Isaf and naila Real story in history

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Isaf and Na'ila are Meccan water deities: the dual guardian spirits of the holy well of Zamzam who possessed large stone idols each of which were situated atop two nearby sacred hills located close the Ka'aba, and were called as-Safa and al-Marwa respectively. From these hills the local Meccan tribes of Banu Khuza'a and Banu Quraysh would worship their idols from afar but never touch them as they were considered too sacred. The polytheists of pre-Islamic Mecca would travel back and forth to the idols of the god and goddess seven times as part of their fertility rites during the hajj, which in Muslim sources is a corruption of the Abrahamic interpretation of Hagar running between the mountains in search of water for Ishmael.

The god Isaf was also nicknamed Mu'tim at-Ta'ir or “Feeder of the Birds” as idols made of date meal were offered at his hill of as-Safa and birds would eat them; to the Arabs, this was believed to be a confirmation that the god has received the offering and is pleased with it. In later Islamic legend, the mythology of Isaf and Na'ila is retold as the two deities originally being a man and a woman from the tribe of Banu Jurhum who fornicated inside the Ka'aba of Mecca: an act that greatly angered Allah, who consequently turned them into stone for their sins. The Arabs were said to have then, in later times, forgotten the sins of Isaf and Na'ila and began to worship their petrified forms as gods.

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