ASPECT OF PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIAN SOCIETY
After the research we have made into the religious and political life of Arabia, it is appropriate to  speak  briefly about the social, economic and ethical conditions prevalent therein.
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE ARABS:
The Arabian Society presented a social medley, with different and heterogeneous social strata. The  status of the woman among the nobility recorded an advanced degree of esteem. The woman enjoyed  a  considerable portion of free will, and her decision would most often be enforced. She was so highly  cherished that blood would be easily shed in defence of her honour. In fact, she was the most decisive  key to bloody fight or friendly peace. These privileges notwithstanding, the family system in Arabia  was  wholly patriarchal. The marriage contract rested completely in the hands of the woman’s legal  guardian  whose words with regard to her marital status could never be questioned.
On the other hand, there were other social strata where prostitution and indecency were rampant and  in full operation. Abu Da’ûd, on the authority of ‘Aishah(May Allah be pleased with her) reported four  kinds of marriage in pre-Islamic Arabia: The first was similar to present-day marriage procedures, in  which case a man gives his daughter in marriage to another man after a dowry has been agreed on.
In  the second, the husband would send his wife – after the menstruation period – to cohabit with another  man in order to conceive. After conception her husband would, if he desired, have a sexual intercourse  with her. A third kind was that a group of less than ten men would have sexual intercourse with a  woman. If she conceived and gave birth to a child, she would send for these men, and nobody could  abstain. They would come together to her house. She would say: ‘You know what you have done. I  have given birth to a child and it is your child’ (pointing to one of them). The man meant would have  to  accept. The fourth kind was that a lot of men would have sexual intercourse with a certain woman (a  whore). She would not prevent anybody. Such women used to put a certain flag at their gates to  invite  in anyone who liked. If this whore got pregnant and gave birth to a child, she would collect those men,  and a seeress would tell whose child it was. The appointed father would take the child and declare  him/her his own. When Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) declared Islam in Arabia, he  cancelled  all these forms of sexual contacts except that of present Islamic marriage
Women always accompanied men in their wars. The winners would freely have sexual intercourse with  such women, but disgrace would follow the children conceived in this way all their lives.
Pre-Islam Arabs had no limited number of wives. They could marry two sisters at the same time, or  even the wives of their fathers if divorced or widowed. Divorce was to a very great extent in the power  of the husband.
The obscenity of adultery prevailed almost among all social classes except few men and women whose  self-dignity prevented them from committing such an act. Free women were in much better conditions  than the female slaves who constituted the greatest calamity. It seemed that the greatest majority of  pre-Islam Arabs did not feel ashamed of committing this obscenity. Abu Da’ûd reported: A man stood  up in front of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and said: “O Prophet of Allâh! that boy is my  son. I had sexual intercourse with his mother in the pre-Islamic period.” The Prophet (Peace be upon  him) said:
“No claim in Islam for pre-Islamic affairs. The child is to be attributed to the one on whose bed it  was born, and stoning is the lot of a fornicator.”
With respect to the pre-Islam Arab’s relation with his offspring, we see that life in Arabia was  paradoxical and presented a gloomy picture of contrasts. Whilst some Arabs held children dear to their  hearts and cherished them greatly, others buried their female children alive because an illusory fear of  poverty and shame weighed heavily on them. The practice of infanticide cannot, however, be seen as  irrevocably rampant because of their dire need for male children to guard themselves against their  enemies.
Another aspect of the Arabs’ life which deserves mention is the bedouin’s deep-seated emotional  attachment to his clan. Family, or perhaps tribal-pride, was one of the strongest passions with him.
The  doctrine of unity of blood as the principle that bound the Arabs into a social unity was formed