“Awḥā al-shayṭān ilā qawmihim”: that is, he whispered to them and cast his suggestions into their hearts.
“Anṣibū”: the imperative—its ṣād is vocalized with a kasrah.
“Anṣāban”: meaning idols fashioned in their likeness.
“Ḥattā idhā halaka ulāʾik”: i.e., when those men for whom the images had been erected died; the purpose of erecting them had been that, by seeing the images, people would remember the deeds of their owners and thus feel motivated to worship.
“Wa nusiya al-ʿilm”: meaning that knowledge disappeared, understanding vanished, and the ignorant—those who cannot distinguish between polytheism and monotheism—gained the upper hand.
“ʿUbidat”: namely, those idols were then worshipped when Satan said to them, “Your forefathers used to worship them.”
c) Overall meaning of the report:
Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with him) explains this noble verse by stating that the deities whom Allah says the people of Noah exhorted one another to keep worshipping—after their prophet Noah (peace be upon him) had forbidden them to associate partners with Allah—were originally the names of righteous men among them. Because of Satan’s enticement they went to excess in venerating those men, erecting their images; the matter developed until those images became idols that were worshipped instead of Allah.
What Ibn al-Qayyim records conveys the same meaning narrated by al-Bukhārī, except that he adds that their prolonged attendance at the graves preceded the making of the images; thus he makes the additional point that remaining at graves is likewise a cause leading to their worship.
Relevance of the narration to this chapter: it shows that excess in venerating the righteous leads to worshipping them besides Allah.
Lessons derived from the narration:
- Excess in venerating the righteous is a cause for worshipping them instead of Allah and for abandoning the religion.