Scope of This Entry
This entry belongs to the Shahrur lexicon. What is meant by jahiliyya here is the use of the term within the critique of hakimiyya, not an account of its meaning in every Qur’anic or historical occurrence. The evidence presented distinguishes between a historical signification referring to Arab life before Islam and a modern deployment for judging contemporary societies.
What Is Attributed to Shahrur in This Context
The text presents Mawdudi as having employed “jahiliyya” to condemn patterns of life in Western societies that he did not regard as conforming to the Islamic system, and as having extended this usage beyond the historical concept used to denote Arab life before Islam. The critical presentation of hakimiyya in Sayyid Qutb links the division of the world into Islam and jahiliyya with takfir and with the authorization of force, bloodshed, and violence to establish the desired system.
See: Qutbian hakimiyya divides the world into Islam and jahiliyya, Mawdudi formulates a confrontational binary, and Qutb turns hakimiyya into a takfiri ideology. The reference that frames the extension of jahiliyya to the modern West requires an open primary source, and this entry therefore does not rely on it.
Atlas Explanation
This context helps distinguish between two uses that should not be conflated: jahiliyya as a historical designation, and jahiliyya as a normative instrument for classifying modern societies. In the second usage, the term no longer describes a specific past, but enters into an opposition between “Islam” and “jahiliyya.”
This does not mean that hakimiyya and “jahiliyya” are synonymous terms; the evidence establishes their association in this critique, not an identity of meaning.
Synthetic Conclusion
When jahiliyya is transferred from referring to the history of the Arabs before Islam to condemning a contemporary society, its function in this context becomes classificatory: the society judged to be in jahiliyya is set against what is presented as the Islamic system. This is the central relation connecting this entry to the transformation of jahiliyya into an instrument of political classification.
Open Question and Limits of the Reading
The available evidence is insufficient to determine the meaning of jahiliyya in all Qur’anic or historical usages, or to provide an independent, comprehensive definition of the term. Likewise, the connection of the term here to takfir and violence is limited to the critical presentation of hakimiyya in Sayyid Qutb and is not generalized to every use of jahiliyya.