The history of the messengers: Noah

At first, his nation used to be believers, who worshipped Allah Alone and believed in the resurrection and the Last Day, and they were doers of good deeds. This nation died and people grieved over them for they were pious and of high morals. As a result, they created some statues to resemble these dead pious men who had passed away, and they called them: Wad, Sewaa’, Yaghuth, Ya’oq and Nassr. People found solace in these statues, and they made them a symbol of this group of righteous men who had passed away. People in the city venerated these images, as they wanted to show great esteem to them. Time passed, parents died and sons grew older. They started increasing the amount of esteem and veneration they had towards these statues by bowing down to them. These statues occupied a large part of the hearts of the people. Consequently, the second generation began worshipping these images, and they described them as gods to which they must prostrate and be submissive. They worshipped the statues as deities and many of them went far, far astray. Thus, Allah sent Noah (pbuh) to them to show them the straight path, forbid them from worshiping idols, and guide them back to the worship of Allah. Noah came before his people and said: {and he said: “O my people! Worship Allâh! You have no other Ilâh (God) but Him (Islâmic Monotheism).}(Al-Mu’minûn:23)
source: islamkingdom
The history of the messengers: Noah-history_of_the_messenger_noah-jpg