If Ibrahim ﵇ and Ismail ﵇ built the Ka’bah and taught the people about Islam and tawhid, how is it that by the time the Prophet ﷺ began proclaiming Islam there was so much polytheism among the Arabs? It was well known that the Arabs blindly followed their forefathers regardless of how misguided and superstitious their practices were. This led them to eventually begin worshipping idols. Every tribe had its own idol.
The Idols of the Arabs
- Hudhayl ibn Mudruk: had Suwa’
- Banu Kalb: had Wadd
- Banu Mudhaj: had Yaghuth
- Banu Khayawan: had Ya’uq
- Banu Himyar: had Nasr
- Khuza’ah and Quraysh: had Isaf and Na’ilah
- Manat: was worshipped by everyone; Aws and Khazraj in particular
- 'Aad: was in Thaqif
- Al-'Uzza: was in Dhat 'Irq
These were only the most important idols. The Arabs had many more of all sorts and sizes. But what is the origin of this practice; who was the original bringer of the idols?
The Bringer: 'Amr ibn Luhayy al-Khuza’i
He was a chieftain of the Khuza’ah tribe and lived in the time when the Arabs still followed the religion of Ibrahim ﵇. However, by this time much of it had become diluted and forgotten. 'Amr ibn Luhayy al-Khuza’i was not only a chieftain but was known for his justice, charity and religiosity. Because of his status, he was greatly beloved by his tribe. In Al-Sham he saw people worshipping idols and viewed it as something positive. He took the idol Hubal with him and placed it in the centre of the Ka’bah, calling on the people to worship it. In no time, idol worship spread within Makkah and subsequently to the rest of the Hijaz, until ultimately a great number of idols were introduced.
Loading map...
Loading map...
Other well-known idols such as Manat, Al-Lat and Al-'Uzza were introduced in a similar manner. It is said that the idols were distributed during the Hajj so that the tribes would take them home and spread them further there. Eventually, there were 360 idols surrounding the Ka’bah. It reached a point where idol worship became the most important aspect of the religion of the Arabs. It was 'Amr ibn Luhayy who also devised the various rituals that accompanied it. Because of his status, the people followed him in this. The idols were ultimately used for the following purposes:
- Devoting themselves to the idols; seeking refuge with them, swearing by their names, seeking their help, supplicating to them so they might act as intercessors before Allah ﷻ
- Making pilgrimage to the idols, performing tawaf around them, humbling themselves before them and kneeling before them
- Seeking their favour by offering sacrifices to them
- Seeking their favour through vows by dedicating crops and livestock to them
- Allocating a portion of food, drink, livestock and crops to them
- Sacrificing specific animals to them by exempting these from certain tasks
They believed that this would bring them closer to Allah ﷻ and that the idols would intercede on their behalf. Besides idol worship, the Arabs engaged in other superstitious practices.
Superstitious Practices
They cast Azlam, divination arrows consisting of three types of arrows, on which ‘yes’, ‘no’ or nothing was written respectively. Every time before they were to undertake an important event, they would use the Azlam. If they drew “yes” they would proceed; if they drew “no” they would postpone it for a year. They also used them for matters concerning water, blood money or when they had doubts, or to determine whether a child belonged to them. For the latter, they would turn to the idol Hubal and bring and present 100 camels to the “caster”. If the result read “yours”, it was decided that the child belonged to the tribe. If it read “not yours”, the person was considered an ally. If it read “mulsaq”, the person belonged to the community but without official kinship or alliance. They held a deep belief in the tales of soothsayers, diviners and astrologers. All of them claimed to be able to predict the future or the unseen in their own way.
Al-Hums: The Quraysh
Despite these disbelieving practices, they still held on to elements of the religion of Ibrahim ﵇ such as circumambulating the Ka’bah, performing the pilgrimages, standing at 'Arafat and offering a sacrifice; all manasik (rituals) that Muslims carry out to this day. The Arabs during the jahiliyya performed all these rituals but mixed them with all sorts of superstitious matters. The Quraysh, for example, since they were descendants of Ibrahim ﵇, custodians of the Ka’bah and inhabitants of Makkah, believed they held a special status. They called themselves Al-Hums and considered themselves to have a distinguished position. They held, for instance, that they did not need to go to 'Arafat. Other notable beliefs included:
- They were not permitted to eat dried yoghurt and cooking fat while in ihram
- It was not permitted to enter a tent made of camel hair
- They were not allowed to sit in the shade except in a brick house
- They did not provide food to pilgrims outside Makkah
- Pilgrims from outside Makkah were only allowed to circumambulate the Ka’bah in clothes provided by Al-Hums; those who could not obtain such clothes did so unclothed
- Those who did obtain Al-Hums clothing had to discard it after the pilgrimage
- It was not permitted to enter one’s home through the door while in ihram; instead, they dug or bored a hole in their wall to enter their homes
This was considered at the time to be a sign of piety and God-consciousness.
This is a summary of how the Arabs deviated from the religion of Ibrahim ﵇ by beginning to forget important core aspects. Eventually, idols were introduced by 'Amr ibn Luhayy and they began to worship idols and devise rituals in honour of these idols. A strange mixture emerged of elements of the religion of Ibrahim ﵇, particularly the Hajj rituals, and the new idolatry. It is important to understand this context because Allah ﷻ addresses these points in the Quran: why such emphasis is placed on monotheism and the manner in which He ﷻ rejects their idolatry and superstition. And of course why we as Muslims place such emphasis on the purity of our Islam; we do not wish to fall into the same errors as the peoples before us.