Idol worship goes back to the time of Prophet Noah whose...

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.

In addition to these ancient idols that were brought back to life after Noah’s flood, there were many other idols that were worshipped throughout the Arabian Peninsula: `Umyanis, a branch of the Khawlan tribe, was the name of an idol which was worshipped in the land of Khawlan. Khawlan was Amr ibn Ilhaf ibn Quza`ah. Some descendants of Quza`h embraced Judaism and migrated from the land of Khawlan in Yemen to Yathrib, Medina.

Khawlan remains to be a populated area of Yemen that has its own tribal chiefs who now are all Muslims. Tribesmen belonging to Banu Milkan ibn Kinanah ibn Khuzaymah ibn Mudrikah ibn Ilyas ibn Mudar used to have an idol called “Sa`d”, a tall stone in a plain in their land. A man from Banu Milkan brought his camels to this idol seeking its “blessing”. The idol was stained with the blood of the animal offerings.

Seeing it thus covered with blood, the camels were frightened, and they aimlessly ran away in all directions. Their poor Milkani owner became very angry, took a stone and threw it at “Sa`d” then sought to get his camel’s back.

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