The Idols He Never Touched

There is another example that was mentioned by Zayd ibn Ḥārithah. Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, who was a servant of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), narrates: there was a brass idol called Isāf and Nāʾilah, which the polytheists would touch as they performed ṭawāf. The Messenger of Allah said, "Don't touch it." So you had Isāf and Nāʾilah, and the people of Quraysh, when they would make Ḥajj or ʿUmrah, they would touch these two idols — it was part of their worship. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told Zayd, "Don't touch them." How did the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) know that he wasn't supposed to touch the idols? It was hidāyah coming from Allah (swt).

Zayd says: so as we went round again, I told myself I would touch it to see what would happen. When I did so, the Messenger of Allah asked me, "Were you not forbidden to do that?" Zayd then stated that the Messenger of Allah never saluted an idol, right up to when Allah the Almighty honoured him and gave him the revelation. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) never made sujūd to an idol, never touched the idols in the sense of worship, and he had a natural dislike to idol worshipping. And he even applied those rules to his family — Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, who was his servant, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him not to involve himself in touching these idols. And that is why ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib never worshipped an idol. Why? Because he was raised up in the house of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). When Abū Ṭālib was poor, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) offered to take care of his son ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. So ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib was raised up by the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib therefore never made sujūd to an idol. He never worshipped idols, because he was brought up in the house of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).