50أَفَحُكمَ الجاهِلِيَّةِ يَبغونَ ۚ وَمَن أَحسَنُ مِنَ اللَّهِ حُكمًا لِقَومٍ يوقِنونَMuhammad AsadDo they, perchance, desire [to be ruled by] the law of pagan ignorance?1 But for people who have inner certainty, who could be a better law-giver than God?By "pagan ignorance" (jahiliyyah) is meant here not merely the time before the advent of the Prophet Muhammad but, in general, a state of affairs characterized by a lack of moral perception and a submission of all personal and communal concerns to the criterion of "expediency" alone: that is, exclusively to the consideration as to whether a particular aim or action is useful or damaging (in the short-term, practical sense of these words) to the interests of the person concerned or of the community to which he belongs. Inasmuch as this "law of expediency" is fundamentally opposed to the concepts of morality preached by every higher religion, it is described in the Qur'an as "the law (hukm) of pagan ignorance".