Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) explained to us how idol worship originated, which highlights the gradual and patient approach of Satan. After a group of righteous people died, Satan inspired those around them to erect statues in their honour and as reminder of their righteousness. When that generation passed away and the people had forgotten why the statues were erected, Satan deceived them into believing that their forefathers used to worship them, and that through them, the rains were brought forth. People then began worshipping these statues.

Ibn Abbas explained: "Following upon the death of those righteous men, Satan inspired their people to erect statues in the places where they used to sit. They did this, but these statues were not worshipped until the coming generations deviated from the right way of life. Then they worshipped them as their idols." 

In his version, Ibn Jarir narrated: "There were righteous people who lived in the period between Adam and Noah and who had followers who held them as models. After their death, their friends who used to emulate them said: 'If we make statues of them, it will be more pleasing to us in our worship and will remind us of them.' So they built statues of them, and , after they had died and others came after them, Iblis crept into their minds saying:'Your forefathers used to worship them, and through that worship they got rain.' So they worshipped them."

Ibn Abi Hatim related this story: "Waddan was a righteous man who was loved by his people. When he died, they withdrew to his grave in the land of Babylonia and were overwhelmed by sadness. When Iblis saw their sorrow caused by his death, he disguised himself in the form of a man saying: 'I have seen your sorrow because of this man's death; can I make a statue like him which could be put in your meeting place to make you remember him?' They said: 'Yes.' So he made the statue like him. They put it in their meeting place in order to be reminded of him. When Iblis saw their interest in remembering him, he said: 'Can I build a statue of him in the home of each one of you so that he would be in everyone's house and you could remember him?' They agreed. Their children learned about and saw what they were doing. They also learned about their remembrance of him instead of Allah. So the first to be worshipped instead of Allah was Waddan, the idol which they named thus." The essence of this point is that every idol from those earlier mentioned was worshipped by a certain group of people. It was mentioned that people made picture sand as the ages passed they made these pictures into statues, so that their forms could be fully recognized; afterwards they were worshipped instead of Allah.

Wadd is an idol in the shape of a man, Sua'a an idol in the shape of a woman, Yaghouth an idol in the shape of a lion, Ya'ouk an idol in the shape of a horse, and Nasran idol in the shape of an eagle. They were idols worshiped by the Arabs. There were other idols, but these were mentioned specifically because they were the greatest and most famous amongst them.

Each idol was adopted by a tribe, eg. Wadd by the tribe of Kalb, Sua'a by Hamadan, Nisr by Himyar.

It is said that these were names of pious people between the times of Prophets Adam and Nuh. Another opinion says they were children of Prophet Adam. After they passed away Iblis convinced their people to make idols of them to remember them. When the first generation of those people dies, Iblis told their offspring that they were worshiped by their fathers so they worshiped them.

When Prophet Nuh came, he called them to abandon the idols for the tawheed of Allah, but they did not listen, and they were punished by the flood. The flood threw these idols into the Arabian city of Jeddah and the outskirts of Mecca, where they were buried there by the sands.

Opinion 1: Amr Bin Luhay was a druid in jahiliyya who had contact with the jinn. A jinn came to him, led him to the buried idols and convinced him to call the Arabs to their worship. So Ibn Luhay excavated the idols and in the hajj season called the Arabs to their worship. The Arabs agreed and the idols were distributed amongst the tribes. As a result the Arabs worshiped the same idols as the previous people.

These 5 idols were the same idols that the people of Nuh (as) used to worship. Names of the 5 idols: Wadd, Suwa, Yaghuts, Ya’uq, & Nasr

“Nuh said, ‘My Lord, indeed they have disobeyed me and followed him whose wealth and children will not increase him except in loss. And they conspired an immense conspiracy. And said, ‘Never leave your gods and never leave Wadd or Suwa’ or Yaghuth and Ya’uq and Nasr.’ “ (Surat Nuh, 71:22-24)

Why mention these 5 idols by their names?
These are 5 idols that Arabs used to actively worship.

These 5 are mentioned among the hundreds of thousands idols in Surat Nuh because they were uncovered by Amr bin Luhay, & he knew of them because of a jinn. The next surah after Surat Nuh is Surat Al-Jinn, so there’s a connection here.

It was narrated that Umm Salmah and Umm Habibah told Allah's Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) about the church called "Maria" which they had seen in the land of Abyssinia. They described its beauty and the pictures therein. He said: "Those are the people who build places of worship on the grave of every dead man who was righteous and then make therein those pictures. Those are the worst of creation unto Allah." (Sahih al Bukhari)

Worshipping anything other than Allah is a tragedy that results not only in the loss of freedom; its serious effect reaches man's mind and destroys it as well. Almighty Allah created man and his mind with its purpose set on achieving knowledge the most important of which is that Allah alone is the Creator and all the rest are worshippers (slaves). Therefore, disbelief in Allah, or polytheism, results in the loss of freedom, the destruction of the mind, and the absence of a noble target in life. (By worshipping anything other than Allah, man becomes enslaved to Satan, who is himself a creature and becomes harnessed to his own baser qualities). Into this environment Allah sent Noah with His message to his people. Noah was the only intellectual not caught in the whirlpool of man's destruction which was caused by polytheism.

Religious Background of Arabia

Understanding the religious background of Arabia will help us to know the environment in which Rasoolullah (sallallaahu alaihi wassalam) lived.

Religion in Arabia obviously started with thouheed (oneness of God) because it was started by Ismail (aliahissalam). He was a Prophet to the Arabs and they followed as Muslims believing in the oneness of Allah. So what went wrong down the line to reach to the level they were at when Rasoolullah (SAW) was sent to them?

In the time of Rasoolullah (SAW) there were three religions in Arabia – idol worshipping, Christianity and Judaism.

Start of Idol Worshipping in Arabia

Opinion 2: Amir bin Luhai al Khuzai, the leader of Khuza, was very generous, strong and much respected and admired by his people in such a way that his words were taken as law. He travelled to sham (according to the translation its today’s Syria even though it includes Syria, Palestine and Jordan) and finds idols over there.

He asked the people, “What are these?”

They told him, “Well these are intermediates between us and Allah. So if we want to ask for rain, we ask them. They appeal on our behalf to Allah. When we want children, we go to a different idol. When we are at war, we have a certain idol. We have idols for anything we want. They appeal to God for us and perform things for us.”

Amir bin Luhai said, “Excellent, this is what we need. We need someone to appeal to our Lord for rain, for wealth. How about you hand me over one of these idols so I can take it back home?”.

They gave him a pretty good , huge idol called “hubel”. The right arm of hubel was missing and it was in the figure of a man and had a beard. He carried hubel back to Mecca and established it next to al-Kaaba in al-Haram and attached to it a hand made of Gold. He told the people, “these will intercede on your behalf to Allah (subhaanahu wa thaala). Ask them whatever you want.

Mecca being the centre and authority of Arabia, bring an idol to Mecca carried with it such a heavy weight. Arabs coming to Mecca from all over the peninsula were exposed to this new bid’a (innovation in religion). It started spreading like wild fire to all corners of Arabia because it was coming from the religious centre and it was adopted by Amir bin Luhai al Khuzai who was so respected by his people.

Now it became a business in Mecca making idols and exporting to other tribes. Every tribe would come to Mecca and carry back home a replica of idol because they cannot all the time come to Mecca to ask from hubel.

It started as small, but then the concept extended further making portable ones. They could carry it in their backpack wherever and whenever they are travelling. . They were made in different shapes and forms; an idol for each and every purpose. Al-kaaba was polluted with idols – 360 idols surrounding it. Shirk is now in every direction. What started with one idol imported turned now into a huge exporting business and shirk in every direction in Mecca.

That’s how the religion of Ismail (a) changed down the line. Rasoolullah (SAW) says, “I’ve seen Amir bin Luhai al Khuzai dragging his intestines in hell fire, because he was the first one to change the religion of Arabs.”

A story from the life of Umar bin Khathab (radhiyallaahu anhu)

A story of Umar bin Khathab relates – he was once seen crying and laughing; and was asked about it. He said, “The reason I was laughing is I remembered in the time of jahiliya (ignorance), I was travelling and wanted to pray. But then I remembered that I forgot to bring my god with me. So what I did is I tried to think of a way to pray. I had some dates with me and molded them into a form of an idol. I worshipped it. Later on that night I became hungry, so I ate my idol.” He was looking back and thinking – what was I doing?

This is how Islam changed them. See who the Sahabah were and how they are transformed by Islam in a very short period. That’s a miracle Islam where it could change a people of nothing to the greatest status is history.

Who would Umar bin Khathab be without Islam? Abbas Mahmood al Waqqad asked this question in his book about Umar bin Khathab. He said may be Umar could become the leader of his clan, family of Banu Udhaib which was a very small branch of Quraish. Or may be he could have been one of the leaders of Quraish. Or to extend it further, he might be the head of Quraish which is a far fetched assumption because the other clans of Quraish who held power in the past would never allow such a thing to happen to start with. But the most likely scenario would be that Umar bin Khathab would die at a young age because he used to drink a lot before Islam and would have been an obscure figure in history.

With Islam, he not only became the leader of Quraish or Arabia but became the ruler of two-thirds of the world at that time – one of the greatest ever lived in history

Imam Ibn Qayyim said "The Shaitan has misled most people by beautifying for them the performance of certain voluntary acts of worship such as voluntary prayers and voluntary fasting while neglecting other obligatory acts of worship such as enjoining the good and eradicating the evil, to the extent that they do not even make the intention of performing them….For the essence of our religion is to perform what Allah (SWT) ordered us to do. The one who does not perform his obligations is actually worse than the one who performs sins. Anyone having some knowledge about the revelation of Allah, the guidance of the Prophet (SAW) and the life of the companions would see that those who are pointed at today as the most pious people are in fact the least pious… Indeed, what deen and what good is there in a person who witnesses the sanctities of Allah (SAW) being violated, His Hudood not applied, His religion abandoned, the Sunnah of His Messenger (SAW) shunned, and yet remains still with a cold heart and a silent tongue - a dumb Shaitan. In the same way the one who talks falsehood is a speaking Shaitan. Isn''t the misfortune of Islam due only to those who whenever their food and positions are secure, would not care about what happens to the religion? The best among them would offer a sorry face. But if there was a shortcoming in one of the things their heart is attached to like their rank or money, they would sacrifice and strive and strain and struggle and use the three levels of prevention (their hands, tongues and hearts, as mentioned in hadith 49) according to their capability. These people, besides deserving the anger of Allah, are afflicted with the greatest calamity without even knowing it: They have a dead heart. Indeed the more alive a person''s heart is, the stronger its anger for the sake of Allah and the more complete his support to Islam and Muslims"