The Prophet Nuh عليه سلام

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Shaithan's idea

But how could shaithan do that when people were worshiping

Allah ? He decided to call them to worship idols so that they

would go to the fire and never get to the Garden. He knew that

Allah forgives people all sins, if He so wills, except one. Allah

never forgives people worshipping other things besides Him or

as well as Him.

So Shaithan decided to call the people and associate other things

with Allah so that they would never go to the Garden. But how

could he persuade them?

If he went to the people and said to them, worship idols. Do not

worship Allah, 'they would curse him and chase him off. They

would say : ' Allah forbid! How can we associate other things

with our Lord? How can we worship idols? You are a cursed

shaithan! You are a foul shaithan!'

So shaithan had to look for another way' a cleverer way, to get

the people to do as he wanted.

Shaithan's trick  

 

There had been men who feared Allah and worshipped Him night

and day and who remembered Him often. They loved Allah, so

Allah had loved them and answered their prayers. People loved

them and spoke of them with respect long after they had died and

gone to Allah's mercy.

Shaithan was well aware of this. So he went to the people and

mentioned those men. He said, 'What do you think of So-and-

so and So-and-so and So-and-so?

They said, 'Glory be to Allah! They were men of Allah and His

friends. When those men prayed, He answered them. When they

asked, He gave to them.'

Pictures of the righteous men 

Shaithan asked, 'How great is your sorrow for them?'

They replied, 'Very great indeed.'

He asked, 'How great is your longing for them?'

They replied, 'Very great indeed!'

He asked, 'Why don't you look at them every day then?

They said, 'How can we do that when they are deed?'

He said, 'Make pictures of them and look at them every

morning.'

People liked shaithan's idea and made such pictures and

looked at them every day. Whenever they saw the pictures,

they remembered how those holy men had lived.

From pictures to statues

In time, the people moved on from making pictures to making

statues. They made many statues of the holy men and put them

in their houses and their masjids.

They still worshipped Allah and did not associate anything with Him.

They knew that these were only statues of holy men and that they

could neither help nor hurt them nor provide for them. They showed

them respect because they were reminders of the holy men.

As time passed, the number of statues increased. The people respected

them more and more. They got used to having them around and looking

for blessing in them. Now whenever one of  their holy men died, they

would make  a statue of him and name it after him.

Stories of the Prophets
By Sayyed Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi