I think one big shock to me regarding islam was finding out muslim female slaves weren’t required to wear hijab, their awrah is only between their navel and knees
that alone put things into perspective since ppl nowadays act like women not being dressed in ’correct’ hijab has a destabilizing effect on society when in reality in most muslim societies women were not even that covered since they had alot of female slaves and free gaalo women running around
The people back then valued lineage and wealth above everything else in a female when it comes to marriage, especially lineage, beauty was valued the least, out of the 3 before Islam spread.
Hence the slaves and those deemed to be of lesser lineage were regarded as least desirable regardless of their beauty, the highest status they could obtain is becoming a concubine, the noble men wouldn't go near them, so it doesn't matter if she's half naked, attraction just isn't there.
This concept is hard to fathom today because in our world we did a 360, we value beauty the most and value lineage the least to the point of having aversion against it.
That's why you will see for e.g. confused diaspora Xaalimo chick of high lineage stock (parents and great parents righteous good people) fall in love with some Farax of terrible lineage (entire sub-tribe known for Sixir and Voodo practices), and she continues to suffer the terrible consequences of this, and the worst part polluting her lineage with his seeds.
This is despite her parents warning her against them, she brushed it off as "tribalism" like most of them do in the diaspora, this is a very common story you will hear 1000x times, sure even
@Angelina heard a few because we look down at considering the lineage of the person you are marrying, basic stuff like parents, grand-parents, the family tree, what they are known for (righteousness or wickedness)
These things play a major role in the harmony of marriage, especially children, all the human souls were created before Adam, and Allah decides which soul enters which fetus to which Family, you often hear this person became wicked because the family was wicked, No! the wicked soul was paired with that wicked family, yes you will always have outliers, but we don't base our judgement on outliers but the norm.
The Prophet in an authentic hadith said that his lineage to his Father Ibrahim, was pure e.g. (no fornication or illegitimacy took place) all the Prophets have this pure lineage.
Its sad because we consider genetic traits like height, intelligence, beauty and disease being things that we pass on, but righteousness and piety? we see it as something foreign, a lottery, not something that is passed on.
A lot of the destructions we see in marriages today could have been easily filtered out if we took lineage more seriously as a criteria, and with lineage I am not talking about the Jaahiliyi tribal way, but purely a case of filtering out family trees known for serious stuff like magic, Multiple Divorces, abandonment of children, Murder, Shamelessness etc.
If you know the male/female mother is involved in sorcery or any of the extended family, it doesn't matter how righteous or pious the daughter/son is (usually a false perception due to love), YOU STAY AWAY FROM THEM AT ALL COST, it's Russian roulette, unless your own family tree is polluted with the same ***