I want to share the story of Amr ibn Luhay Al-Khuzai.

Have you ever wondered how Makkah went from abrahamic religion with zero idols (all destroyed by Ibrahim AS), to hundreds of idols in front of kaabah during prophet Muhammad SAW's time? https://twitter.com/hyeNuha/status/1274991501504679936

Well there was this guy, Amr ibn Luhay Al Khuzai. He was a respected man in Makkah. People look up to him and his leadership. And this was during a time when paganism was not practiced in Makkah (post ibrahim era).

One day he traveled to Syria where the Amalekites lived. These were the Americans of the time.

They had architectural marvels, modern technology, and they were undefeated in battles. They were a powerful nation.

Amr of course was very impressed by this. He would see them worshipping idols and ask them; why do you worship these idols?

The Amalekites would mention that they worship these idols for help and strength at times of war or natural disaster. The idols were their source of power.

Amr requested to bring back one of these idols. So they gave him an idol named 'Hubal'. That became the very first idol in front of the kaabah.

Hundreds of years later, there were more than 300 idols near the kaabah before the prophet came.

There are a few reasons why this story happened:

1. Inferiority complex

Amr's amazement towards the "progresivity" of the Amalekites outweighed his beliefs towards the teachings of Ibrahim. Because of his inferiority towards the Amalekites, he negotiated his own beliefs.

2. Distance from guidance

This happened at least 2000 years after prophet Ibrahim. So it was a long while since the Makkan Arabs had a prophet. This made them complacent and has distanced them from true teachings of Ibrahim.

These two things can be applied to our context very easily. We've been too inferior about our own books, and too far from the guidance of prophet Muhammad, that we start to stray in search of other idols. Today, in the form of ideologies.

While the quran has clearly outlined definitions of gender and sexuality, people like Qyira would fly 10,000 miles just to learn gender studies (that was her major).

Its fine to study other knowledge, but to abandon one's own and replace with a man-made idea? Thats inferiority.

So back to Amr, do you know what will be his ending?

The Prophet SAW said, "I saw `Amr bin 'Amir bin Luhai Al-Khuza`i dragging his intestines in the (Hell) Fire, for he was the first man who started the custom of releasing animals (for the sake of false gods).' " (HR Bukhari)

I think the story of Amr ibn Luhay should be the kind of stuff you hear in your first years of learning islam. Tapi masuk otak ke tak, tu lain la.

Yasir Qadhi explains it best here