24 chapter one
existing members may be at liberty to leave. New members per-
mitted to join would be subject to satisfying conditions regarding the
degree of the additional risk they are bringing to the fund, depend-
ing upon how risky the new members are thought to be in terms
of their personal character and tribal connection, the level of com-
pensation expected to be paid out of the fund in line with the amount
of capital involved and the amount of contribution, or risk premium,
made by the new comers. Satisfying these preliminary conditions
would be necessary in a mutual insurance, as all insurance was at
that time. Although the process may not be as sophisticated as insur-
ance is today, pre-Islamic Arabian insurance must have required a
high degree of organization and clear rights and obligations that
were very advanced for their day.
The Bedouin in IslamIt can be said, therefore, that in Central Arabia, where Islam first
emerged, there was no civilisation to serve as a prerequisite for what
later became the Islamic Empire. It was Islam as a religion that con-
solidated the mutually hostile tribes, tamed the Arabian character
and pushed the inhabitants of Arabia forward towards world con-
quests. But not all of what existed in pre-Islamic Arabia was con-
demned and discarded. While Islam was unequivocally decisive on
matters related to Man and God, the new religion was more toler-
ant, selective, and sometimes agreeable, in matters related to the
character of the individual as a person. “The Bedouin is the raw
material of Islam”, is a saying that is attributed to the second Caliph
Umar (Hitti, 1963). Some of the personal traits that were sung in
the Arabic classical poetry were equally honoured, if not demanded
in the Qur"àn and the Prophet’s Sunnah. Patience and endurance,
hospitality, and fortitude are particularly praised in the Qur"ànic
verses and the Prophet’s sayings. Several verses refer to the endurance
as being the character of the real believers in God and His mes-
sage. In Islam, endurance has been widened, however, to include
endurance in facing the hardships in life, endurance in the consis-
tence of the devout worshiping God, endurance in resisting forbidden
temptations and not going astray, and endurance in military jihàd.
Hospitality is equally emphasized, repeatedly, in the Qur"àn and
Sunnah. This is widened to include, conceivably, hospitality to the