“ This name has appeared in the Holy Quran along with the...
The first one who effected a change in Ibrahim’s “Shariah “ was “Amr-ibn-Lahy “, a descendant of Ismail. In his journey to Syria, he reached the city of “Ma.’ab “ in the land of “Balqah. “[^3] There, the tribe of “Amaaleqah” worshipped the idols. Amr inquired: What are these that you worship? They replied, ‘These are idols. We ask rain from these idols and we receive it. We seek help from them against our enemies and they assist us!.’ Amr requested, ‘Give me one of these idols.’.
They gave him the idol “Hubal “. He took it to Mecca and setting it there, he invited the people to worship and to revere it. He also brought about other innovations in Ibrahim’s religion.[^4] Thereafter, idol-worship became rampant amongst the Quraish and other tribes from the offspring of Ismail. This took place while they were the sons of Ibrahim, till then the biggest idol-breaker in human history!
In this manner, Ibrahim’s followers (who were from the offspring of Ismail and were living in Mecca) erected the most famous idols of the Arabs around the very Ka’ba, which the greatest idol-breaker in human history had constructed for the worship of the Unique God. Over there, they circumambulated around the idols and asked their needs from them!
Under these circumstances, the Quraish reckoned themselves to be the heirs to Ibrahim’s “Shariah “, the custodians of the House of Ka.’ba and the host to the pilgrims to the House of God. Thus, they imagined themselves to be the chosen ones amongst the descendants of Adam! The rest of the Arab tribes were also idol-worshippers (except for a few who were inclined towards Judaism and Christianity) and they all would perform the pilgrimage to the House of God.
However, they had distorted the “Hajj” rites too as preached by Ibrahim. They considered four of the months as forbidden, and did not fight or participate in battles during these months. These four months comprised of Zil-Qadah, Zil- Hajjah and Muharram during which they undertook the pilgrimage and Rajab during which they performed the “Umrah” (lesser pilgrimage).