inscriptions were Manat and al-'Uzza, of Koranic fame, Hubal also figures in the inscrip-
tions."
It is noteworthy that the above description relates to a period when idolatry had, in differ-
ent forms and shapes, engulfed Arabia and the countries around it. Jesus Christ (u) and his
disciples had not yet appeared on the scene who later on laboured to restrain its unbridled
expansion. Judaism had already proved its incompetence to the task, since, being essentially
a racial religion; it allowed none save the children of Bani Israel to join his faith to the creed
of monotheism preached by it.
Another writer, De Lacy O'Leary, tracing the influences responsible for introduction of idol
worship in the Arabian Peninsula sums up his findings in the "Arabia before Muhammed" in
these words:
"It seems fairly safe therefore to understand that the use of images was an instance of
Syro-Hellenistic culture which had come down the trade-route; it was a recent introduction
in Makkah in the time of the Prophet (r) and was probably unknown to the Arab communi-
ty at large."
Worship the idols was thus the popular creed of the people in the valley of the Euphrates
and the lands to the east of Arabia. As the Arabians were bound, since times immemorial, by
the ties of commerce with these countries, it is not unlikely that their cultural influence was
responsible for grafting idol worship within the Arabian Peninsula. In his history of Ancient
Iraq, Georges Roux says that during the third century B.C. and long thereafter idol-worship
was very popular in Mesopotamia. Its every city, old or new, gave shelter to several foreign
gods besides the local deities."
There are also reports which suggest that idol worship gradually; came into vogue among
the Quraysh. In olden times, as some historians relate, when anybody went out on a long
journey from Makkah he took a few stones from the enclosures of the sanctuary as a mark
of grace with him. In due course of time, they started venerating the monoliths they ad-
mired most. The subsequent generations, not knowing the reason for holding such mono-
liths in esteem, started worshipping them like other pagan people of the surrounding coun-
tries. The Quraysh, however, remained attached to some of the older traditions like paying
deference to the holy sanctuary, its circumambulation, and the greater and lesser pilgri-
mages: Hajj and 'Umra.
The gradual evolution of different religions showing substitution of means for the ends
and the slow progression from suppositions to conclusions lend support to the view put
forth by the historians about the beginning of idol worship among the Quraysh. The esteem
and reverence in which even certain misguided Muslim sects come to hold the portraits and
sepulchers of the saints and the way they sluggishly adopt this course possesses an incrimi-
nating evidence in support of the gradual evolution of idol worship. That is why the Islamic
Shari'ah completely stalls all those tracks and alleys which lead to the undue veneration of
personages, places and relics for they ultimately lead to ascribing partners to God.