The meaning of the word Anwaat
Question

                In the hadeeth of Abu Waaqid al-Laythi (may Allaah be pleased with him) it says: “We went out with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to Hunayn and we were new in Islam. The mushrikeen had a tree to which they would go and spend time (to seek blessings) and they used to hang their weapons on it, it was called Dhat Anwaat…” What is the meaning of the word Anwaat?.
Praise be to Allah.This hadeeth 
    was narrated by Imam Ahmad (2139) and by al-Tirmidhi (2180), who said it is 
    hasan saheeh. It was also narrated by Ibn Abi Aasim in al-Sunnah. 
    Al-Manaawi said: its isnaad is saheeh. And it was classed as saheeh by 
    al-Albaani in Riyaadh al-Sunnah, no. 76. 
These words were 
    narrated in the hadeeth of Abu Waaqid al-Laythi (may Allaah be pleased with 
    him): They went out from Makkah with the Messenger of Allaah  (peace and 
    blessings of Allaah be upon him) to Hunayn. The kuffaar had a tree to which 
    they would go and spend time (to seek blessings) and they used to hang their 
    weapons on it, and it was called Dhaat Anwaat. We passed by a large green 
    tree and we said: ‘O Messenger of Allaah, make for us a dhaat anwaat.’ The 
    Messenger of Allaah  (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: 
    ‘By the One in Whose hand is my soul, you have said the same as the people 
    of Moosa said: make for us a god as they have gods. Verily you are a people 
    who know not. These are ways that you will certainly follow as did those who 
    came before you, step by step.’ 
According to 
    a report narrated by Ibn Abi ‘Aasim in Kitaab al-Sunnah: And we were 
    new in Islam (at that time). 
With regard 
    to the words Dhaat Anwaat: Anwaat is the plural of the word nawt, 
    which refers to anything that is hung up. Dhaat Anwaat is the tree on which 
    these things were hung. Ibn al-Atheer said in al-Nihaayah: This is 
    the name of a specific tree that belonged to the mushrikeen, on which they 
    used to hang their weapons and to which they would go and spend time (to 
    seek blessings). They asked him to make something like that for them, and he 
    forbade them to do that. 
With regard 
    to the phrase, “By the One in Whose hand is my soul, you have said the same 
    as the people of Moosa said: make for us a god as they have gods. Verily you 
    are a people who know not”: Here the Prophet  (peace and blessings of 
    Allaah be upon him) likened what they had said to the words of the Children 
    of Israel when they passed by some people who were worshipping their idols. 
    They asked Moosa (peace be upon him) to make for them a god that they could 
    worship as those people had a god. 
With regard 
    to the phrase “These are ways that you will certainly follow as did those 
    who came before you”: i.e., this is the way of the nations who came before 
    you. What is meant here is the way of the people who follow whims and 
    desires and innovations that they introduced based on their own ideas after 
    their Prophets were gone, and they changed their religion.  
According to 
    the hadeeth of Abu Sa’eed that was narrated by al-Bukhaari: “You will follow 
    the ways of those who came before you, handspan by handspan, cubit by cubit, 
    until even if they entered the hole of a lizard you will follow them.” We 
    said: “O Messenger of Allaah, (do you mean) the Jews and the Christians?” He 
    said: “Who else?” 
Al-Nawawi 
    said: This is a manifest miracle of the Messenger of Allaah  (peace and 
    blessings of Allaah be upon him), for what he foretold indeed came to pass. 
From this 
    hadeeth we learn the following: 

    1-To beware of shirk (associating 
    others with Allaah) and that a person may think that something is good and 
    will bring him closer to Allaah, when it is as far removed as it can be from 
    the mercy of his Lord and will bring him closer to His wrath.

    2-Seeking blessings from trees 
    and rocks and being attached to them are all acts of shirk which have 
    happened in this ummah. Whoever falls into these things is following the 
    path of the Jews and Christians and forsaking the path of the Prophet  
    (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).

    3-What counts is meanings, not 
    words. The Prophet  (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) likened 
    what they said to what the Children of Israel said, even though they were 
    not blatantly asking for a god instead of Allaah.

    4-It is forbidden to imitate the 
    people of the Jaahiliyyah and the people of the Book in things that are 
    unique to them and in their acts of worship.

    5-It shows that when a person has 
    moved away from falsehood to which he was accustomed, there is no guarantee 
    that something of those old traditions will not be left in his heart, 
    because the Sahaabah who asked him for that had only been Muslims for a few 
    days, as they became Muslim on the day of the conquest of Makkah, then the 
    Prophet  (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) took them out on 
    the campaign of Hunayn. This incident took place on the way to Hunayn.
See Fath 
    al-Majeed bi Sharh Kitaab al-Tawheed, 139-147; and al-Qawl al-Mufeed 
    by Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen. 
We would 
    remind the questioner that Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhaab (may Allaah 
    have mercy on him) quoted this hadeeth in his blessed book Kitaab 
    al-Tawheed, in the chapter on Seeking blessings from trees, rocks, 
    etc. We advise him to read this, along with the commentary, especially 
    the two commentaries referred to above, as he will learn a great deal from 
    it. And Allaah is the Source of strength.