71
Noah
Nūḥ
Nūḥ is most likely from the middle Makkan period. It is one of four sūrahs named after an Old Testament prophet; the others are Yūnus, “Jonah,” Yūsuf, “Joseph,” and Ibrāhīm, “Abraham.” Although it takes the name of Noah, this sūrah does not tell his entire story. Other aspects of the story can be found in 7:59–64; 10:71–73; 11:25–48; 21:76–77; 23:23–30; 26:105–21; 29:14–15; 37:75–82; 54:9–15. Nonetheless, a complete chronicle cannot be patched together from these various fragments, since the function of Quranic accounts of the prophets and sacred history is not to provide a historical record, but to provide guidance, as stated in 11:120: All that We recount unto thee of the stories of the messengers is that whereby We make firm thine heart. And herein there has come unto thee the truth, and an exhortation and a reminder for the believers.
Although the Biblical account provides details about the construction of the Ark (Genesis 6:12–16) and Noah’s life after the flood (Genesis 9), the Quran focuses almost entirely upon Noah’s function as a warner who called his people to guidance and their subsequent rejection of him. The flood with which God punishes those who opposed Noah is mentioned or alluded to in most of the accounts, but it receives no more than one line in any of them. This indicates that God’s Punishment is not the focus of the Quranic account; instead, like accounts of other prophets, such as Abraham and Jesus, the Quranic account of Noah emphasizes God’s Mercy and Guidance. Despite the fact that Noah’s people refuse to respond to repeated calls to follow God, God continues to grant them respite and does not send the flood until they have completely rejected his calls. In this respect, the story can be seen both as a call to those who opposed the Prophet Muhammad to let them know that God’s Mercy remains open to them, but that they will perish if they do not avail themselves of the guidance He has sent, and as a reminder to the Prophet Muhammad that messengers before him, such as Noah and Lot, have met with even greater defiance than he encountered.
Along with Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, Noah is considered one of the resolute among the messengers (46:35), who are presented to the Prophet Muhammad as examples to follow and among whose ranks Muslims consider Muhammad to be. According to some, Noah was the first messenger sent by God (those before him are considered prophets rather than messengers; for this distinction see the essay “The Quranic View of Sacred History and Other Religions”), and he was sent, like Muhammad, to the entire world, rather than to a specific people (Q).
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
¡ Truly We sent Noah to his people, “Warn thy people before a painful punishment comes upon them.” * He said, “O my people! I am a clear warner unto you, + that you may worship God, reverence Him, and obey me, J that He may forgive you some of your sins and grant you reprieve until a term appointed. Truly when the term of God comes, it will not be delayed, if you but knew.” Z He said, “My Lord, I have called my people day and night. j Yet my calling has not increased them in aught but flight. z Truly whenever I call them, that Thou mayest forgive them, they put their fingers in their ears, cover themselves with their garments, persist, and wax most arrogant. { Then I called them openly. | Then I proclaimed to them and confided to them in secret. Ċ I said, ‘Seek forgiveness of your Lord! Truly He is Forgiving. Ě He will send the sky upon you with abundant rains, Ī support you with wealth and sons, and make for you gardens and rivers. ĺ What ails you that you do not hope for God with dignity, Ŋ seeing that He has created you in stages? Ś Have you not considered how God created the seven heavens one upon another, Ū and made the moon a light therein and made the sun a lamp? ź And God made you grow forth from the earth like plants. Ɗ Then He will cause you to return to it and bring you forth again. ƚ And God made the earth an open expanse for you, Ȋ that you may travel spacious paths therein.’” ! Noah said, “My Lord they disobeyed me and followed those whose wealth and children increase them in naught but loss.” " And they devised a mighty plot, # saying, “Do not leave your gods; do not leave Wadd or Suwāʿ, or Yagūth, Yaʿūq, or Nasr.” $ Many indeed have they led astray; and it increases the wrongdoers in naught but error. % Because of their iniquities they were drowned, then made to enter a Fire. And then they found no helpers for themselves apart from God. & Noah said, “My Lord, leave not a single disbeliever to dwell upon the earth. ' Truly if you leave them, they will mislead Thy servants and will beget naught but disbelieving profligates. ( My Lord, forgive me and my parents, whosoever enters my house as a believer, and the believing men and the believing women, and do not increase the wrongdoers in aught but ruin.”
Commentary
¡ Truly We sent Noah to his people, “Warn thy people before a painful punishment comes upon them.”
1 The command given to Noah to warn his people is similar to that given to the Prophet Muhammad in 7:2; 14:44; 21:45; 26:14; 40:18. Noah also warns his people of the punishment in 7:59; 11:26, 39.
***
* He said, “O my people! I am a clear warner unto you,
2 Just as Noah is commanded to declare, I am a clear warner unto you (cf. 11:25; 26:115), so too is Muhammad enjoined to say, I am only a clear warner (38:70; see also 15:89; 22:49; 29:50; 46:9; 67:26, as well as 51:49–50, the ambiguity of which allows it to be taken as a reference to either Noah or the Prophet Muhammad). Muhammad is also referred to as a clear warner in 7:184. All prophets are sent as bearers of glad tidings and as warners (2:213; 4:165; 6:48; 18:56), and every human collectivity is said to have been sent a warner, as in 26:208: And never did We destroy a town save that it had warners.
***
+ that you may worship God, reverence Him, and obey me,
3 Al-Rāzī observes that the three duties to which Noah calls his people—worship of God, reverence for God, and following God’s messenger—can be seen as comprising all of religion. This verse is similar to Noah’s call to his people in 23:23: O my people! Worship God! You have no god other than Him. Will you not be reverent?
***
J that He may forgive you some of your sins and grant you reprieve until a term appointed. Truly when the term of God comes, it will not be delayed, if you but knew.”
4 Some of your sins could also be rendered “your sins,” implying all sins and thus indicating the manner in which embracing religion and following one of God’s messengers can expunge all previous sins (JJ). Grant you reprieve until a term appointed (cf. 14:10; 16:61; 35:45) means that they are given ample time to repent for their sins. Elsewhere, presumably some time after his people had rejected this initial offer, Noah is reported to have said, O my people! If my presence is grievous to you, and [so too] my reminding of the signs of God, then in God do I trust. So decide on your plan, you and your partners, then let there be no doubt concerning your plan, but carry it out against me, and grant no respite! (10:71). Until a term appointed may refer to the death of an individual, the moment when punishment comes in this world, the end of time, or the Day of Judgment. Regarding the end that every human collectivity will eventually meet, as does Noah’s, the Quran says, For every community there is a term appointed. When their term comes, they shall not delay it by a single hour, nor shall they advance it (7:34; 10:49; see also 16:61; 23:43; 34:30).
***
Z He said, “My Lord, I have called my people day and night.
5 Noah called his people day and night, that is, continuously without interruption (JJ). Day can also be seen as an allusion to calling them openly, and night to calling them privately (Q). Noah is said to have been the most steadfast of God’s messengers; he began his prophethood at the age of forty and continued until he was a thousand years, less fifty (29:14), even though he had few followers.
***
j Yet my calling has not increased them in aught but flight.
6 The reaction of Noah’s people to his call is similar to that attributed to the pagan Arabs in 17:41: And We have indeed varied [Our signs] in this Quran, that they might reflect, though it increased them in naught but aversion. For other passages where the call of God’s messengers increases disbelievers’ opposition and other negative reactions, see 9:125; 25:60; 35:39, 42.
***
z Truly whenever I call them, that Thou mayest forgive them, they put their fingers in their ears, cover themselves with their garments, persist, and wax most arrogant.
7 Putting their fingers in their ears indicates that the people are averse to hearing God’s message; covering themselves with their garments shows that they do not wish to see God’s signs; and waxing arrogant implies that their hearts are closed; in a Quranic context, hearing, sight, and hearts are the three faculties that are either open or closed to revelation; see 2:7; 6:25, 46; 7:100, 179; 16:108; 17:46; 18:57; 22:46; 41:5; 46:26.
***
{ Then I called them openly.
| Then I proclaimed to them and confided to them in secret.
8–9 These verses indicate that Noah called to his people in many different ways, but they remained defiant. Many commentators take this to mean that Noah became ever more emphatic, first calling them in private, then openly, and then combining the two (Q, R, Z), a pattern also followed by the Prophet Muhammad, who, according to most accounts, did not preach publicly until three years after receiving the first revelation.
***
Ċ I said, ‘Seek forgiveness of your Lord! Truly He is Forgiving.
10–20 The promise given by Noah to his people in these verses is similar to that given by the Prophet Muhammad to his people in 61:10–14.
***
Ě He will send the sky upon you with abundant rains,
10–11 Noah’s words repeat a portion of those of the Arab prophet Hūd in 11:52. The sky is often used as a metonym for “rain,” which in a desert environment is synonymous with great blessing, even with the gift of life itself. Abundance translates midrār, which indicates something that is sent again and again. Most interpret it as an indication of rain. But when viewed in relation to other verses, it can be taken as a reference to all manner of Divine Blessings, both material and spiritual, promised to the disbelievers elsewhere on the condition that they reverence God: Had the people of the towns believed and been reverent, We would surely have opened unto them blessings from Heaven and earth (7:96); and to the Jews and Christians if they observe their scripture: Had they observed the Torah and the Gospel and that which was sent down unto them from their Lord, they would surely have received nourishment from above them and from beneath their feet (5:66).
***
Ī support you with wealth and sons, and make for you gardens and rivers.
ĺ What ails you that you do not hope for God with dignity,
13 This verse means, “How is it that you do not hope that God will honor you and magnify you [Q, R, Z] in this life, in the Hereafter, or both?” Some commentators read this to mean, “How is it that you do not fear God with dignity?” (Āl, Ṭs).
***
Ŋ seeing that He has created you in stages?
14–18 These verses allude to all stages of human existence, which are cited as proof of God’s Power, as in 22:5: We created you from dust, then from a drop, then from a blood clot, then from a lump of flesh, formed and unformed, that We may make clear for you. And We cause what We will to remain in the wombs for a term appointed. Then We bring you forth as an infant, then that you may reach maturity (see also 23:12–15).
***
Ś Have you not considered how God created the seven heavens one upon another,
15 For the creation of the seven heavens one upon another, see 67:3–4c.
***
Ū and made the moon a light therein and made the sun a lamp?
16 The mention of the moon and the sun alludes to the means of guidance that God has provided, as in 10:5: He it is Who made the sun a radiance, and the moon a light, and determined for it stations, that you might know the number of years and the reckoning [of time]. God did not create these, save in truth. He expounds the signs for a people who know. V. 16 could be read with “and that He” at the beginning with vv. 17 and 19, also beginning with “and that,” and thus as a continuation of the rhetorical question begun in v. 15.
***
ź And God made you grow forth from the earth like plants.
17 Like plants can mean “as growing things.” On the one hand, this alludes to the creation of human beings from dust, as in 3:59: Truly the likeness of Jesus in the Sight of God is that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him, ‘Be!’ and he was (R). On the other hand, it alludes to the manner in which all things are thought to emerge from a single source, God. Though the “growing things” are diverse, they remain attached to the one ontological Source, and Its substance is also within them.
***
Ɗ Then He will cause you to return to it and bring you forth again.
18 When v. 14 is read as referring only to the stages of existence during this life, this verse would complete it by continuing to the stages of death and resurrection, as in 2:28: How can you disbelieve in God, seeing that you were dead and He gave you life; then He causes you to die; then He gives you life; then unto Him shall you be returned?
***
ƚ And God made the earth an open expanse for you,
Ȋ that you may travel spacious paths therein.’”
19–20 Elsewhere God is described as the One Who made the earth a cradle for you, and threaded paths for you therein (20:53). Like v. 16, which alludes to the guidance God provides through the sun and the moon, spacious paths indicates other means of guidance that God has provided (see also 21:31; 43:10).
***
! Noah said, “My Lord they disobeyed me and followed those whose wealth and children increase them in naught but loss.”
21 Those whom the people followed are said to have been the notables among them (JJ), who elsewhere dissuade them from following Noah by saying, This is only a human being like yourselves, desiring to set himself above you. And had God willed, He would have sent down angels. We heard not of this from our fathers of old. He is but a man possessed. So wait concerning him, for a time (23:24–25; see also 11:27). The criticism of Noah’s people for following their notables because of their wealth and children is similar to the manner in which the Muslims are admonished in 9:55 and 9:85: And let not their wealth or their children impress thee. God desires but to punish them thereby in this world, and that their souls should depart while they are disbelievers (cf. 68:10–14). The relativity of the benefits that derive from wealth and children in this world is a recurring Quranic theme; see 34:35–37c; 64:15c.
***
" And they devised a mighty plot,
22 Elsewhere it is said that the people threatened to stone Noah; see 26:116. According to the Prophet’s cousin Ibn ʿAbbās, when Noah preached to his people, they would beat him until he passed out, wrap him in a blanket, and throw him in his house, leaving him for dead. When he awoke, he would again go out to preach to them.
***
# saying, “Do not leave your gods; do not leave Wadd or Suwāʿ, or Yagūth, Yaʿūq, or Nasr.”
23 The mention of the names of the idols draws an implicit parallel to the idols of the Makkans, al-Lāt, al-ʿUzzā, and Manāt, mentioned in 53:19–20 and said to be naught but names that they have named (53:23). According to a ḥadīth, the gods mentioned here were originally heroes who lived before Noah and had many followers. After their deaths, statues were built to commemorate them, but later generations took the statues as gods (IK); different tribes came to worship different gods based on the particular shapes of the carved statues (Z). Wadd was said to be in the form of a man; Suwāʿ, a beautiful woman; Yagūth, a bull or sometimes a lion; Yaʿūq, a horse; and Nasr, an eagle or sometimes another bird of prey (Z).
***
$ Many indeed have they led astray; and it increases the wrongdoers in naught but error.
24 As the practice of idol worship persisted for many generations, the worship of idols continued to lead people astray up to the time when the Quran was revealed. It can refer to either disobeying Noah (Z) or leading others astray.
***
% Because of their iniquities they were drowned, then made to enter a Fire. And then they found no helpers for themselves apart from God.
25 The punishment suffered by those who opposed Noah is both of this world, they were drowned, and of the Hereafter, then made to enter a Fire.
***
& Noah said, “My Lord, leave not a single disbeliever to dwell upon the earth.
' Truly if you leave them, they will mislead Thy servants and will beget naught but disbelieving profligates.
26–27 These are Noah’s harshest words in any of the Quranic accounts. Elsewhere he is commanded not to plead for the disbelievers to be saved: And address Me not concerning those who did wrong; surely they shall be drowned (23:27). V. 26 is the only verse in the many verses pertaining to the story of Noah to imply that the flood was a universal event, similar to Genesis 6:17: “I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.” All other Quranic discussions of the flood imply that it is specific and localized. In 7:64 and 10:73 the drowned are those who denied Our signs, in 11:37 and 23:27 they are those who did wrong, and in 21:77 they are an evil people. In this manner the Quranic account seems to be more isolated than that of Genesis 6:5–7: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had created human beings on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them’” (see also Genesis 7:4, 20).
***
( My Lord, forgive me and my parents, whosoever enters my house as a believer, and the believing men and the believing women, and do not increase the wrongdoers in aught but ruin.”
28 Noah’s parents were reported to have been among the believers (JJ). In 21:76 God states, We answered him and saved him and his family from great distress. Nonetheless, his son was drowned, and in response to Noah’s supplication on his behalf God says to Noah: Truly he is not from thy family; surely such conduct was not righteous (11:46). Though there is no mention of the Ark in this sūrah, it is mentioned by name in 7:64; 10:73; 36:41, discussed at length in 11:37–44, and referred to as the ship in 29:15 and as a thing of planks and nails in 54:13. The lack of any mention of the Ark in this sūrah may be seen to underline the severity of this particular account, since it does not emphasize the salvation provided by God in the way that other accounts do.