Story No. 171 – Helpless Idol: uselessness of worshipping an idol in Madinah

Helpless Idol: uselessness of worshipping an idol in MadinahIt was hardly three years since the people of Madinah had embraced Islam and had started to worship Almighty Allah (SWT). The young boys in the city were given a job to eradicate the worship of idols. Wherever they saw an idol, they destroyed it and set fire to it.

 

One day, young boys came to know that Omar bin Janab, the chief of Bani Salma tribe, had still preserved his idol and worshipped it. In order to impress upon him the uselessness of worshipping an idol made of wood, they removed it from his place and threw it down a pit. The chief of Bani Salma tribe, on tracing the idol to where it was lying brought it back, washed it and kept it in its original place. But the next day again it was removed and thrown into the pit.

 

The chief of Bani Salma tribe was very much disturbed at this or the last he brought home this idol and cleaned it. He then put his sword around its neck and said to the idol: “If henceforth anybody comes to you, promptly take action and kill him with the sword.”

 

On the next day, the idol was again missing. This time he found it tied to a dead body of a dog. There was no effect at all of the sword which he had tied around the neck of the idol. This incident made him lose faith in his man-made wooden idol. He abandoned the idol worship altogether. On becoming a Muslim, he uttered a poem as under:

 

“Alas O my idol! If you were my god, you would not have reached this stage and I would not have seen you in the pit along with a dead dog. I have now put my faith in the Almighty Allah (SWT), from Whom come all blessings. It is He Who has freed me from darkness of ignorance.”

 

This is one of the examples of how the young Muslim volunteers of Medinah helped Mohammad, the Prophet of Islam (saw) in putting an end to idol worship and spread the true message of Islam.