The ruling on saying: The contemporary jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic age of ignorance) is more severe than the first jahiliyyah

Question:
He says: The Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Shaykh al-Islam Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on his soul) mentioned in *Kashf al-Shubuhat* and other of his treatises, as in the first volume of *al-Durar al-Saniyyah*, that this contemporary jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic age of ignorance) is a more severe jahiliyyah.

Answer:
He did not mention this; he mentioned that shirk (associating partners with Allah) in this time is more severe than the shirk of the former people. This is what he mentioned regarding shirk. He says: The shirk of the people of our time is more severe than the shirk of the former people, because the former people associated partners with Allah in times of ease and in times of hardship, whereas the people of our time have shirk that is constant in both ease and hardship. This is what the Shaykh mentioned; it is not about the cycle of jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic age of ignorance).