Amr brought it to Mecca...

Amr brought it to Mecca, installed it and ordered people to worship and glorify it. It was placed near a well (perhaps Zamzam) in the depth of the Kaaba precincts. This was the idol worshipped by Quraish. It is said that the first stone worship was started among the descendants of Ishmael. Whenever a man left Mecca from among them, or whenever someone wanted to migrate due to harsh living conditions, he would carry one of the stones of the Haram, the Ka`ba, as a sign of glorifying it.

Whenever someone reached his destination, he would put it down and circle it as pilgrims used to circle the Kaaba during those days. Gradually, they started worshipping whatever stones they deemed to be good and which they liked, forgetting their original pristine faith, changing the religion of Abraham and Ishamel for this idol worship, thus joining other misled nations. But there were few among them who safeguarded their creed.

They glorified the Kaaba, circled it, performed the Hajj and `Umra, stood on `Arafa and Muzdalifa, offered sacrifices and introduced beliefs of their own in all of these “rituals”.

Idol worship goes back to the time of Prophet Noah whose folks worshipped idols about which we are told in the Holy Qur’an: وَقَالُوا لا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُمْ وَلا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلا سُوَاعًا وَلا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْرًا، وَقَدْ أَضَلُّوا كَثِيرًا وَلا تَزِدِ الظَّالِمِينَ إِلاَّ ضَلالا؛ “And they have said (to each other), `Do not abandon your gods; abandon neither Wadd nor Suwa`, neither Yagūth nor Ya`ūq nor Nasr.’ They have already misled many, and (O Lord!) grant no increase to the wrongdoers except in straying (from the right path).” (2) Those from among the offspring of Ishamel and others who worshipped these idols, calling them by their names when they abandoned Ishamel’s creed, were the tribes of Hudhayl ibn Mudrikah ibn Ilyas ibn Mudar who worshipped “Suwa`”, while the tribe of Kalb ibn Wabrah of Quda`h worshipped “Wadd” in the Domat al-Jandal, a town that now lies in the northern part of Saudi Arabia, that is, in the Hijaz area.

An`um, a branch of the ay tribe, and the people of Jericho who belonged to the Madhhaj tribe opted to worship “Yaguth”. Those who worshipped “Ya`uq” were Khaywan people who descended from Hamdan and who resided mostly in Yemen. Dhu al-Kula`, the offspring of the populous Himyar tribe, worshipped “Nasr” in the Himyar areas.

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