They gathered around his grave in the land of Babylon and grieved over him. When Iblīs saw their grief for him, he took the form of a human, then said: "I see your grief over this man, so would you like me to create an image of him for you, so that it may be in your assembly and you remember him?" They said: "Yes." So he created an image for them similar to him. He said:

They placed it in their assembly and began to remember him. When he saw how much they were mentioning him, he said: "Would you like me to place in the home of each one of you a statue similar to him, so that it may be in his house and you remember him?" They said: "Yes."

So he fashioned a statue similar to him for every household, and they began to remember him through it. He said: "Then their children grew up, and they began to see what they were doing with it. They reproduced, and the matter of their remembrance of him faded away, until their descendants eventually took it as a deity to be worshipped instead of God. Thus, the first thing worshipped other than God was the idol which they named Wadd."

18998 - It was read to Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, Ibn Wahb informed us, Shabīb ibn Saʿīd informed me, from Abū al-Jawzāʾ, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Messenger of God (may God bless him and grant him peace) said:

"If God were to have had mercy on anyone from the people of Nūḥ, He would have had mercy on a woman. When she saw the water, she carried her child and climbed the mountain. When the water reached her, she raised him to her shoulder. When the water reached her shoulder, she placed her child on her head. When the water reached her head, she lifted her child with her hand. If God were to have had mercy on any of them, He would have had mercy on this woman."