OBSERVATION

The candidates who attempted this question did not do well. Most of them wrongly interpreted the question to require the characteristics of the Jahiliyyah period on which they wrote instead of attitudes to worship of the Jahiliyyah Arabs. Some of the points  they missed  include the fact that the attitude of the people to worship was influenced by respect for norms and traditions which informed their being pure idol-worshippers; their idol-worship represents the primitive form of semitic belief; they believed in plurality of gods in about 365 idols deposited at Ka’bah as objects of worship; the objects of worship were carved by themselves and were of many kinds conferred with powers of varying  degrees; it was their belief that the idols served as intermediaries between them and the Supreme Being.