وَقَالُوا۟ لَا تَذَرُنَّ ءَالِهَتَكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلَا سُوَاعًا وَلَا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْرًا 23
Translations
And said, 'Never leave your gods and never leave Wadd or Suwāʿ or Yaghūth and Yaʿūq and Nasr.'
Transliteration
Wa-qāloo lā tadhārun-na ālihata-kum wa-lā tadhārun-na waddan wa-lā suāʿan wa-lā yaghūtha wa-yaʿūqa wa-nasrān
Tafsir (Explanation)
The people of Noah are urging one another not to abandon their idols, specifically naming five: Wadd, Suwaʿ, Yaghūth, Yaʿūq, and Nasr. According to classical scholars like Ibn Kathir and Al-Tabari, these were idols worshipped by Noah's people and later by some pre-Islamic Arabian tribes. This ayah demonstrates the stubbornness of the disbelievers in clinging to idolatry despite Noah's 950-year call to monotheism, showing how entrenched false beliefs become when passed down through generations.
Revelation Context
This ayah appears within Surah Nuh, which recounts Noah's message and the responses of his people over nine centuries and a half. This specific verse illustrates the collective determination of his community to reject tawheed and preserve their ancestral idolatry, reflecting the broader theme of human resistance to divine guidance and the power of cultural attachment to false practices.
Related Hadiths
Ibn Abī Hātim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) that these five idols were named after righteous people from Noah's time, but after their deaths, people erected statues in their memory, which eventually became objects of worship. Additionally, Sahih Bukhari contains reports about the pre-Islamic Arabian tribes worshipping some of these same idols.
Themes
Key Lesson
This ayah reminds us that attachment to inherited beliefs and cultural traditions, no matter how widespread or ancient, does not substitute for truth and submission to Allah alone. We must examine whether our practices and beliefs are rooted in divine guidance or merely in ancestral custom, guarding ourselves against the collective peer pressure that often reinforces falsehood.