وَقالوا لا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُم وَلا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلا سُواعًا وَلا يَغوثَ وَيَعوقَ وَنَسرًا
They say: “Do not abandon your gods. Do not abandon Wadd, nor Suwāʿ, nor Yaghūth, Yaʿūq, and Nasr.”
EXEGESIS
The word tadhar in lā tadhar (do not abandon) is from the root verb wadhara, which is to leave alone or leave behind. As a verb, wadhara is not used in the past tense. Instead, the first root letter (waw) is dropped and the verb usually conjugates with the other two letters (dhāl and rāʾ) in the present tense or the imperative.
Rāghib defines the verb as ‘tossing and throwing something away because of it being negligible’. Al-wadharah, he says, is a small piece of meat that is too insignificant to use, just like when the Arabs wish to speak of someone that can be ignored, they say: ‘He is [like] meat on the butcher’s block’ meaning too small to be considered and of no consequence.
So when the elite from Prophet Noah’s (a) people said Do not abandon (lā tadhar) your gods, they meant: Do not forget about them and cast them aside.
The Quran also uses the term to imply ending a relationship (2:234, 2:240), letting something remain and be as it is (verses 26-27) and, most often, to mean abandoning and forsaking. For example, God leaves the rebellious in bewilderment (6:110, 7:186, 10:11), and the Apostle of God is commanded to leave (dhar) those who are deceived by the world and take their religion for a play and diversion, busying themselves with gossip and temporary enjoyments (6:70, 6:91, 6:112, 6:137, 15:3, 23:54, 43:83, 52:45, 70:42). And leave Me (dharnī) (68:44, 73:11, 74:11) to deal with them, God commands His Apostle.
The ʿĀd, as well, mocked their prophet (Hūd (a)): They said: ‘Have you come to [tell] us that we should worship Allah alone and abandon (nadhara) what our fathers have been worshipping?’ (7:70). In contrast, Prophet Elijah (a) condemns the abandoning of God’s worship: Do you invoke Baʿl and abandon (tadharūna) the best of creators, Allah? (37:125). Such contrasting, where taking hold of one necessitates abandoning the other, is also seen in verses that speak of loving the world and forsaking (yadharūna/tadharūna) the hereafter (75:21, 76:27).
Ālihah (gods), is the plural of ilāh (god, deity). The root is either alaha or waliha, which means to worship or to be bewildered about something. Allaha is to deify, to make a god of someone or something. Ilāh also has the meaning of the beloved, from the root waliha which also means he loved intensely. Imam Ali (a) explains the name allāh as: ‘The One worshipped (al-maʿbūd), in whom the creation is bewildered (yaʾlahu fīhi al-khalqu), and One whom the creation intensely loves (yuʾlahu ilayhi).’
They in They say refers to the community elite. They would address the rest of the people saying, Do not abandon your gods, meaning: Do not stop worshipping and venerating them. The helplessness of these gods, whose survival depends on people worshipping them and keeping their memory alive, is obvious in the words Do not abandon and it is shown, almost with sarcasm, just like the words of Prophet Abraham’s (a) people who said: Burn him, and help your gods, if you are to do anything! (21:68).
Wadd, Suwāʿ, Yaghūth, Yaʿūq, and Nasr are names of five Babylonian gods whose idols the people of Prophet Noah (a) worshipped. The mention of your gods before these specific names could mean that there were many others, but these five are given a separate mention as they were most prominent.
EXPOSITION
Idols are generally referred to in the Quran with common nouns such as aṣnām (6:74, 7:138, 14:35, 21:57, 26:71), awthān (22:30, 29:17, 29:25), jibt (4:51), tamāthīl (21:52), nuṣub (5:3), and anṣāb (5:90). But in this verse, five specific names are given.
The reason for naming them – and other idols named in the Quran such as Lāt, ʿUzza, Manāt (53:19-20), and Baʿl (37:125) – is because idols with these names were still worshipped in Arabia at the time of the Quran’s revelation. Idols with these names seem to have survived the test of time, lingering from one culture to another even though These are but names which you have coined – you and your fathers – for which Allah has not sent down any authority (53:23). So the Quran names them as if to warn the Meccans that they too would meet the fate of Prophet Noah’s (a) people if they persist in their idolatry. See the Review of Tafsīr Literature for more on these names.
Most recounts of past nations in the Quran quote the debates and arguments between the rebels and the faithful or between the prophets of God and their people. And that between Prophet Noah (a) and his people is no exception. This particular surah, however, does not quote the people who rejected Prophet Noah’s (a) message at all; instead, it is a recount of the story of Prophet Noah (a) by God Himself, or, for the most part, a monologue by Prophet Noah (a) addressing his Lord directly. This verse is an exception in the entire surah, as it indirectly quotes the transgressors via Prophet Noah’s (a) words.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- From Imam al-Ṣādiq (a), from Imam Ali (a), in a lengthy tradition in which he mentioned the Mosque of Kufa, he said: ‘In it were Nasr, Yaghūth, and Yaʿūq.’
- From Mufaḍḍal, from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a): ‘So Noah (a) built his ark [where] the Mosque of Kufa [stands today] by his own hands, bringing the wood from afar until he completed it.’ Then Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) turned to his left and pointed to the place where the house of Ibn Ḥakīm stood and where the Euphrates ran and said: ‘O Mufaḍḍal, and here is where idols of the people of Noah (a) were erected: Yaghūth, Yaʿūq, and Nasr.’
- From Imam al-Ṣādiq (a): ‘The Quraysh used to smear the idols that were around the Kaaba with musk and ambergris. Yaghūth was in front of the door [of the Kaaba], Yaʿūq was to the right of the Kaaba, and Nasr to its left. When they entered [Masjid al-Ḥarām], they fell into prostration before Yaghūth without [even] whispering anything. Then they would turn [to the right] towards Yaʿūq and then they would turn [to their left] towards Nasr. Then they would call out [to the idols].’
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Tabatabai has suggested that the last two idols (Yaʿūq and Nasr) mentioned in this verse may have been smaller gods than the first three (Wadd, Suwāʿ, and Yaghūth) because they are mentioned in passing, and are not accentuated with their own negation particle lā (nor). It is noteworthy, however, that in all the three traditions from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a) quoted under the Insights from Hadith, only Yaghūth, Yaʿūq, and Nasr are mentioned and there is no mention of Wadd and Suwāʿ.
Qarāʾatī opines that the fact the Quran bothers to preserve the names of the idols suggests that one who wishes to remove evil should take the trouble of knowing the specifics of what he is up against (albeit without being touched by its evil). He also observes that for one who chooses to go astray, there are numerous paths or gods to confuse him, unlike one who follows true guidance and whose path is not pluralistic, for he follows one God, one religion, one book and not Yaghūth, Yaʿūq, Nasr, and so on. But more plausibly, the Quran perhaps mentions and preserves the names of the idols to make it more relevant to the listeners of its message, and because many of these idols were still known to and venerated by the Quraysh at the time of its revelation.
Most exegetes also relate that the names of these five idols belonged to five righteous men who were monotheists before Prophet Noah’s (a) time. When they passed away, the people wept for them and visited their graves, showing much remorse and grief. Satan, seizing the opportunity, came to them in human guise and offered to carve them statutes of the men, so that they could continue remembering and revering them. The people welcomed the idea and so he sculpted for them five statutes from brass, copper, lead, wood, and stone. In time, Satan offered to make smaller versions for people to keep in their homes. A few generations later, he came to them, saying: ‘These are gods whom your forefathers worshipped,’ and so began the widespread practice of idol worship.
Prophet Noah’s (a) people are said to be the first to openly worship idols and the first to be destroyed for this sin by divine punishment. Quite likely, however, the practice of idolatry had already commenced a few generations earlier and gradually increased.
Some exegetes have also related that these five gods did not all resemble human form. Wadd was a man to represent manly power; Suwāʿ was a woman representing beauty; Yaghūth was shaped like a lion or bull, to represent brute strength; Yaʿūq was a horse representing swiftness; and Nasr was an eagle or falcon (also called Nasr in Arabic) to represent insight. Rāzī even suggests that the people who invented these idols may have been astrologers, with the lion, eagle, horse, man, and woman representing constellations.
But Ālūsī has rightly argued that if we go with the report of the idols resembling animals, then it negates the more sound report that the idols represented five righteous men in previous generations.
And Pooya mentions that ‘some say’ these were the names of the ignorant from the elders of the people. So when they said Do not abandon your gods they were still referring to the idols, but thereafter, and do not abandon Wadd, nor Suwāʿ … is a reference to their elders and that it is these who are also referred to in the next verse as: And already they have led many astray. While it is true that exegetes debate whether the opening words in the next verse (they have led many astray) refer to the community elite or the idols, interpreting the five names in this verse as referring to people instead of the idols is an interesting, yet uncommon, understanding amongst most exegetes.
Suyūṭī and others have also related that these five idols that the people of Prophet Noah (a) worshipped later resurfaced amongst the Arabs before the time of Prophet Muhammad (s). He relates from Ibn Abbas the different Arab tribes that worshipped each one of these five gods, besides the many others they venerated. For example, Suwāʿ was the deity for the Hudhayl; the Murād worshipped Yaghūth; Yaʿūq was the god of the Hamdān tribe, and so on. Proof that the Arabs had idols by these names is that, during the pre-Islamic period, they named their sons ʿAbd (slave of) Wadd, ʿAbd Yaghūth, and so on.
Nonetheless, these five idols were not as prominent amongst the Arabs as they were for the people of Prophet Noah (a). Firstly, perhaps, because the last three mentioned idols were originally worshipped in Yemen. And secondly, because the Arabs had many other gods to whom they gave much importance. Hubal was the largest and was placed in the Kaaba. Isāf stood opposite the Black Stone. Nāʾilah was opposite rukn al-yamānī (the south corner of the Kaaba), and also there were Lāt and ʿUzza.
How the five idols mentioned in this verse (or even just their names) came to the Arabs, so much later after the people of Prophet Noah (a) in Babylonia, is unclear. Some have related that the idols were buried off the coast of Jeddah during the deluge of Prophet Noah (a), and much later Satan led a man from the Arabs to unearth them and bring them to his people. But the more plausible explanation is that those on the ark who survived the deluge with Prophet Noah (a) must have told and retold the story of their people to their children, and the names of the idols survived through oral tradition and, much later, the Arabs took the names and ascribed them to their own deities.
After relating the popular story of the five righteous men who came to be idolised over time, Nawawī adds: ‘For this reason, the Apostle of God first forbade the visiting of graves but later permitted it, saying: “I used to forbid you from visiting graves. But now visit them because it is a reminder [of one’s mortality].”’
And some puritan exegetes argue that because venerating the dead – even if they are righteous – can lead to idol worship, it is for this reason that the Prophet is reported to have said, in an authentic tradition: ‘Allah’s wrath is intense over a people who take the graves of their prophets as a masjid.’ But the words ‘take as a masjid’ quite likely means ‘worship the graves of their prophets’, because masjid literally means a place of prostration. This is not about including the grave of a prophet within the boundaries of a mosque, as these puritans have misunderstood. The Quran itself praises those who thought the People of the Cave had died and built a place of worship over them: As they were disputing among themselves about their matter, they said: ‘Build a building over them. Their Lord knows them best.’ Those who had a say in their matter said: ‘We will build a place of worship (masjid) over them’ (18:21).
As for the permissibility of mourning and remembering the righteous, all the traditions that relate how idol worship came to the people of Prophet Noah (a) are explicit that it was not the generation that venerated the righteous men that worshipped them, but it was the later generations, who carved idols of their images, that began worshipping them. The problem, therefore, lies in forgetting history and the origin of traditions and not in remembering the righteous, insofar as they inspire people to turn to God. Hence the Quran’s copious mention of prophets, messengers, and the righteous, as examples to emulate and look up to with veneration (1:7).
[1] Raghib, w-dh-r; Zarkashī, al-Burhān, 3/453.
[2] Raghib, ʾ-l-h.
[3] Tawhid, p. 89.
[4] Kafi, 3/491, h. 2.
[5] Kafi, 8/280, h. 421.
[6] Kafi, 4/542, h. 11.
[7] Mizan, 20/34.
[8] Qaraati, 10/237.
[9] Bukhari, Tafsīr Sūrat Nūḥ; Ilal, pp. 3-4, h. 1, from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a); Nawawi, 2/568; Suyuti, 6/269-270, Hairi, 11/258-9; Qummi, 2/387; Nur, 5/425, h. 20; Alusi, 15/86; Ibn Kathir, 8/248-9; Tabari, 12/254.
[10] Kashif, 7/424.
[11] Tabrisi, 10/364; Hairi, 11/259; Razi, 30/657.
[12] Razi, 30/657.
[13] Alusi, 15/86.
[14] Pooya, 71:23.
[15] Suyuti, 6/269; Tabrisi, 10/364; Qummi, 2/388, from al-Bāqir (a).
[16] Hairi, 11/258.
[17] Tabrisi, 10/364.
[18] Qurtubi, 10/6787; Hairi, 11/259.
[19] Mizan, 20/35; Hairi, 11/258.
[20] Nawawi, 2/568.
[21] Muwatta, 2/241.