what they studied.” Or lest you should say: “If only the book had been sent down to us,
we would surely have been better guided than they.” So now has come unto you a clear
proof (the Qur’an) from your Lord, and a guidance and a mercy...” [Soorah Al-An’am,
verses 155-157]
As for the vestiges of the religion of Ibraheem that they inherited from their forefathers as
well as the traces left by those Prophets and Messengers who came after him, all of that had
become no more than ancient ceremonies practiced out of a desire to claim that they po-
sessed some heritage from their forefather Ibraheem and the Prophets who came after him
(u). However, the pre-Islamic Arabs strayed so far from the original forms of these reli-
gions that they even fashioned pictures of Ibraheem and Ismaeel to conform with the pre-
vailing idolatry of the times.
In an authentic hadith narrated upon the authority of Ibn Abbas who said:
“When the Messenger of Allah (r) came to Makkah, he refused to enter the Ka'bah while
there were idols in it. He ordered the idols to be taken out, so they were taken out. When
they removed pictures of Ibraheem and Ismaeel holding Azlams in their hands, the Messen-
ger of Allah (r) said: ‘May Allah curse these people. By Allah, Ibraheem and Ismaeel never
played the game of chance with Azlams.’ Then he entered the Ka'bah and said Takbeer in
the corners of the Ka'bah but he did not pray while inside.”
Even more lamentable was the fact that the Ka'bah, which is the very symbol of monothe-
ism, was turned into a house of idols and eventually housed 360 idols in and around it! In an
authentic hadith narrated upon the authority of Abd-Allah ibn Masud who said:
“When the Prophet (r) entered Makkah on the Day of the Conquest, there were three
hundred and sixty idols around the Ka'bah. The Prophet started striking the idols with a stick
he had in his hand, saying: ‘Truth has come and falsehood has vanished, the Truth has
come and falsehood can neither create from the beginning nor can it restore life.’
The feeling that the pre-Islamic nation of Arabs had that they were the inheritors of the
religion of Ibraheem and preservers of the religious rites that he came with and that they
were the caretakers of the Ka'bah made it even more difficult for them to accept the mes-
sage that the Prophet Muhammad (r) was sent with by his Lord.
When he called them to make all of their worship for Allah, Who is alone without
partner and Who alone deserves to be worshipped, they said: “Has he made the gods
all into One God (Allah). Verily this is a strange thing!” [Soorah Saad: Verse 5]
While at the same time they would acknowledge that which was in conformity with the
message of monotheism in times of distress as is evident in Allah’s statement: