pre-islamic arabia:poetry,tribal rivalry and heroism 25poor and the needy and in spending in the cause of God. Going
even further, the Qur"àn is explaining to the Prophet that, even “If
one of the unbelievers sought your refuge (hospitality and protec-
tion), grant it to him and let him hear the words of God and, then,
(if he is still not believing) accompany him to a place of safety (and
let him go),” (Qur"àn 9:6). No example can serve better than this
verse in demonstrating how sacred the value of hospitality is in Islam,
how tolerant Islam is, and how important it is in Islam to extend
protection to those individuals who are desperately in need for pro-
tection even if they are not Muslims.
Fortitude in Islam, needless to say, is a duty on the Muslim when
a call for a military jihàd is made. Those who die on the duty of
jihàd are promised a continuous life after death, dwelling in Heaven
with angels and apostles, and those who remain alive are given due
reward in life and hereafter, “do not consider those who were killed
in the cause of Allah dead, they are alive and are given bounty in
Heaven”, (Qur"àn 2:154, 3:169–171).
Individualism has never been annulled in Islam, nor has the sense
of belonging, clanism, been repealed. The reassurance of private
ownership in Islam and the special regard given to protecting it is
a demonstrable proof of the recognition of individualism. But it is
not the absolute individualism that aims to fulfill the individual’s
whims and desire with no particular regards to the surrounding com-
munity. Rather, it is a well organized form of individualism that
while it acknowledges the free will of the individuals to enjoy the
bounties God has bestowed on them, it conditions such freedom with
the stipulation that “no-harm” should incur to the surrounding com-
munity. Similarly, pre-Islamic clanism was tamed, though the con-
cept of the individual being part of the whole was not dismissed.
The clan became the Islamic community, ummah, the whole to
which all Muslims belong.
Hard work, a main feature of the life in the inhospitable Arabia,
is sanctified in Islam so much so that it is regarded as a kind of
worship. Plus, work ought to be deemed as a continuous process
with no excuse for interruption. “Whoever had a small plant which
he was about to plant and heard the call of the Day of Judgment
let him plant it first before the Day comes,” the Prophet is reported
to have said (•aœìœMuslim).
Some Pre-Islamic forms of trading were accepted and some of the
financial arrangements in pre-Islamic Arabia survived the coming of