HOW SHIRK (POLYTHEISM) FOUND ITS WAY INTO THE LIFE OF MANKIND

The Beginning of Shirk (Polytheism)

Ibn Masood asked the Prophet (peace be upon him): "What is the greatest sin?", he replied "To take along side Allah a partner (nidd) even though it was He (Allah) that created you" (Bukhari and Muslim).

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) described in vivid detail exactly how polytheism first found its way among mankind after eons of monotheism, which began with the Prophet Adam (peace be upon him). The Prophet’s Companions related the picture to us in their explanation (tafsir) of verse 23 of Surah Nooh, where Allah described the reaction of Prophet Nooh’s (Noah) people when he invited them to the worship of only one God: 

“They said to each other: ‘Do not leave your gods! Do not give up Wadd and Suwa, nor Yaghooth, Ya’ooq and Nasr!” Q71:23

Ibn Abbas said the following in his commentary on this Quranic verse:

“These were idols of Prophet Noah’s nation which in time ended up among the Arabs. Wadd became the tribal god of the Kalb tribe in the region of Dawmatul-Jandal, Suwa was adopted by the Hudhayl tribe, Yaghooth bythe tribe of Ghutayf at Jurf near Saba, Ya’ooq by the Hamdan tribe and Nasr became the god of Dhul-Kala clan of the Himyar tribe. These idols were named after some righteous men among Noah’s people. When these righteous men died, Satan inspired the people to make statues of them bearing their names. These statues were placed in their favorite meeting places as reminder of righteousness and no on one of that generation worshiped them. However, when the generation died off, and the purpose of the statues were forgotten, Satan came to their descendants and told them that their predecessors used to worship the statues, because it was due to them that it rained.  The descendants were fooled and began to worship them as idols. The following generations continued to worship them.

The tafsir of the verse given by the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him), paints clear picture of the process by which idolatry and polytheism found its way into the pure monotheism system of beliefs held by our ancestors . It confirms the degeneration model, identifies the historical origin of ancestor worship, and explains why Islam is so firmly opposed to the depiction of human and animal forms of statues or painting.

References

The Fundamentals of Tawheed (Islamic Monotheism). page 206.  Dr . Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips.                                                                         

Saheeh Bukhari, volume 6, Hadith 442.