Once he had them gathered in his possession...

Once he had them gathered in his possession, he composed these two lines of poetry: أتينا الى سَعدٍ ليجمعَ شملَنا فشتتنا سَعدً، فلا نحنُ من سَعدِ و هَلْ سَعدً الا صَخرة بتنوفةٍ من الأرض لا تدعو لغيٍ و لا رَشدِ؟ We came to Sa`d so he may unite us together, But Sa`d disunited us, so we have nothing to do with Sa`d. Is Sa`d anything but a stone in a plain of land th at calls for neither misguidance nor guidance?

There were two other idols near the location of the Zamzam well: “Isaf” and “Na’ila” in the name of a man and a woman respectively. Both Isaf and Na’ila had belonged to the Jurham tribe (in which Prophet Ishmael had married), and the full name of the first was Isaf ibn Baghi and that of the woman was Na’ila daughter of Deek. Isaf had sexual intercourse with Na’ila inside the holy precincts of the Kaaba, so both were turned into stones, they said, and surely Allah knows best.

How did the Arabs worship those stone idols? Each house had an idol which the residents worshipped. When a man was going out on a trip, he would rub his hands on it which was the last thing he did before starting his trip. He would do the same as soon as he returned home to his family. In addition to the Ka`ba, the Arabs had other places of worship which they called tawagheet طواغيت , and they held them in esteem as they did to the Ka`ba.

These places of worship had their own clergy and caretakers, and offerings to them were made. People would circle them the same way they used to circle the Ka`ba while knowing that the latter was superior to them all due to being the edifice erected by Abraham, the Friend of Allah,…