Last updated: April 30th, 2025 at 12:23 pm · Est. Reading Time: 2 minutes
Late Pre-Islamic Arabs used to follow the precedents set by their tribal heroes. These precedents were called sunnah (سنه).
Pre-Islamic poet Labid (Labīd لَبِيد) once spoke of a leader from his own clan:
One of a tribe whose forefathers laid down for them a sunnah;
and every folk has a sunnah and its imām (امام).1
Here, Labid refers to the established customary practice of each tribe having a sunnah and an imam. An imam is the tribal hero whose actions set a precedent and example for others to follow. This precedent is called sunnah.
Another pre-Islamic poet, Abid (‘Abīd عَبِيد), elaborates this concept further:
And we follow the ways of our forefathers, those;
who kindled wars and were faithful to the ties of kinship.2
This signifies how important it was for the pre-Islamic Arabs to follow the sunnah of their tribal forefathers. Another term used in lieu of sunnah was ‘dīn al-‘Arab’ (the ways of the Arabs). Deviating from the sunnah did not risk any religious punishment like the anger of gods or spirits or problems in the afterlife. In that sense, sunnah was a secular unwritten ethos and abiding by it was based on the honour (irḍ) of an Arab.3 Fulfilling tribal obligations by following sunnah was a must, denying which could result in social isolation.
Muru’ah was binding on the whole population and, hence, was not consciously amenable. Sunnah, on the other hand, was alterable, though the process was onerous. It could only be modified in a tribal gathering and with the consensus of all full members. Attending such a gathering was a source of pride for a tribesman. “Among them are assemblies of fine men, councils from which follow decisive works and deeds…; when you come to them, you will find them round their tents; in session, at which impetuous action is often obviated by their prudent members,” says Zuhayr, a prominent pre-Islamic poet.4
Adherence to sunnah on the part of the Arabs was such a powerful administrative tool available to a tribal shaykh that he could manage the tribe without any police force at his disposal.
Further Reading
History of Islam, Social Structure of Pre-Islamic Arabs, https://historyofislam.org/social-structure-of-pre-islamic-arabs/
Footnotes
- For the Original Arabic ode see: Labid. Diwān, ed. I. Abbas (Kuwait: Wizarat al-Irshad wa-l-Anba’, 1962). For its translation, see: Arthur J. Arberry. The Seven Odes: The First Chapter in Arabic Literature. (London, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1957), 147.
- ‘Abid ibn al-Abras. The Dīwāns of ‘Abid ibn al-Abras, of Asad, and ‘Āmir ibn aṭ-Ṭufail, of ‘Amir ibn Ṣa’ṣa’ah, ed. and trans. Charles Lyall (Leyden, E. J. Brill, 1913), 48 (ode 20).
- Gustave E. Grunebaum, “The nature of Arab Unity before Islam,” Arabica 10, no. 1 (1963): 15.
- Zuhayr ibn Abi Sulma, Dīwān, ed. K. al-Bustani (Beirut: Dar al-Sader, 1964), 62.