Chief of the Prophets — Page 11
Chapter One 11 father. He would continue burying her until the ditch was leveled and the poor soul would depart permanently from this world. The readers can well imagine that the people who carried out this kind of heinous act with their innocent daughters would provide nothing in the way of inheritance and other rights to their daughters. If someone would die without a son, his wife and daughters would be deprived of his inheritance, and brothers would appropriate all the possessions, and those poor souls would get nothing. Further to this, stepmothers were treated in such a way that after the death of the father, the son would take all of them as inheritance. May Allah send abundant mercy on that kind Prophet who emancipated women from this kind of humiliating and painful life! Superstition The curse of superstition was very common in Arabia. When they would set out on a journey, if they forgot something or had to return home for some other reason, they would jump over the back wall instead of entering through the main entrance which they considered a bad omen. They had a ritual of setting free certain animals in the name of idols or for other offerings. They also had some strange and dreadful practices related to marriages. In short, the Arab superstitions were so extensive, that their description could fill a voluminous book. The Religious Practices before Islam Most of the Arabs were idolators. Jews, Christians, Majūsī 1 , Sabians 2 and atheists were also found in certain parts of the country. The followers of idolatry considered idols the means for fulfilling their needs. The most famous idols were Lāt, Manāt, ‘Uzzā, Suwā‘, Yaghūth, Hubal, Wadd, Ya‘ūq, Nasr, Isāf, and Nā’ilah. The Ka‘bah had been made into a hub of idols with 360 idols in total. 1 Fire worshippers. [Publisher] 2 Certain religious sects found in some parts of Arabia. [Publisher]