What is "jahiliyyah"

n. (context Islam English) The condition of ignorance, barbarism and unbelief in Arabia before the coming of Islam; more recently its meaning has been expanded to include Western non-Muslims.

Jahiliyyah ( / "ignorance") is an Islamic concept of "ignorance of divine guidance" or "the state of ignorance of the guidance from God" or "Days of Ignorance" referring to the barbaric condition in which Arabs found themselves in pre-Islamic Arabia (in the non-Islamic sense), i.e. prior to the revelation of the Quran to Muhammad. The root of the term jahiliyyah is the I-form verb ''jahala'jahil' "to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly".