsibility for paying the blood money. Blood money was costly, for instance it might be 100 camels, that you needed financial support of your tribe to pay it. When Prophet Muhammad ﷺ entered Madinah, he created the constitution of Madinah, which we call it وَثِيقَةُ الْمَدِينَةِ or the document of Madinah. This meant that the signatories would pay the blood money. Later, some of them did refuse to pay it and this did cause a war between Prophet Muhammad and them ﷺ.
Thus tribal solidarity provided security in the absence of central government. There is no central government in Arabia. Makkah was an important centre, but it did not have a central government. Nothing like that existed in Arabia at the time. Later, when Prophet Muhammad ﷺ established the Muslim community in Madinah, we begin to see a central authority developing, which eventually extended across Arabia. But before Islam, the system was very different.
We also see that alliances were also formed for a good purpose, to protect people who were being treated unjustly. A famous example is Hilf al-Fudul, the Pact of Virtue. This was formed in Makkah before Islam after a merchant was wronged and had no powerful tribe to defend him. A number of the Makkan clans came together and agreed that they would stand against injustice and help anyone who was oppressed.
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ witnessed this pact when he was still a young man, before prophethood. Many years later, after Islam had come, he still spoke very highly of it. He said:
«لَقَدْ شَهِدْتُ فِي دَارِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ جُدْعَانَ حِلْفًا مَا أُحِبُّ أَنَّ لِيَ بِهِ حُمْرَ النَّعَمِ، وَلَوْ دُعِيتُ بِهِ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ لَأَجَبْتُ»
“I witnessed in the house of Abdullah ibn Jud’an a pact which I would not exchange for red camels, and if I were called to such a pact in Islam, I would respond.” (al-Bayhaqi; also reported in the works of seerah)
Major tribes and regional powers
Now let us look at some of the major tribes, because their names will keep coming up throughout the seerah.
In the Hijaz you have Quraysh in Makkah. In Yathrib, which later became Madinah, you have the two famous tribes of Aws and Khazraj. Around Ta’if you have Thaqif. You also come across names such as Hawazin, Kinana and Ghatafan.
Some of these names will already be familiar to you because you meet them later in the battles and political events of the seerah. For example, during the Battle of the Ditch, or al-Ahzab, Quraysh, Ghatafan and their allies came together against Madinah. This was a huge coalition. They surrounded Madinah with the intention of destroying the Muslim community, but Allah protected Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the believers.
In Najd and al-Yamamah, in central and eastern Arabia, you have other major tribes: Banu Tamim, Bakr ibn Wa’il, Taghlib, Abd al-Qays and Banu Hanifa. Further north you have Arab tribes such as Ghassan, Quda’a, Kalb, Lakhm and Judham.
And this is another point which is useful to understand. When we speak about al-Sham, we should not imagine that everybody there was non-Arab. There were large Arab populations living in the region alongside other peoples. Some of these Arab tribes were closely connected to the great empires around them.
The Ghassanids, for example, were Arabs connected politically with the Byzantine Empire. On the other side, in Iraq, the Lakhmids, also known as al-Manadhirah, had close relations with the Sasanian Persian Empire. So Arabia was sitting between two superpowers.
If you want a modern comparison, think of two great international powers competing with one another, each with its own allies. Sometimes they fight directly. Sometimes the struggle takes place through their allies.
At that time, the two major regional powers were the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Persian Empire. Their rivalry had a major effect on the lands around Arabia.
Religion in Arabia
What about religion? Was everybody in Arabia worshipping idols? No. The majority were pagans, certainly, particularly in Makkah and much of central Arabia. But Arabia contained a mixture of beliefs.
Among the most famous idols were al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat, and Allah mentions them directly in the Qur’an:
أَفَرَأَيْتُمُ اللَّاتَ وَالْعُزَّىٰ وَمَنَاةَ الثَّالِثَةَ الْأُخْرَىٰ
“Have you considered al-Lat and al-Uzza, and Manat, the third one?” (Surat al-Najm, 53:19–20)
These were among the major objects of worship in Arabia.
But there were also Hanafiya, those who rejected idol worship and searched for the pure religion of Ibrahim (peace be upon him). They are often referred to as hanifs. They believed that these idols were not gods and that worship belonged to Allah alone.
Waraqa ibn Nawfal, the cousin of Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her), had rejected the idolatry around him, and the authentic narration tells us that he was a monotheistic Christian, with knowledge of the Gospel. When Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) brought Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to him after the first revelation, Waraqa immediately recognised what had happened.
He said:
هَذَا النَّامُوسُ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ اللَّهُ عَلَى مُوسَى
“This is the same angel whom Allah sent to Musa.” (Bukhari; Muslim)
He believed what Prophet Muhammad ﷺ told him and recognised his prophethood.
- There were also well-established Jewish communities in Arabia, particularly in Yathrib, Khaybar and Wadi al-Qura, as well as a Jewish presence in Yemen.
- Christianity had a strong presence further north in al-Sham and among some Arab tribes, and there was an important Christian community in Najran in the south.
- There were also smaller communities influenced by Zoroastrianism, particularly in areas affected by Persian rule and Persian culture.
So Arabia was not religiously uniform. The majority were pagans, but Jews, Christians, monotheists outside these communities and people influenced by Persian religion were all present.
In Makkah itself, however, paganism was overwhelmingly dominant. There were a handful of individuals who had rejected idol worship, but there was no large Christian or Jewish community comparable to what we find in some other parts of Arabia.
Why Makkah mattered – Trade and pilgrimage
Makkah occupied a special position because of the Ka’bah, which people would come to visit to perform Hajj and Umrah. The Arabs respected the Quraysh because they were the guardians of the Ka’bah and looking after the pilgrims. This give them prestige, because they were serving their visitors and associated with the Sacred House.
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ came from Quraysh. This did not mean Quraysh ruled Arabia. Remember, there was no central government. But they had status. Their name carried weight.
Trade strengthened that position even further. This is another reason why we need to understand the trade routes when studying the seerah. People travelled constantly along them. They stopped at particular towns and markets. They met different communities. News, ideas and goods moved along these routes.
Makkah itself is a barren place. It is not like Madinah, with its date palms and agriculture, or Ta’if, which has fertile land and produces fruit. It was a valley without cultivation. So how did people survive? Through trade. They had to bring things in. Makkah depended heavily on buying, selling, importing and exporting.
They travelled south towards Yemen and north towards al-Sham, carrying goods in both directions. And through the wider trade networks of the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, products could reach Arabia from much further away.
Goods from India reached Arabian markets and the Prophet owned an Indian sword. Spices came from the east. The finest cloth came through Yemen and other trading centres. Products from even further east could move through long chains of merchants before eventually reaching Arabia. So when we read the seerah and find references to particular fabrics, weapons, perfumes or spices, we shouldn’t be surprised. Arabia was connected to international trade.
From al-Sham they could bring agricultural products which simply did not grow in Makkah: different foods, fruit and olive oil.
Allah describes the olive as a blessed tree:
يُوقَدُ مِن شَجَرَةٍ مُّبَارَكَةٍ زَيْتُونَةٍ
“Lit from the oil of a blessed olive tree.” (Surat al-Nur, 24:35)
Olive oil was one of those products which came from the more fertile lands to the north.
Imagine these caravans. They would prepare for a major journey. Camels would be loaded with goods. Merchants would invest money into the caravan. Some people were very wealthy businessmen, others had smaller amounts to invest, and of course there were poor people who did not own these businesses at all. The caravan would travel, sell what it carried, purchase other products and bring them back. This was not a small part of Makkan life. It was one of the main ways the city survived. They did not just slaughter camels and goats. Alongside this international trade, there were also local markets and seasonal markets. Some markets operated regularly. Others were associated with particular seasons of the year.
And then, of course, there was the great annual gathering of Hajj. Before the pilgrims arrived, merchants had to prepare. Food had to be available. Clothes had to be available. Animals, equipment and other goods had to be available. People were arriving from all over Arabia, so it created a huge seasonal market. Umrah also brought visitors at different times of the year, with Rajab having particular significance among the Arabs, although Umrah itself was not restricted to Rajab. All of this helps us build the picture.
This background about trade becomes very important later when we come to the Battle of Badr. When Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the Companions left Makkah, many of them had been forced to leave their homes and property behind. Quraysh had confiscated or taken possession of much of what they left. Before Badr, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ did not initially set out intending to fight a major battle. He set out with the Companions to intercept a large Qurayshi caravan returning from al-Sham under Abu Sufyan. They wanted to recover some of the money they had lost when they had to leave.
Trade by land and sea
These trade routes did not exist only on land. Arabia was also connected to maritime trade. Along the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea were ports connecting Arabia to East Africa, India and the wider Indian Ocean economy. Further north, merchants reached the Mediterranean trading centres of al-Sham.
Gaza, for example, was an important commercial destination at the southern end of al-Sham. When the books of seerah tell you that Quraysh travelled to al-Sham, remember again what al-Sham means. Today we are talking broadly about Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
There were routes by land, and through the wider trading network there were routes by sea. As Makkah could not produce everything it needed, it brought in all sorts of products: grain, olive oil, textiles, metals, precious stones and luxury goods. Spices and aromatics came through eastern trade networks. Other goods travelled north and south through Arabia. And some merchants made enormous fortunes from it.
How were the caravans financed?
This is interesting as well, because you might imagine that every merchant simply owned one caravan, filled it with his own products and went travelling. It was more sophisticated than that.
You had major merchants who could organise and finance large trading ventures. Uthman ibn Affan (may Allah be pleased with him), for instance, became a very successful merchant. Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) was also a wealthy businesswoman, and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself traded on her behalf before their marriage. But smaller investors could also participate in trading ventures.
Someone might have a little capital but not have the experience, time or ability to travel with a caravan. Another person had the expertise and was already running the trading journey. So they could make an agreement: you put in the capital. I do the work. We agree beforehand how the profit will be divided, which is a Mudarabah contract, also known historically as qirad: one party provides the capital and the other provides the work and expertise.
Forms of this kind of profit-sharing commercial partnership were already known among the Arabs before Islam. Islam did not invent trade. It came to regulate it, remove injustice from it and establish clear rules around it. So a wealthy merchant might take capital from different people, trade with it and then distribute the agreed share of the profits when the caravan returned.
Of course, the merchant did not have to accept everyone’s money. If you did not trust somebody or did not want to enter a business arrangement with them, you didn’t have to. So even somebody with relatively modest savings might try to grow his wealth through trade.
And not everybody was dealing with huge international caravans. You also had ordinary people selling goods in local markets, running stalls and carrying out smaller businesses.
The seasonal markets
Alongside the permanent markets, Arabia had famous seasonal markets. Among the best known were Ukaz, Majanna and Dhu al-Majaz.
These become important when we study the seerah, because they were also big social occasions and there would be entertainment alongside business. One of their sources of entertainment was poetry, and it was a major part of this culture.
Ukaz became particularly famous for poetry and eloquence. Poets would come and recite their compositions. We have to understand how powerful poetry was in Arabian society. A great poet could build the reputation of his entire tribe.
Today, if somebody wants everyone to hear something, he puts it on social media. Within a few hours everybody knows about it. They didn’t have Instagram. They had poets! A powerful poem could spread from tribe to tribe. People memorised it and repeated it. Your name could travel hundreds of miles without you going anywhere.
So if you wanted somebody praised, poetry could make him famous. And if a poet attacked somebody with satire, that could be very painful as well. The insult might survive much longer than the person who was insulted!
This is why poetry appears later in the seerah as a means of defending the Prophet ﷺ and the Muslim community.
Hassan ibn Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) became famous as the poet who defended Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ encouraged him to answer the attacks of Quraysh with poetry.
He said:
اهْجُوا قُرَيْشًا فَإِنَّهُ أَشَدُّ عَلَيْهَا مِنْ رَشْقٍ بِالنَّبْلِ
“Respond to Quraysh with satire, for it is more painful to them than being struck by arrows.” (Muslim)
And he said to Hassan:
إِنَّ رُوحَ الْقُدُسِ لَا يَزَالُ يُؤَيِّدُكَ مَا نَافَحْتَ عَنِ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ
“The Holy Spirit will continue to support you so long as you defend Allah and His Messenger.” (Muslim)
So poetry was not just entertainment. It was media. It was reputation. It was public relations. Sometimes it was almost psychological warfare.
There would poetry competitions, judged by a panel and the best poem would be celebrated by being hung on the Ka’bah. These were known as Mu‘allaqat, “the suspended poems”.
If someone wanted to be famous, he would pay a poet to write a flattering poem about him and conversely, if someone wanted to insult someone, he would pay a poet to write a derogatory poem about him. His insult would continue long after he had passed away.
The journeys of winter and summer
The seasons were an important factor in trade. The Arabs would journey south towards Yemen in winter, but north to al-Sham in summer. As Allah mentions in the Quran:
إِيلَافِهِمْ رِحْلَةَ الشِّتَاءِ وَالصَّيْفِ
“Their accustomed security in the journeys of winter and summer.” (Surat Quraysh, 106:2)
You don’t want to go north into the colder regions at the worst part of winter if you have another option. And Yemen was suitable for the winter journey. In summer, they could travel north towards al-Sham.
But this does not mean Quraysh traded only with these two places. Their commercial connections extended much further through the networks around them, including towards Abyssinia and the wider markets connected to Persia, East Africa and the Indian Ocean.
This also helps us understand why Abyssinia was not some completely unknown place when Prophet Muhammad ﷺ later told the Companions to migrate there. Arabia already had commercial and maritime links across the Red Sea.
Trading was not automatically safe. A caravan was carrying wealth. Perhaps dozens or hundreds of camels loaded with valuable goods. If you were a tribe living along the route and there was no agreement between you and the caravan, it might be very tempting to attack it. Easy money!
So Quraysh had to build relationships with the tribes living along their commercial routes. They made agreements and alliances which allowed their caravans to travel with greater security.
So, Quraysh also carried and sold goods on behalf of tribes along the route. Instead of saying, “We are travelling through your territory and you might raid us,” they could create a commercial relationship which benefited both sides. You have goods? Give them to us. We are travelling to the market anyway. We can trade them on your behalf, and you benefit as well. Now you have an interest in keeping the caravan safe rather than attacking it.
This gives us a condensed overview of the different tribes, the regional powers, religions, and trading practices and alliances create an important backdrop to understanding the seerah. As well, we have the interconnected relationships and agreements for mutual protection. And the social media platforms of the time.
When Prophet Muhammad ﷺ made a decision, he did not make it in a vacuum. He understood the reality around him. He knew which tribes had alliances with one another. He knew where the tensions were, who could offer protection and who posed a threat. He understood politics. He understood people. He understood business and trade.
It was this fragmented society, which Islam would transform into an Ummah, with a universal civilisation vision.
Delivered by Shaykh Haytham Tamim to Al Manaar Convert Club on 18th August 2026.