How Did It Happen? How Shirk Started

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says in al-Bukhārī^**: kāna bayna Ādama wa Nūḥin ʿasharatu qurūnin kulluhum ʿalā al-Islām. The Messenger of Allah says in al-Bukhārī: between Ādam and Nūḥ there were ten generations, all of them were Muslim. Qarn in Arabic means either century — a hundred years — or generation. If it means ten centuries, that's a millennium, a thousand years. If it means ten generations, it could be more than a thousand, because we know that people used to live longer lives in those times. Between Ādam and Nūḥ there were many generations — not ten — but ten of them were Muslim. So out of the many generations between Ādam and Nūḥ, ten were Muslim. And then disbelief and shirk slowly started to creep in. How did it happen?

Ibn ʿAbbās says — and this is the opinion of Ibn ʿAbbās mentioned in al-Bukhārī — he says: the descendants of Ādam started slowly losing their religion and committing sins. But they still believed in tawḥīd, the unity of Allah. But they were committing many sins, and ignorance was spreading among them, and the righteous men among them were few.

Shayṭān came to them and told them: when these righteous men pass away, you will have no one to remind you about Allah (swt) and about ʿibādah. You will have nobody to give you naṣīḥah and advice. So how about, when they pass away, you erect some statues in their memorial, to remind you about ʿibādah? Because these righteous men used to remind the people; they used to give them naṣīḥah and advice. When they're going to pass away, who's going to give the people advice?

So Shayṭān told them: how about, when they pass away, you erect some statues, so that whenever you see this statue, you would remember good deeds, and you would remember the righteous men? They followed the advice of Shayṭān, thinking it was a good one, and they erected these idols. And then Shayṭān left them alone. Shayṭān is very, very patient. He left them alone for a while — until they forgot the reason why these idols were built. Generation after generation came, and these statues were there. People forgot why these were built, why these were erected. Shayṭān came to them and told them: why don't you worship these statues? And that is how shirk started.

Allah (swt) talks about these five idols: Waddan, Suwāʿan, Yaghūth, Yaʿūq, wa Nasr. Five names of five idols. Ibn ʿAbbās says: these were righteous men, whom the people of Nūḥ started worshipping — their idols, their statues. So this is how shirk started.