Allah's statement: {And said: Never leave your gods and never leave Wadd or Suwā‘ or Yaghūth and Ya‘ūq and Nasr} [Sūrat Nūh: 23]. Ibn ‘Abbās said: These are names of some pious men of the people of Nūh (Noah)
Ibn ‘Abbās (may Allah be pleased with him) reported in explanation of Allah's statement: {And said: Never leave your gods and never leave Wadd or Suwā‘ or Yaghūth and Ya‘ūq and Nasr} [Sūrat Nūh: 23]. These are names of some pious men of the people of Nūh. When they died, Satan inspired their people to prepare and place idols at the places where they used to sit and to call those idols after their names. The people did so, but the idols were not worshiped till those people (who built them) had died and the original purpose for the existence (of those idols) had been forgotten
Attribution: Narrated by Bukhari
Grade: Authentic hadith
Explanation
Ibn ‘Abbās (may Allah be pleased with him) explained this noble verse; he said that the idols which Allah, the Exalted, mentioned – which the people of Nūh worshiped generations after generations after Nūh (peace be upon him) had prohibited them from polytheism – are originally names of pious men. They, however, extolled them extremely. So Satan deceived them until they made statues, which eventually led to those statues being worshiped.
Benefits
Immoderate reverence of pious people can lead to worshiping them apart from Allah and eventually abandoning the religion altogether.
It warns of creating and hanging images, especially the images of great figures.
It warns against the cunning of Satan and his way of presenting falsehood under the guise of the truth.
We are warned of religious innovations, even if they are done with a good intention.
Making images is one of the means that lead to polytheism. So, we should beware of making images of living beings.
It indicates the worth of knowledge and the harm of losing it.
The loss of knowledge is caused by the death of scholars.
It warns against imitation and points out that it can lead to deviation from Islam.
Polytheism existed in the past nations.
These five names mentioned in the Hadīth belong to some objects of worship taken by the people of Nūh (Noah).
It shows how the people of falsehood cooperate together and support one another.
It is permissible to supplicate against the disbelievers in general.
