= …so what drove you to this request was nothing other than following the ways of the ancients and imitating the polytheists. The Prophet continued: “By Him in Whose hand is my soul, you have said exactly what the Children of Israel said to Musa: ijʿal lana ilahan kama lahum alihah (‘Set up for us a god just as they have gods’) – Qur’an, al-Araf 138.” When Musa, upon crossing the sea with the Children of Israel and seeing Allah drown their enemy before their very eyes, passed by a people devoted to their idols, those Israelites said to him: “ijʿal lana ilahan kama lahum alihah.” He rebuked them: innakum qawmun tajhalun (“You are an ignorant people”), and added: inna haulai mutabbarun ma hum fihi (“What they are engaged in is doomed to perish”) – in other words, false – wa batilun ma kanu yaʿmalun (“and worthless is what they used to do”), for it is sheer polytheism. He then said: aghayra Allahi abghikum ilahan wahuwa faddalakum ʿala al-ʿalamin (al-Araf 140) – “Shall I seek for you a god other than Allah while He has favored you above all nations?” Thus Musa, peace be upon him, denounced them just as our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, denounced his Companions’ request. Yet neither group actually fell into shirk: the Children of Israel did not proceed to worship the idols, and the Companions would have committed shirk had they adopted a tree as ‘Dhat Anwat’, but Allah protected them; once their Prophet forbade it, they desisted. They had spoken out of ignorance, not deliberate intent; when they learned that such an act constitutes shirk, they abandoned the idea and did not carry it out—had they done so, they would indeed have associated partners with Allah. The verse therefore shows that some people worship trees: those pagans had taken ‘Dhat Anwat’. Certain Companions, whose knowledge had not yet become firmly rooted, almost imitated them, were it not that Allah safeguarded them through His Messenger. The lesson is that some people seek blessing from trees and linger around them in devotion. ʿUkuf (ritual seclusion) here means remaining beside the tree for a period as an act of veneration; it is the deliberate stay in a given place seeking its sacredness. =