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[The Origin of Polytheism in the World]
For polytheism has two primary roots (1):
The first is the polytheism of the people of Noah. Its starting point was the exaltation of the righteous who had died, along with their graves and the practice of lingering at those sites; then they fashioned images of them, and in the end they worshipped them.
This same form is found among the Christians, although they do not make physical idols
(1) Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah states in Al-Radd ala al-Mantiqiyyin (1/285): “Most instances of shirk (associating partners with Allah) among the descendants of Adam originate from two roots. The first is the veneration of the graves of the righteous and the carving of their images in order to seek blessing; this was the earliest cause by which the children of Adam introduced innovation. It was the very shirk of the people of Noah. Al-Bukhari reports in his Sahih from Ibn Abbas—and this is also transmitted by many early exegetes and historians—concerning the verse: ‘And they said: Do not abandon your gods; do not abandon Wadd, nor Suwa, nor Yaghuth, Yaʿuq, or Nasr’ (Q 71:23). Ibn Abbas explained that these were righteous men among Noah’s people; when they died, their community devoted itself to their graves and later sculpted their statues. Those idols eventually passed to the Arabs, and Ibn Abbas listed the Arab tribes that possessed them. The second root is the worship of the heavenly bodies; for these idols they fashioned talismans corresponding to the stars….”
[أَصْلُ الشِّرْكِ فِي العَالَمِ]
فَإِنَّ الشِّرْكَ أَصْلُهُ نَوعَانِ (١):
شِرْكُ قَومِ نُوحٍ، وَكَانَ أَصْلُهُ تَعْظِيمَ الصَّالحِينَ المَوتَى وَقُبُورَهُمْ وَالعُكُوفَ عَلَيهَا، ثُمَّ صَوّرَوا تَماثِيلَهُمْ، ثُمَّ عَبَدُوهُمْ.
وَهَذَا النَّوعُ وَاقِعٌ فِي النَّصَارَى، وَلَكِنْ لَا يَصْنَعُونَ أَصْنَامًا
(١) قال شيخ الإسلام في الرد على المنطقيين (١/ ٢٨٥): (والشرك في بني آدم أكثره عن أصلين أولهما: تعظيم قبور الصالحين، وتصوير تماثيلهم للتبرك بها، وهذا أول الأسباب التي بها ابتدع الآدميون [ثانيهما]: الشرك، وهو شرك قوم نوح ... وقد ذكر البخاري في صحيحه عن ابن عباس، وذكره أهل التفسير والسير من غير واحد من السلف في قوله تعالى: ﴿وَقَالُوا لَا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلَا سُوَاعًا وَلَا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْرًا﴾ أن هؤلاء كانوا قومًا صالحين في قوم نوح، فلما ماتوا عكفوا على قبورهم، ثم صوروا تماثيلهم. وأن هذه الأصنام صارت إلى العرب، وذكر ابن عباس قبائل العرب التي كانت فيهم مثل هذه الأصنام. والسبب الثاني: عبادة الكواكب، فكانوا يصنعون للأصنام طلاسم للكواكب ... ).