How Idol Worship Entered Arabia

ʿAmr ibn Luḥayy al-Khuzāʿī was the leader of Khuzāʿah. This man was very generous, very strong, very much respected by his people. They used to respect him so much and admire him so much that his words were taken as law.

ʿAmr ibn Luḥayy travelled to al-Shām — translated here as Syria, even though that is not the correct translation. al-Shām refers to Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. That land is called al-Shām, and the centre of al-Shām is Jerusalem, Bayt al-Maqdis. But it has been translated in English as Syria, and that translation is used here.

ʿAmr ibn Luḥayy travelled to al-Shām, to Syria. He went there and found these idols, and he asked the people, "What are these?" They told him, "Well, these are intermediaries between us and Allah" — yuqarribūnā ilā Allāhi ʿazza wa jall. "When we want to ask for rain, we ask them. They appeal on our behalf to Allah. When we want children, we would go to a different idol. When we want this, you'd go to that idol. In war, we have a certain idol." And they appealed on the people's behalf to God, and performed things for them.

ʿAmr ibn Luḥayy said, "Excellent, this is what we need. That is what we need. We need someone to appeal to our Lord to provide us with rain, to provide us with wealth. How about you hand me over one of these idols so I can take it back home?" So they gave him a pretty good idol, big, huge, called Hubal. So he carried Hubal with him back to Makkah, and he established it next to the Kaaba, in the Ḥaram. And he told his people, "These will intercede on your behalf to Allah (swt). Ask them whatever you want."

Now, Makkah being the centre of Arabia, the religious authority of Arabia, bringing an idol to Makkah carried with it such a heavy weight. The Arabs came from all over the peninsula to make Ḥajj, so all of them were exposed to this new bidʿah, innovation in religion, and it started spreading like wildfire, because it was coming from the religious centre, and it was also adopted by ʿAmr ibn Luḥayy al-Khuzāʿī, who was so respected by his people.

So now it became a business. In Makkah, they would make idols to export to the other tribes. So now every tribe would come to Makkah, and they would carry with them an idol to take home, because they couldn't come all the time and ask from Hubal. So they would have these idols that they would carry with them, and then this concept was developed further — it starts out small and then it grows. The concept was carried further, so now they were making portable idols: you carry it in your backpack, wherever, whenever you're travelling, you have one with you.