[وَمَكَرُواْ مَكْراً
كُبَّاراً - وَقَالُواْ لاَ تَذَرُنَّ ءَالِهَتَكُمْ وَلاَ تَذَرُنَّ وَدّاً وَلاَ
سُوَاعاً وَلاَ يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْراً ]
(And they have plotted a mighty plot. And they have said: `You shall not
leave your gods, nor shall you leave Wadd, nor Suwa`, nor Yaghuth, and Ya`uq and
Nasr.') These are the names of their idols which they used to worship besides
Allah. Al-Bukhari recorded from Ibn `Abbas that he said, "The idols that were
among the people of Nuh wound up among the Arabs afterwards. In reference to
Wadd, it became the idol of the people of Kalb in the area of Dawmat Al-Jandal.
Suwa` became the idol of the people of Hudhayl. Yaghuth became the idol of the
people of Murad, then the people of Bani Ghutayf at Al-Juruf in the area of
Saba' worshipped it after them. Ya`uq became the idol of the people of Hamdan.
Nasr became the idol of the people of Himyar for the family of Dhu Kala`. These
idols were all named after righteous men from the people of Nuh. Then when these
men died, Shaytan inspired his (Nuh's) people to erect statues in honor of them
at their gathering places where they used to come and sit, and to name these
statues after these men (with their names). So they did this (as Shaytan
suggested), but these statues were not worshipped until after those people (the
ones who built them) had died and the knowledge was lost. Then, those statues
were later worshipped.'' This has also been similarly reported from `Ikrimah,
Ad-Dahhak, Qatadah and Ibn Ishaq. `Ali bin Abi Talhah reported from Ibn `Abbas
that he said, "These are statues that were worshipped in the time of Nuh.'' Ibn
Jarir recorded from Muhammad bin Qays that he said concerning Yaghuth, Ya`uq and
Nasr, "They were righteous people between the time of Adam and Nuh, and they had
followers who used to adhere to their guidance. Then, when they died, their
companions who used to follow them said, `If we make images of them, it will
increase our desire to perform worship when we remember them.' So they made
images of them. Then, when those people died and other people came after them,
Iblis approached them and said, `They (your predecessors) used to worship these
statues and they were granted rain by their worship of them.' Thus, they (the
latter people) worshipped them.''
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