—righteous men; when they passed away, their people were overcome with grief. Satan then whispered to them, “Set up markers at the places where they used to sit and give those markers their names.” They did so, yet the markers were not worshipped—until, when that generation died out and knowledge was forgotten, the markers were worshipped (1).

When Allah later sent His Prophet Noah—peace and blessings be upon him—to denounce the polytheism that had grown out of those erected images, his people rejected his call and stubbornly persisted in worshipping those same images, which had now become idols: “They said, ‘Do not abandon your gods; do not abandon Wadd, Suwaʿ, Yaghuth, Yaʿuq, and Nasr’” (Noah 23). These are the names of the men whose likenesses had been fashioned to keep their memory alive and to magnify them.

Consider, then, the outcome to which these commemorative monuments led: associating partners with Allah, defying His messengers, destruction by the Flood, and loathing in the sight of Allah and His creation. This makes plain the grave danger of image-making and erecting statues. For that reason the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, cursed—