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Introduction
The Islamic sources do tell us that the pre-Islamic Arabs were mushriks (polytheists) addicted to worshipping numerous idols. But they do not inform us as to what those idols symbolized. The Qurăn (2.257, 259; 4.52; 53.19; 71.21) mentions some idols but only to denounce them. We reproduce below what Ibn Ishăq writes about them:
They say that the beginning of stone worship among the sons of Ishmael was when Mecca became too small for them and they wanted more room in the country. Everyone who left the town took with him a stone from the sacred area to do honour to it. Wherever they settled they set it up and walked round it as they went round the Kaba. This led them to worship what stones they pleased and those which made an impression on them. Thus as generations passed they forgot their primitive faith and adopted another religion for that of Abraham and Ishmael. They worshipped idols and adopted the same errors as the peoples before them. Yet they retained and held fast practices going back to the time of Abraham, such as honouring the temple and going round it, the great and little pilgrimage, and the standing on Arafa and Muzdalifa, sacrificing the victims, and the pilgrim cry at the great and little pilgrimage, while introducing elements which had no place in the religion of Abraham. Thus, Kinăna and Quraysh used the pilgrim cry: At Thy service, O God, at Thy service! At Thy service, Thou without an associate but the, associate Thou hast. Thou ownest him and what he owns. They used to acknowledge his unity in their cry and then include their idols with God, putting the ownership of them in His hand.1
The people of Noah had images to which they were devoted. God told His apostle about them when He said: And they said, Forsake not your gods; forsake not Wudd and Suwă and Yaghűth and Yaűq and Nasr. And they had led many astray.
Among those who had chosen those idols and used their names as compounds when they forsook the religion of Ishmael-both Ishmaelites and others-was Hudhayl b. Mudrika b. Ilyăs b. MuDar. They adopted Suwă and they had him in RuhăT; and Kalb b. Wabra of QuDăa who adopted Wudd in Dűmatul-Jandal
Anum of Tayyi and the people of Jurash of MadhHij adopted Yaghűth in Jurash.
Khaywăn, a clan of Hamdăn, adopted Yaűq in the land of Hamdăn in the Yaman.
Dhűl-Kală of Himyar adopted Nasr in the Himyar country.
Khaulăn had an idol called Ammanas in the Khaulăn country2
The B. Milkăn b. Kinăna b. Khuzayma b. Mudrika b. Ilyăs b. MuDar had an image called Sad, a lofty rock in a desert plain in their country
Daus had an idol belonging to Amr b. Humama al-Dausî.
Author : Shri Sita Ram Goel
Foot Notes
1 Ibid., op. cit., pp. 35-36. The word God in this passage and those that follow is a translation of the word Allăh The references to Abraham and Ishmael and their mode of worship at the Kaba may be ignored in the light of what we have stated above. The Kaba was a temple of the pagan Arabs who had never heard of Abraham or Ishmael or their religion.
2 Ibid., p. 36.
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