Dhat Anwat: The Hanging Tree

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

On the road to Ḥunayn the army passed a magnificent green tree the pagans called Dhāt Anwāṭ, "that on which things are hung", where they would gather yearly, sacrifice, and hang their weapons for blessing, making the tree an idol. Abū Wāqid al-Laythī, a convert of barely a week, said, "O Messenger of Allāh, appoint for us a Dhāt Anwāṭ as they had one." The Prophet ﷺ cried, سُبْحَانَ اللَّه! "By the One in whose hand is my soul, you have said exactly what the Children of Israel said to Mūsā, اجْعَل لَنَا إِلَٰهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَة, 'make for us a god as they have gods,' to which he answered, إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُون, 'you are an ignorant people'" (7:138). "These are the ways: you will follow those before you."

❧Its Lessons

A good-luck charm, a blessed tree, a protective ring or gemstone, a turquoise eye against the evil eye, a panjah, is in essence an idol, for it directs to other than Allāh the reliance (tawakkul) that belongs to Him alone; omens and superstitions are no joke but a strand of shirk. (The Qurʾān is no talisman here, it is the uncreated speech of Allāh, an attribute of His, and one truly seeks refuge through it; the only question with a written verse worn or hung is whether it honours the Qurʾān's dignity, not whether it is lawful.) At his astonishment the Prophet ﷺ said not a curse but SubḥānAllāh, teaching the tongue's adhkār. And most subtly: he called Abū Wāqid's request shirk, yet did not call Abū Wāqid a mushrik. A person may commit an act of shirk or kufr and not himself be judged a disbeliever, excused here by sheer ignorance as a new Muslim. To pronounce such verdicts on individuals is the scholar's task, not the layman's.