al-Kalām. These were the names of righteous men from the people of Noah. When they died, Satan prompted their people: ‘Set up memorials at the places where they used to sit, and name them after them.’ They did so, but these were not worshipped until those people had died and knowledge had disappeared. Then they were worshipped.”

A number of the early generations related much the same meaning in works of Quran commentary, accounts of the prophets, and other works: these had been righteous people. Some related that people would keep vigil at their graves and later make images of them. Others related that they would take their images along when travelling and supplicate beside them, without worshipping them. Later, however, the idols came to be worshipped.

For this reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, mentioned graves and images together in several hadiths. For example, Sahīh Muslim records that Abū al-Hayyāj al-Asadī said:

“Alī ibn Abī Tālib said to me: ‘Shall I not send you on the same mission on which the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent me? He commanded me to leave no elevated grave without levelling it, and no image without obliterating it.’”

Thus, he commanded him to erase images and level graves, just as he said in another authentic hadith:

“When a righteous man among those people died, they would build a place of worship over his grave and make those images within it. Those people will be the worst of creation before Allah on the Day of Resurrection.”

The hadiths from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbidding the taking of