The Social Policy of the Prophet Muhammad as an Agent of Transformation of the Pre-Islamic Social Hierarchy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64691/4v894m09Keywords:
Prophetic Policies, Social Transformation, Pre-Islamic Arabia, Contextualization of Hadith, Social SolidarityAbstract
This article departs from the character of the social hierarchy of pre-Islamic Arab society, which was rigid and exclusive based on lineage, clan, economic status, and gender relations, as well as from the limitations of contemporary hadith and sirah studies, which are still predominantly normative-descriptive, so that they are inadequate in explaining the mechanisms of social change structurally and their implications for the development of hadith studies. This study aims to critically analyze the social policies of the Prophet Muhammad as an agent of transformation of social hierarchy through normative, institutional, and social-praxis dimensions, while also offering a socio-structural reading that is relatively underused in hadith studies. This study uses a qualitative approach based on a thematic-contextual analysis of social hadiths in a purposively selected corpus of canonical hadith books, proceeding through the stages of theme identification, categorization, and contextual interpretation, and is supported by socio-historical readings and a theoretical framework of social change. The results of the study indicate three main mechanisms: first, the deconstruction of lineage-based stratification through the principle of moral equality that negates genealogical superiority; second, the reconstruction of social structures through the inclusion of marginalized groups such as enslaved people and people experiencing poverty in a system of welfare distribution and equitable social relations; third, the institutionalization of inter-tribal solidarity through brotherhood, collective ethical regulation, and the strengthening of women’s roles in the socio-symbolic sphere. This transformation occurred systematically and continuously, resulting in a more egalitarian social order. These findings affirm the Prophet Muhammad as an agent of strategic social change and broaden the horizons of hadith studies toward contextual, relevant socio-structural analysis.
References
Aboulhassan, S., & Brumley, K. M. (2019). Carrying the Burden of a Culture: Bargaining With Patriarchy and the Gendered Reputation of Arab American Women. Journal of Family Issues, 40(5), 637–661. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X18821403
Ag Said, D. N., Ibrahim, R. I., Ab Rahman, A., & Hamdan, H. (2024). Bridging the gap between the tradition of the Prophet in zakat payment and the current practice, through modern measurement. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIABR-10-2023-0328
Al-‘Asqalānī, A. ibn ‘Alī ibn Ḥajar. (1970). Fatḥ al-Bārī. Egypt: al-Maktabah al-Salafiyyah.
Al-Bayhaqī, A. B. A. ibn al-H. ibn ‘Alī. (1997). Syu‘ab al-Īmān. Beirut: al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah.
Al-Bukhārī, A. ‘Abd Allāh M. ibn I. (1993). Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (M. D. Al-Bugā, ed.). Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr.
Al-Kishmīrī, M. A. S. ibn M. S. (2005). Fayḍ al-Bārī ʻalā Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah.
Al-Naysābūrī, M. ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Q. (1955). Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. Cairo: Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī.
Al-Sijistānī, A. D. (1993). Sunan Abī Dāwud. Beirut: al-Maktabah al-Iṣriyah.
Al-Tirmidhī, A. ‘Īsa. (1975). Sunan al-Tirmiżī. Egypt: Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī.
Ali, I., & Abdollahi, M. E. (2024). Divine traditions and the governance of the city-state of Medina. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 80(3), a10094. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v80i3.10094
Ali, K. (2016). Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Asad, T. (1993). Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Auda, J. (2008). Maqasid Al-Shariah as Philosophy of Islamic Law: A Systems Approach. Virginia: International Institute of Islamic Thought.
Azmi, U., & Marpaung, A. (2025). Waqf Funds as an Instrument for the Dissemination of Knowledge in Classical Islamic Civilization. Al-Qarawiyyin: Jurnal Ilmu Ushuluddin, 1(4), 256–272. https://doi.org/10.64691/d5zf1010
Bank, W. (2024). World Development Report 2024: The Middle-Income Trap. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2024
Barlas, A. (2012). “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Brown, J. A. C. (2009). Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.
Brown, J. A. C. (2019). Slavery and Islam. London: Oneworld Academic.
Canfield, M. C. (2023). The Anthropology of Legal Form: Ethnographic Contributions to the Study of Transnational Law. Law & Social Inquiry, 48(1), 31–47. https://doi.org/10.1017/lsi.2022.19
Caniago, S., Firdaus, Azwar, Z., Pertiwi, D., & Nainin, D. M. (2024). Gender Integration in Islamic Politics: Fiqh Siyasah on Women’s Political Rights since Classical to Contemporary Interpretations. MILRev: Metro Islamic Law Review, 3(2), 411–431. https://doi.org/10.32332/milrev.v3i2.9962
Clayman, S. E., & Heritage, J. (2021). Conversation Analysis and the Study of Sociohistorical Change. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 54(2), 225–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2021.1899717
Donner, F. M. (2010). Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Friyadi, A., Abdillah, A., Sadili, I., Masruri, M., & Fatah, A. (2024). Exploring Female Hadith Transmitters : A Gender Perspective as a Modern Women ’ s History Lesson through Intelligent Ṣaḥabiyyāt. Sawwa: Jurnal Studi Gender, 19(1), 145–168. https://doi.org/10.21580/sa.v19i1.20264
Habermas, J. (1989). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Hallaq, W. B. (2009). An Introduction to Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hallaq, W. B. (2015). The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament. New York: Columbia University Press.
Harahap, A. P., Is, F., & Julaiha P, J. (2025). Examining Ḥadīth on Women as a Source of Fitna: Thematic and Contextual Approaches. Australian Journal of Islamic Studies, 10(2), 123–142. https://doi.org/10.55831/ajis.v10i2.745
Harvey, R. (2019). Slavery, Indenture, and Freedom: Exegesis of the ‘mukātaba Verse’ (Q. 24:33) in Early Islam. Journal of Qur’anic Studies, 21(2), 68–107. https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2019.0382
Hodgson, M. (2002). The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hodgson, M. G. S. (2002). The Venture of Islam. Jakarta: Paramadina.
Isḥāq, I. (1955). The Life of Muhammad (A. Guillaume, ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kahf, M. (1995). The Islamic Economy: Analytical Study of the Functioning of the Islamic Economic System. Plainfield: Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada.
Kandiyoti, D. (1988). Bargaining with Patriarchy. Gender & Society, 2(3), 274–290. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124388002003004
Khaldūn, I. (1967). al-Muqaddimah. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr.
Kusuma, S. H., Akhyar, K., Multazam, A., Imran, M., & Jamardi, S. (2026). Hadith and Women’s Voices: A Critical Analysis of Amina Wadud’s Methodology in Interpreting Gender Bias. Arba: Jurnal Studi Keislaman, 2(1), 52–68. https://doi.org/10.64691/764cw175
Kusuma, Z., Handayani, S. A., Aslam, M., & Salleh, N. F. binti. (2025). The Intellectual Traces of Women in the Golden Age of Islam: From Science to Cosmopolitan Culture. Al-Qarawiyyin: Jurnal Ilmu Ushuluddin, 1(4), 306–320. https://doi.org/10.64691/dx657048
Lala, I. (2023). Ibn ‘Arabī and the Spiritual Sīrah of Prophet Muḥammad. Religions, 14(6), 804. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060804
Lapidus, I. M. (2002). A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, K. V. (2024). Power, youth, and temporality: capitalising on the symbolic in resourcing social entrepreneurship. Social Enterprise Journal, 20(5), 701–718. https://doi.org/10.1108/SEJ-08-2023-0097
Mahmood, S. (2005). Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mājah, A. ‘Abd Allāh M. ibn Y. I. (2014). Sunan Ibnu Mājah (M. F. ‘Abd Al-Bāqī, ed.). al-Su’ūd: Dār al-Ṣadīq.
Malik, B. A. (2016). Philanthropy in Practice: Role of Zakat in the Realization of Justice and Economic Growth. International Journal of Zakat, 1(1), 64–77. https://doi.org/10.37706/ijaz.v1i1.7
Mernissi, F. (1991). The Veil and the Male Elie: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Right in Islam. Cambridge: Massachusetts.
Mokhtarzadeh, Y., Malladi, S. G., Zaenah, H. A., Börner, K., & Sharan, S. A. (2026). Women’s Stories in the Quran as Models of Social Agency and Gender Justice. Arba: Jurnal Studi Keislaman, 2(2), 159–176. https://doi.org/10.64691/mr9fqd57
Nasution, A. M. (2025). Hadis tentang Kebebasan Budak: Studi Historis terhadap Akar Emansipasi Sosial dalam Islam [Hadith on the Freedom of Slaves: A Historical Study of the Roots of Social Emancipation in Islam]. Arba: Jurnal Studi Keislaman, 1(4), 269–286. https://doi.org/10.64691/arba.v1i4.29
Nasution, K. (2025). Negara Madinah sebagai Cerminan Awal Penerapan Nilai-Nilai Konstitusional dalam Bingkai Pancasila [The State of Medina as a Reflection of the Initial Implementation of Constitutional Values within the Framework of Pancasila]. Kamali: Jurnal Ilmu Agama, 1(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.64691/kamali.v1i1.76
Organization, I. L. (2023). World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2023. Retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/publications/flagship-reports/world-employment-and-social-outlook-trends-2023
Pareto, V. (1991). The Rise and Fall of Elites: An Application of Theoretical Sociology (H. L. Zetterberg, ed.). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Programme, U. N. D. (2024). Human Development Report 2023/2024: Breaking the Gridlock—Reimagining Cooperation in a Polarized World. New York. Retrieved from https://hdr.undp.org/content/human-development-report-2023-24
Putra, D., & Acela, N. (2023). Human Rights Protection in the Islamic Family Law: A Case Study Concerning Domestic Violences. El-Usrah: Jurnal Hukum Keluarga, 6(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.22373/ujhk.v6i1.18511
Sa’ad, M. ibn S. ibn M. al-H. al-B. al-M. bi I. (1990). al-Tabaqāt al-Kubrā. Beirut: Dār al-Kutb al-‘Ilmiyyah.
Sabiruddin, S., Nurfadhilah, N., Bukhari, B., Aryanti, Y., & Engkizar, E. (2024). EXTREMISM IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARAB SOCIETY: A Perspective on Moderate Values and Tolerance. MIQOT: Jurnal Ilmu-Ilmu Keislaman, 48(2), 206. https://doi.org/10.30821/miqot.v48i2.1270
Samosir, H. E., Hussin, M. N. Bin, Sudianto, Marlina, & Azman. (2025). Recontextualizing the Medina Charter: Consensus-Based Political Communication for Contemporary Plural Societies. MILRev: Metro Islamic Law Review, 4(1), 645–675. https://doi.org/10.32332/milrev.v4i1.10523
Sarfaty, G. A. (2021). Toward an Anthropology of International Law. In International Law as Behavior (pp. 128–157). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316979792.006
Shaukat, M. A., Samra, U., Hassan, J., Saadi, C., & Hayat, I. (2024). Morality from Classical Civilizations to Post-Modern Era: A Historical Account Through Islamic Lens. Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 14(2), 321–335. https://doi.org/10.32350/jitc.142.19
Tan, X., Dou, X., Zhang, Y., Xing, C., Bai, B., & Miao, R. (2021). The Structural Dilemma of Citizen Participation: The Interactive Influence of Social Status and Subjective Social Mobility. Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology, 15, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/18344909211003169
Tolan, J. (2024). The Enlightenment prophet: Muhammad in early modern Europe. Journal of the British Academy, 12(1–2), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/012.a07
Vargas-Salfate, S., Paez, D., Liu, J. H., Pratto, F., & Gil de Zúñiga, H. (2018). A Comparison of Social Dominance Theory and System Justification: The Role of Social Status in 19 Nations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(7), 1060–1076. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218757455
Wadud, A. (1999). Qur’an and Woman: Rereading a Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.
Watt, W. M. (1956). Muhammad at Medina. New York: Oxford University Press.
Yılmaz, H. İ., İzgi, M. C., Erbay, E. E., & Şenel, S. (2024). Studying early Islam in the third millennium: a bibliometric analysis. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11(1), 1521. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04058-2
Yulingga, S. D., Mujiburrahem, Permatasari, N. A., & Zuhdi, F. A. (2025). Prophet Muhammad as a Catalyst for Social Change. Peradaban Journal of Religion and Society, 4(1), 78–96. https://doi.org/10.59001/pjrs.v4i1.285
Zulfiqar, A. A. (2023). Belief as Status: Premodern Islamic Law, Duties, and the Martyr Conundrum. American Journal of Legal History, 63(2), 115–130. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajlh/njad022
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Najeb Mohamad Ali, Ishak Muniba, Jo Smith Clusmann, Naufal Mohamad Ali, Feigin Botzen
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
