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The ancient Arabic poetry has an important place after the Qur'an and hadiths in revealing the belief and religious thought of the Arabs of the period of Jahiliyya. These poems inform us about the lives, religious thoughts and belief structures of the Arabs. In particular, the examination of poems dealing with religious issues is important in determining the religious thought of that period. In the period of Jahiliyya, those who avoided believing in idols and opposed some of the traditions of Jahiliyya and proclaimed that they are followers of Abraham’s religion were called hanîfs. They were people who believed in the oneness of God. They acted against the established culture of paganism and did not worship their deities. Some of the poets of the period of Jahiliyya were among those hanifs. In their poems, they dealt with monotheism among many religious themes and revealed that they had the belief of the oneness of God.
The most basic concept that gives Islamic belief its distinctive character is oneness of God. This concept is one of the important features characterizing the nature of human beings. For this reason, human beings have been expressing the truth of oneness since their creation. The Hanîf poets of the period of Jahiliyya also expressed the truth of oneness of God in their poems. It is seen that some poets who did not worship the idols and who were opposed to the common religious belief of the day dealt with some important theological issues such as belief in the hereafter, belief in the day of reckoning, heaven and hell, in their poems. These poets have expressed, in their poems, God’s unity and uniqueness, His being the absolute creator and the owner of the day of reckoning. In addition, they emphasized the wrongness of associating gods with Allah and the evil customs in that period.
In the poetry of hanif poets in the period of Jahiliyya, the most basic religious themes matter that comes to the forefront is the oneness of God. For, there are examples in the poetry of the period of Jahiliyya that Arabs believed in the existence of God and placed Him above the idols. In this respect, the theme of the oneness of God, with which the hanif poets dealt in their poems, is regarded as one of the important evidences showing that there was belief in God in that period. It seems that those poems that the hanif poets said about the oneness of God in that period had a parallel understanding with Islamic belief system. In addition, it is understood from the poems that the hanif poets did not act contrary to Islamic belief and practices. For, the unity of God, the mistake of associating partners with Him, that He is the owner of the earth and the sky, the sole owner and creator of all creatures, His being the owner of the religion and the day of judgment, and the fundamental emphasis of Islam on the oneness of God are expressed in those poems.
In this study, the poems of some hanif poets and their understanding of the oneness God in those poems are examined. These poets are Kuss b. Sâida al-Iyâdî, Zayd b. ‘Amr al-Nufayl, Zuhayr b. Abî Sulmâ al-Muzanî, Varaqa b. Nawfal and Umayya b. Abî al-Salt. The fact that these hanif poets are mentioned commonly in the sources is the reason why they have been preferred to be examined in the present study. Apart from them, there undoubtedly were some poets who were called as hanif in some sources and emphasized the unity of God in their poems. However, in order not to exceed the limits of this study, only the five of them are going to be focused on and their poems containing the oneness of God are going to be examined. The above mentioned are going to be discussed chronologically.
In the present study, firstly, I give information about the poetry of the period of Jahiliyya. Secondly, I go onto dealing with the concept of hanîf in the given period. Finally, I discuss the above-mentioned poets and deal with some of their poems containing the oneness of God, after giving personal information about them.