Transliteration:( Wa qaaloo laa tazarunna aalihatakum wa laa tazarunna Waddanw wa laa Suwaa'anw wa laa Yaghoosa wa Ya'ooqa wa Nasraa )
34. The wealthy said to the poor do not give ip the worship of your idols because of Hazrat Nuh.
35. Although the people of Nuh had many idols, the following were accorded great. respect:
Wadd in the shape of a man. Suwa - in the hape of a woman. Yaghuth- in the shape of a lion. Yauq - in the shape of a horse. Nasr - in the shape of a donkey.
The worship of these idols reached Arabia. Today the Hindus in India worship idols in the form of men, women, monkeys, snakes, etc. The origin of these, too, is based on the idols of the people of Nuh.
The tafsir of Surah Nuh verse 23 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Nuh ayat 21 which provides the complete commentary from verse 21 through 24.
(71:23) They said: “Do not abandon your deities; do not abandon Wadd, nor Suwa, nor Yaghuth, nor Yauq, nor Nasr.[17]
17. Of the gods of the Prophet Noah’s people only those gods have been mentioned whom later the people of Arabia had also started worshipping and whose shrines were found all over the country at the advent of Islam. It is not impossible that the later generations heard the names of the ancient gods of Noah’s people from the people who were saved from the flood, and when ignorance once again spread among their children, they made idols of the same gods and started worshipping them again.
Wadd was the god of the Bani Kalb bin Wabash, a branch of the Qudaah tribe, whose shrine had been built at Daumat al-Jandal. In the ancient Arabian inscriptions he has been named as Waddam ibam (father Wadd). Kalbi has stated that the image built to him was of a man of enormous size. The Quraish also acknowledged him as god and called him Wudd. It is after him that a person has been named Abd-i Wudd (slave of Wudd) in history.
Suwa was the goddess of the Hudhayl tribe and her idol was a female figure. Her temple was situated at Ruhat near Yanbu.
Yaghuth was the god of Anum, a branch of the Tay tribe, and of some branches of the Madhjih tribe. The people of Madhjih had installed its idol, the image of a lion, at Jurash, a place between Yaman and Hijaz. Among the Quraish also some people had been named Abd-i Yaghuth.
Yauq was the god of Khaywan, a branch of the Hamdan tribe, in the territory of Hamdan in Yaman; its idol was of the horse’s figure.
Nasr was the god of Al-i dhul-Kula, a branch of the Himyar tribe, in the territory of Himyar; it had its idol installed at Balkha and had the image of the vulture. In the ancient inscriptions of Saba its name has been written as Nasor. Its temple was called bayt Nasor (house of Nasor) and its devotees ahl Nasor (people of Nasor). The ruins of the ancient temples that are found in Arabia and in the adjoining lands have the image of the vulture made on the doors of most of them.
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