Idol worship in the Jahiliyya and its rites

The people of the Jahiliyya had traditions and rites in idol worship, most of which were introduced by Amr ibn Luhayy. They believed that what he introduced was a good innovation and not a change to the religion of Abraham. ¹ Al-Rahiq al-Makhtum counts them as six kinds, and mentions the verses that denounced them. ^{1 2}

1. They would cling to them, seek refuge in them, call out to them, appeal to them in hardship, and call on them for their needs, believing that they intercede with God and fulfil what they wished. ¹
2. They would make the pilgrimage to them, circumambulate them, humble themselves before them, and prostrate to them. ¹
3. They drew near to them with kinds of offerings, slaughtering and sacrificing for them and in their names. The Qur'an mentions these two kinds of slaughter in al-Ma'ida 3 and al-An'am 121. ¹
4. They set aside for the idols some of their food and drink and a share of their crops and livestock. As a curiosity, the author notes, they also set aside a portion for God, and for many reasons they often transferred to the idols what was God's, but never transferred to God what was for their idols, as in al-An'am 136. ¹
5. Among the kinds of drawing near was the vow concerning crops and livestock, as in al-An'am 138. ¹
6. Among them were the bahira, the sa'iba, the wasila, and the ham, which Ibn Ishaq defines and which the Qur'an denounced in al-Ma'ida 103 and al-An'am 139. ^{1 2 3} Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab stated that these animals belonged to their idols, and the Sahih reports as a raised saying that Amr ibn Luhayy was the first to let loose the sawa'ib. ^{2 4}

The Arabs did all this for their idols, believing that they brought them near to God, connected them to Him, and interceded for them with Him, as the Qur'an relates of them in al-Zumar 3 and Yunus 18. ²

Seeking decisions by the arrows at Hubal, gambling, believing soothsayers, diviners, and astrologers, belief in the rising of the stars, augury, and the owl. ^{2 5}

This is the author's account, taken from the abridgement of the Messenger's biography by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, from Ibn Hisham, and from al-Bukhari. The views of modern studies on the religion of the Arabs before Islam have not yet been added.