adulterated these holy rituals. Quraish, for example, out of arrogance, feeling of superiority to other  tribes and pride in their custodianship of the Sacred House, would refrain from going to ‘Arafah with  the  crowd, instead they would stop short at Muzdalifah. The Noble Qur’ân rebuked and told them:
“Then depart from the place whence all the people depart.” 2:199
Another heresy, deeply established in their social tradition, dictated that they would not eat dried  yoghurt or cooked fat, nor would they enter a tent made of camel hair or seek shade unless in a house  of adobe bricks, so long as they were committed to the intention of pilgrimage. They also, out of a  deeply-rooted misconception, denied pilgrims, other than Makkans, access to the food they had  brought  when they wanted to make pilgrimage or lesser pilgrimage.
They ordered pilgrims coming from outside Makkah to circumambulate Al-Ka‘bah in Quraish uniform  clothes, but if they could not afford them, men were to do so in a state of nudity, and women with  only  some piece of cloth to hide their groins. Allâh says in this concern:
“O Children of Adam! Take your adornment (by wearing your clean clothes), while praying and  going round (the Tawaf of) the Ka‘bah". 7:31
If men or women were generous enough to go round Al-Ka‘bah in their clothes, they had to discard  them after circumambulation for good.
When the Makkans were in a pilgrimage consecration state, they would not enter their houses through  the doors but through holes they used to dig in the back walls. They used to regard such behaviour as  deeds of piety and god-fearing. This practice was prohibited by the Qur’ân:
“It is not Al-Birr (piety, righteousness, etc.) that you enter the houses from the back but Al-Birr
(is the quality of the one) who fears Allâh. So enter houses through their proper doors, and fear
Allâh that you may be successful.” 2:189
Such was the religious life in Arabia, polytheism, idolatry, and superstition.
Judaism, Christianity, Magianism and Sabianism, however, could find their ways easily into Arabia.
The migration of the Jews from Palestine to Arabia passed through two phases: first, as a result of the  pressure to which they were exposed, the destruction of the their temple, and taking most of them as  captives to Babylon, at the hand of the King Bukhtanassar. In the year B.C. 587 some Jews left
Palestine for Hijaz and settled in the northern areas whereof. The second phase started with the
Roman  occupation of Palestine under the leadership of Roman Buts in 70 A.D. This resulted in a tidal wave of
Jewish migration into Hijaz, and Yathrib, Khaibar and Taima’, in particular. Here, they made proselytes  of several tribes, built forts and castles, and lived in villages. Judaism managed to play an important  role in the pre-Islam political life. When Islam dawned on that land, there had already been several  famous Jewish tribes — Khabeer, Al-Mustaliq, An-Nadeer, Quraizah and Qainuqa‘. In some versions,  the
Jewish tribes counted as many as twenty.
Judaism was introduced into Yemen by someone called As‘ad Abi Karb. He had gone to fight in Yathrib  and there he embraced Judaism and then went back taking with him two rabbis from Bani Quraizah to  instruct thpeople of Yemen in this new religion. Judaism found a fertile soil there to propagate and  gain  adherents. After his death, his son Yusuf Dhu Nawas rose to power, attacked the Christian community  in Najran and ordered them to embrace Judaism. When they refused, he ordered that a pit of fire be  dug and all the Christians indiscriminately be dropped to burn therein. Estimates say that between 20-
40 thousand Christians were killed in that human massacre. The Qur’ân related part of that story in
Al-
Buruj (zodiacal signs) Chapter.
Christianity had first made its appearance in Arabia following the entry of the Abyssinian (Ethiopian)  and Roman colonists into that country. The Abyssinian (Ethiopian) colonization forces in league with
Christian missions entered Yemen as a retaliatory reaction for the iniquities of Dhu Nawas, and started  vehemently to propagate their faith ardently. They even built a church and called it Yemeni Al-Ka‘bah  with the aim of directing the Arab pilgrimage caravans towards Yemen, and then made an attempt to  demolish the Sacred House in Makkah. Allâh, the Almighty, however did punish them and made an  example of them – here and hereafter.
A Christian missionary called Fimion, and known for his ascetic behaviour and working miracles, had  likewise infiltrated into Najran. There he called people to Christianity, and by virtue of his honesty and  truthful devotion, he managed to persuade them to respond positively to his invitation and embrace