Home > Stories of the Prophets > Nuh (peace be upon him)
The story of Nuh (peace be upon him) in the Quran and the Islamic tradition: verses, hadiths and the views of the exegetes, faithfully translated from Arabic.
Updated on 06 September 2026 at 3:41 AM
He is Nuh ibn Lamak ibn Mattouchalach ibn Khanoukh, who is Idris, ibn Yard ibn Mahlail ibn Qaynan ibn Anouch ibn Chith ibn Adam, father of humankind (peace be upon them). His birth occurred one hundred and twenty-six years after the death of Adam, according to what Ibn Jarir and others mentioned: and according to the chronology of the ancient People of the Book, between the birth of Nuh and the death of Adam there would be one hundred and forty-six years: and between them two were ten generations. Muhammad ibn 'Oumar ibn Youssouf narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Zanjawayh narrated to us: Abu Taouba narrated to us: Mou'awiya ibn Salam narrated to us, from his brother Zayd ibn Salam: I heard Abu Salam ask: « O messenger of Allah: was Adam a prophet? » « Yes: speaking.
» « And how much between him and Nuh? » « Ten generations. » And this is according to the criterion of Muslim: and they did not extract it. And in the Sahih of al-Bukhari: « Between Adam and Nuh were ten generations: all of them upon Islam.
» Were what is meant by « generation » a hundred years, as the first assumption of many people: between them two there is inevitably a thousand years: but that does not exclude there being more, in view of the restriction of Ibn Abbas by Islam: for there may be between them two other later generations who were not upon Islam: but the hadith of Abu Umama indicates the restriction to ten generations: and Ibn Abbas added to us that they were all upon Islam: and this repels the saying of the one of the historians who claimed that Qabil and his sons worshipped the Fire: and Allah knows best.
And were what is meant by « generation » the generation of the people: « And how many a generation have We destroyed after Nuh » (al-Hajj, 44): « Then We raised up after them another generation » (al-Mu'minoun, 31): « And many generations between that » (al-Fourqane, 38): « And how many a generation We destroyed before them » (Maryam, 98): and His saying: « The best generations are my generation » the hadith: the generation before Nuh lived long epochs: upon this there would be between Adam and Nuh thousands of years: and Allah knows best.
In sum: Allah the Most High sent Nuh (peace be upon him) only when the idols and the tawaghit were worshipped, and the people entered into error and disbelief: Allah sent him therefore as a mercy for the servants: he was the first messenger sent to the people of the earth: as the people of the place of standing will say to him on the Day of Resurrection: and his people were called Bani Rasib, according to what Ibn Jarir and others mentioned.
They differed over his age on the day he was sent: he was fifty years old: three hundred and fifty years old: four hundred and eighty years old: as Ibn Jarir related: and he attributed the third to Ibn Abbas.
Allah has mentioned his story and that of his people: and what He sent down as punishment by the flood upon whoever disbelieved in him: and how He saved him and the people of the ark: in more than one place of His Mighty Book: in al-A'raf, Yunus, Hud, al-Anbiya, al-Mu'minoun, ach-Chou'ara, al-'Ankabout and as-Saffat:
« And when the moment came, We sent Nuh to his people. He said: O my people, worship Allah: you have no deity other than Him: I fear for you the punishment of a tremendous day. Said the assembly of his people: we see you in clear error. He said: O my people, there is no error in me: but I am a messenger from the Lord of the worlds.
I convey to you the messages of my Lord: and I advise you: and I know from Allah what you know not. Do you wonder that an admonition from your Lord has come to you through a man from among you: to warn you: and that you fear: and perhaps you will be shown mercy? They denied him therefore: We saved him therefore, and those with him in the ship: and drowned those who denied Our signs: they were a blind people. »
Surat al-A'raf, 59-64
« And recite to them the news of Nuh, when he said to his people: O my people, if my standing and my reminding of the signs of Allah weigh heavily upon you: then I have placed my trust in Allah: so resolve upon your affair and your partners: then let not your affair be a worry to you: then pass judgment upon me: and give me no respite. And if you turn away: I asked of you no wage: my wage falls only upon Allah: and I was commanded to be of those who submit. They denied him therefore: We saved him therefore, and those with him in the ship: and We made them successors: and drowned those who denied Our signs: so see how was the end of those who were warned. »
Surat Yunus, 71-73
And the Most High said in sura Hud:
« And certainly We sent Nuh to his people: I am to you a clear warner: that you worship none but Allah: I fear for you the punishment of a painful day. Said the assembly of those who disbelieved of his people: we see you not but a human being like ourselves: and we see not who follow you but the most abject of us, hasty of judgment: and we see not in you any merit over us: rather we think you liars. He said: O my people, what think you: had I a clear proof from my Lord: and He gave me mercy from Him, but it was obscured from you: would we compel you to it while you averse to it? And O my people: I ask of you no wealth for it: my wage falls only upon Allah: and I will not drive away those who believed: they will meet their Lord: but I see you a people who are ignorant.
And O my people: who would aid me against Allah were I to drive them away? Will you not then remember? And I say not to you that I possess the treasuries of Allah: nor do I know the unseen: nor do I say I am an angel: nor do I say of those whom your eyes disdain: Allah will never give them good: Allah knows best what is in their souls: were I so, I would be of the wrongdoers. They said: O Nuh, you have disputed with us: and multiplied disputation with us: so bring us what you promise us, if you are of the truthful.
He said: only Allah brings it to you, if He wills: and you cannot frustrate Him. And my counsel profits you not, though I wish to counsel you: should Allah intend to lead you astray: He is your Lord: and to Him you will be returned. Or do they say: he invented it? Say: had I invented it: my crime is upon me: and I am innocent of what you commit.
And it was revealed to Nuh: none of your people will believe except those who have already believed: so be not grieved by what they used to do: and construct the ship under Our eyes and Our revelation: and address Me not concerning those who wronged: they will be drowned. And he constructed the ship: and every time an assembly of his people passed by him, they mocked him. He said: if you mock us: we shall mock you, as you mock: you will then know to whom comes a punishment disgracing him: and upon whom descends an enduring punishment. Until, when Our command came and the oven boiled: We said: load therein of each kind two mates: and your family: except him against whom the word preceded: and whoever believed: but none believed with him except few.
And he said: embark in it: in the name of Allah its course and its anchorage: my Lord is indeed Forgiving, Merciful. And it sailed with them through waves like mountains: and Nuh called his son: who was apart: O my son: embark with us: and be not with the disbelievers. He said: I shall take refuge on a mountain protecting me from the water. He said: no protector today from the command of Allah, except he upon whom He has mercy: and the wave came between them: so he was of the drowned.
And it was said: O earth, swallow your water: and O sky, withhold: and the water subsided: and the matter was accomplished: and it settled upon the Djoudi: and it was said: away with the wrongdoing people. And Nuh called to his Lord: and said: my Lord: my son is of my family: and Your promise is truth: and You are the most just of judges. He said: O Nuh: he is not of your family: he is a deed of no righteousness: so ask Me not of that of which you have no knowledge: I advise you: lest you be of the ignorant. He said: my Lord: I seek Your protection from asking You that of which I have no knowledge: and were You not to forgive me: and have mercy on me: I would be of the losers.
It was said: O Nuh: descend with peace from Us: and blessings upon you: and upon communities of those with you: and communities to whom We shall give enjoyment: then will touch them from Us a painful punishment. These are reports of the unseen which We reveal to you: you knew them not, you: nor your people, before this: so be patient: for the end is for the God-fearing. »
Surat Hud, 25-49
« And Nuh, when he called Us before: We answered him therefore: and saved him: and his family: from the great distress: and We helped him against the people who denied Our signs: they were an evil people: We drowned them all. » (al-Anbiya, 76-77) And the Most High said in sura al-Mu'minoun:
« And certainly We sent Nuh to his people: he said: O my people: worship Allah: you have no deity other than Him: will you not then fear? Said the assembly of those who disbelieved of his people: this is only a human being like you: wanting to become superior to you: and had Allah willed: He would have sent down angels: we never heard this from our forefathers of old: he is only a man in whom is madness: so wait upon him a time. He said: my Lord: aid me, because they deny me. We revealed therefore to him: construct the ship under Our eyes and Our revelation: then when Our command comes and the oven boils: introduce therein of each kind two mates: and your family: except him against whom the word preceded among them: and address Me not concerning those who wronged: they will be drowned.
Then, when you are settled, you and those with you, upon the ship: say: praise to Allah who delivered us from the wrongdoing people: and say: my Lord: cause me to land at a blessed landing: and You are the best of those who cause to land. There are in that signs: and We are certainly those who test. »
Surat al-Mu'minoun, 23-30
« The people of Nuh denied the messengers: when their brother Nuh said to them: will you not fear? I am to you a trustworthy messenger: so fear Allah: and obey me: and I ask of you no wage for it: my wage falls only upon the Lord of the worlds: so fear Allah: and obey me. They said: shall we believe you: while the most abject follow you? He said: my knowledge of what they used to do is naught: their account falls only upon my Lord: were you to perceive: and I will not drive away the believers: I am only a clear warner.
They said: certainly, O Nuh: if you cease not: you will surely be of the stoned. He said: my Lord: my people denied me: so judge between me and them with a decisive judgment: and save me: and whoever of the believers is with me. So We saved him: and those with him in the laden ship: then We drowned thereafter the rest: there are in that indeed signs: but most of them were not believers: and your Lord is indeed the Mighty: the Merciful. »
Surat ach-Chou'ara, 105-122
« And We sent Nuh to his people: and he remained among them a thousand years less fifty years: and the flood seized them while they were wrongdoers: We saved him therefore: and the people of the ship: and We made it a sign for the worlds. » (al-'Ankabout, 14-15) « And indeed Nuh called Us: what excellent answerers We are: We saved him therefore: and his family: from the great distress: and We made his descendants the survivors: and We left for him among the later ones: peace upon Nuh in the worlds: thus do We recompense the doers of good: he is of Our believing servants: then We drowned the others. » (as-Saffat, 75-82)
« Before them the people of Nuh denied: they denied Our servant therefore: and said: possessed: and he was repelled: so he invoked his Lord: I am overcome: so aid Me. We opened therefore the gates of heaven with water pouring: and burst the earth into springs: and the water met upon an order already decreed: and We carried him upon a vessel of planks and nails: sailing under Our eyes: a recompense for him who was denied: and indeed We left it as a sign: is there then anyone who will remember? How then were My punishment and My warning? And We have indeed made the Quran easy for remembrance: is there then anyone who will remember? » (al-Qamar, 9-17)
« We sent Nuh to his people: warn your people before there comes to them a painful punishment. He said: O my people: I am to you a clear warner: that you worship Allah: and fear Him: and obey me: He will forgive you some of your sins: and defer you to a fixed term: the term of Allah when it comes is not deferred: were you to know.
He said: my Lord: I called my people night and day: and my calling increased them only in flight: and each time I called them that You forgive them: they put their fingers in their ears: covered themselves with their garments: persisted: and grew arrogant: Then I called them openly: Then I spoke to them openly: and spoke to them in secret: I said: ask forgiveness of your Lord: He is indeed much Forgiving: He will send the sky upon you in abundant rain: and reinforce you with wealth and children: and make for you gardens: and make for you rivers: what is with you that you hope not from Allah for majesty: He created you in stages: Have you not seen how Allah created seven heavens in layers: and made the moon therein a light: and made the sun a lamp: and Allah grew you from the earth a growth: then He returns you into it: and brings you out a coming out: and Allah made for you the earth a carpet: that you traverse its spacious ways.
Nuh said: my Lord: they disobeyed me: and followed him whose wealth and children increase him only in loss: and they plotted a great plot: and they said: abandon not your gods: abandon not Wadd: nor Souwa': nor Yaghouth: nor Ya'oùq: nor Nasr: and they misled many: and increase the wrongdoers not but in error. For their sins they were drowned: then entered into a Fire: they found for themselves against Allah no helpers. And Nuh said: my Lord: leave upon the earth no dweller of the disbelievers: if You leave them: they mislead Your servants: and beget none but wicked ingrates: my Lord: forgive me: and my parents: and whoever enters my house a believer: and the believing men: and the believing women: and increase the wrongdoers not but in destruction. » (Sura Nuh, 1-28)
We have already spoken of every place of this in the Tafsir: and we shall mention the content of the story gathered, from those dispersed places: and of what the hadiths and athars indicated: « We revealed to you as We revealed to Nuh: and the prophets after him: and We revealed to Ibrahim, Isma'il, Ishaq, Ya'qoub: and the tribes: to Issa, Ayyoub, Yunus, Haroun and Sulayman: and We gave Dawud the Zabour: and messengers whose stories We related to you before: and messengers whose stories We related not to you: and Allah spoke to Moussa with direct speech: messengers of good tidings and of warning: that there be for the people against Allah no argument after the messengers: and Allah is Mighty, Wise.
» (an-Nisa, 163-165) « And such is Our argument We gave to Ibrahim against his people: We raise in degrees whom We will: your Lord is Wise, Knowing: and We gave him Ishaq and Ya'qoub: We guided each: and We guided Nuh before: and of his descendants: Dawud, Sulayman, Ayyoub, Youssouf, Moussa and Haroun: thus do We recompense the doers of good: and Zakariya, Yahya, Issa and Ilyas: each of the righteous: and Isma'il, and Ilyasa', and Yunus, and Lout: and each We favored over the worlds: and among their fathers: and their descendants: and their brothers: and We chose them: and guided them to a straight path. » (al-An'am, 83-90) The verses. And his story preceded in al-A'raf: « Has not come to them the news of those before them: the people of Nuh, the 'Ad, the Thamoud: the people of Ibrahim: the people of Madian: and the overturned towns: their messengers came to them with clear proofs: Allah was not to wrong them: but themselves they wronged.
» (at-Tawba, 70) And his story preceded in Yunus and Hud: « Has not come to you the news of those before you: the people of Nuh, the 'Ad, the Thamoud: and those after them: none knows them but Allah: their messengers came to them with clear proofs: they put their hands to their mouths: and said: we disbelieve in that with which you were sent: and we are, about that to which you call us: in disquieting doubt. » (Ibrahim, 9) And He said in al-Anbiya: « the descendants of those We carried with Nuh: he was a grateful servant » (al-Anbiya, 83): « And how many a generation We destroyed after Nuh: and your Lord suffices as Knower and Seer of the sins of His servants.
» (al-Fourqan, 69) And his story preceded in al-Anbiya, al-Mu'minoun, ach-Chou'ara and al-'Ankabout: « And when We took from the prophets their covenant: and from you: and from Nuh: and Ibrahim: and Moussa: and Issa son of Maryam: and We took from them a solemn covenant » (al-Ahzab, 7) « Before them denied the people of Nuh, and the 'Ad: and Pharaon of the stakes: and Thamoud: and the people of Lout: and the people of the thicket: those are the coalitions: each of them denied not the messengers: but was merited the punishment. » (Sad, 12-14) « Before them denied the people of Nuh: and the coalitions after them: and every community intended to seize its messenger: and they disputed by the false: to render null thereby the true: so I seized them: and how was My punishment. » (Ghafir, 5) « And thus the word of your Lord was justified against those who disbelieved: that they are companions of the Fire.
» (Ghafir, 6) « He prescribed for you of the religion what He enjoined upon Nuh: and what We revealed to you: and what We enjoined upon Ibrahim and Moussa and Issa: to establish the religion: and divide not therein: hard upon the polytheists is that to which you call them: Allah chooses for Himself whom He wills: and guides to Himself whoever turns. » (ach-Choura, 13) « Before them denied the people of Nuh: and the people of the Rass: and Thamoud: and the 'Ad: and Pharaon: and the brothers of Lout: and the people of the thicket: and the people of Touba': each denied the messengers: so My threat was merited. » (Qaf, 12-14) « And the people of Nuh before: they were a people of the disobedient. » (an-Najm, 52) « And the people of Nuh before: they were the most unjust: and most rebellious.
» (an-Najm, 53) And his story preceded in sura Qad aflah al-mou'minoun: « And We sent Nuh and Ibrahim: and placed in their descendants prophethood and the Book: among them a well-guided one: and many of them wicked. » (al-Hadid, 26) « Allah strikes a parable for those who disbelieved: the wife of Nuh: and the wife of Lout: they were under two of Our righteous servants: they betrayed them both: they availed them not against Allah at all: and it was said: enter the Fire with those entering. » (at-Tahrim, 10)
As for the content of what occurred between him and his people, taken from the Book, the sunna and the athars: we have already related from Ibn Abbas that between Adam and Nuh were ten generations: all upon Islam: related by al-Bukhari: and we mentioned that what is meant by « generation » is the generation or the duration, as preceded: then after those righteous generations occurred matters requiring that the state of the people of that time pass to the worship of idols: and its cause was what al-Bukhari related from the hadith of Ibn Jurayj, from 'Ata': « They said: abandon not your gods: abandon not Wadd: nor Souwa': nor Yaghouth: nor Ya'oùq: nor Nasr.
» (Nuh, 23) These are names of righteous men of the people of Nuh: when they died: the devil inspired their people to apply themselves to the assemblies in which they used to sit: to raise therein statues: and name them by their names: so they did: they were not worshipped: until those died: and knowledge was erased: they were worshipped: and these idols which were in the people of Nuh were later among the Arabs: thus said 'Ikrima: ad-Dahhak: Qatada: and Muhammad ibn Ishaq.
Ibn Houmayd narrated to us: Mihran narrated to us, from Soufyan, from Moussa: they were a righteous people between Adam and Nuh: and they had followers who took example by them: « Were we to represent them: it would make us more eager for worship when we mention them. » So they represented them: when they died: and others came: Iblis crept to them: « They only used to worship them: and by them they were given the rain: so they worshipped them. » And Ibn Abi Hatim related: Wadd: Yaghouth: Ya'oùq: Souwa': and Nasr: are children of Adam: and Wadd was the eldest of them: and the most righteous of them.
Ahmad ibn Mansour narrated to us: al-Hasan ibn Moussa narrated to us: Ya'qoub narrated to us: they were mentioned before Abu Ja'far: who is al-Baqir: while he stood in prayer: Yazid ibn al-Mouhallab: when he disengaged from his prayer he said: « You mentioned Yazid ibn al-Mouhallab: he was killed in the first land wherein was worshipped other than Allah. » He mentioned Wadd: a Muslim man: and he was beloved among his people: when he died: they camped around his grave in the land of Babylon: and lamented him: when Iblis saw their lamentation over him he resembled himself in the form of a man: « I see your grief over this man: is it pleasing to you that I fashion for you his like: that it be in your assembly: and you remember him? » « Yes. » He fashioned for them his like: and they placed it in their assembly: and they used to mention him: when he saw their remembrance of him: « Is it pleasing to you that I place in the place of each one of you a statue like his: to be in his house: and you remember him?
» « Yes. » He shaped for each household a statue like him: they came: and used to mention him by it: their children attained: and used to see what they did by it: he said: and they multiplied: and the matter of their remembrance of him was erased: until they took him as a deity worshipped instead of Allah by the children of the children of their children: so the first worshipped other than Allah was Wadd: the idol they named Wadd.
This context requires that each idol of these was worshipped by a group of people: and he mentioned that when the covenants and the times grew long: they made those images embodied statues: that they be firmer for it: then it was worshipped after that instead of Allah (exalted is He): and there are for them in its worship many paths: we mentioned them in our book The Tafsir in its places: to Allah the praise and the favor.
It has been established in the two Sahihs, from the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): when were mentioned before him, by Umm Salama and Umm Habiba, that church they saw in the land of Abyssinia: called Mariya: « Those: when a righteous man dies among them: they build upon his grave a mosque: then fashion therein those images: those are the worst of creation with Allah. »
The point: when corruption spread in the earth: and the trial of worshipping idols pervaded it: Allah sent His servant and His messenger Nuh (peace be upon him): calling to the worship of Allah alone: without partner: and forbidding the worship of what is other than Him: he was the first messenger Allah sent to the people of the earth: as is established in the two Sahihs: from the hadith of Abu Hayyan: from Abu Zur'a ibn 'Amrou ibn Jarir: from Abu Hurayra: in the hadith of intercession: he said: « They will come to Adam: and say: O Adam, you are the father of humankind: Allah created you with His hand: and breathed into you of His spirit: and commanded the angels: and they prostrated to you: and made you dwell in Paradise: will you not intercede for us to your Lord? Do you not see where we are: and what has befallen us? » He will say: « My Lord is angry today with such anger as He has never been angry with before: and will never be angry with after: and He forbade me the tree: and I disobeyed: my soul, my soul: go to other than me: go to Nuh.
» « O Nuh: you are the first of the messengers to the people of the earth: and Allah named you a grateful servant: do you not see where we are: do you not see what has befallen us? » He will say: « My Lord is angry today with such anger as He was never angry with before: and will never be angry with after. My soul, my soul. » And he mentioned the hadith in full in its length: as al-Bukhari cited it in the story of Nuh.
When Allah sent Nuh (peace be upon him): he called them to reserving worship for Allah alone: without partner: and that they worship with Him no idol: nor image: nor tāghout: and that they acknowledge His oneness: and that there is no deity other than Him: nor lord besides Him: as Allah the Most High commanded those after him of the messengers: who are all of his descendants: « And We made his descendants those who survive » (as-Saffat, 77): and He said of him: « and We placed in their descendants prophethood and the Book » (al-Hadid, 26): every prophet after Nuh is of his descendants: and likewise Ibrahim: « And certainly We sent into every community a messenger: worship Allah: and avoid the tāghout » (an-Nahl, 36): « And ask those of Our messengers We sent before you: Did We institute, besides the Most Merciful, deities to be worshipped? » (az-Zoukhrouf, 45) « And We sent before you no messenger but that We revealed to him: there is no deity but I: so worship Me. » (al-Anbiya, 25)
« O my people, worship Allah: you have no deity other than Him: I fear for you the punishment of a tremendous day. » (al-A'raf, 59) « That you worship none but Allah: I fear for you the punishment of a painful day. » (Hud, 26) « O my people: worship Allah: you have no deity other than Him: will you not then fear? » (al-Mu'minoun, 23) « O my people: I am to you a clear warner: that you worship Allah: and fear Him: and obey me: He will forgive you some of your sins: and defer you to a fixed term: the term of Allah when it comes is not deferred: were you to know.
He said: my Lord: I called my people night and day: and my calling increased them only in flight: and each time I called them that You forgive them: they put their fingers in their ears: covered themselves with their garments: persisted: and grew arrogant: Then I called them openly: Then I spoke to them openly: and spoke to them in secret: I said: ask forgiveness of your Lord: He is indeed much Forgiving: He will send the sky upon you in abundant rain: and reinforce you with wealth and children: and make for you gardens: and make for you rivers: what is with you that you hope not from Allah for majesty: He created you certainly in stages. » (Nuh, 2-14) The noble verses.
He mentioned that he called them to Allah by all kinds of calling: in the night and the day: in secret and in public: with encouragement at times: and with frightening at others: and all of this did not succeed with them: rather most of them persisted in error and rebellion: and the worship of idols and statues: and they declared enmity to him at every time and moment: and belittled him: and belittled whoever believed in him: and threatened them with stoning: and expulsion: and they afflicted them: and exaggerated in their affair: « Said the assembly of his people »: the lords: the grandees of them: « we see you in clear error »: he said: « O my people: there is no error in me: but I am a messenger from the Lord of the worlds »: I am not as you claim: an errant one: but upon the right guidance: a messenger from the Lord of the worlds: Who says to a thing: be: and it is: « I convey to you the messages of my Lord: and I advise you: and I know from Allah what you know not.
» And such is the state of the messenger: that he be a conveyer: eloquent: sincere in counsel: knowing the people in Allah. « We see you not but a human being like ourselves: and we see not who follow you but the most abject of us: hasty of judgment: and we see not in you any merit over us: rather we think you liars. » They wondered that a human be a messenger: and disparaged whoever followed him: and saw them as their most abject: yet they were of the leaders of the people: and their weak ones: and the followers of the messengers: and that was only because nothing prevented them from following the truth. « Hasty of judgment »: as soon as you called them: they answered you: without consideration: nor prudence: and that which they blamed them for: is the very thing they are praised for: for the evident truth needs no prudence: nor thought: nor consideration: but it is obligatory to follow it: and submit to it: once it appears: « praising the truthful: I called no one to Islam but he had a prompt acceptance: except Abu Bakr: for he never soiled his face.
» And for that his pledge on the day of the Saqifa was also swift: without consideration: nor prudence: for his superiority over whoever else is evident and clear to the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them): and for that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): when he intended to write the book in which he intended to designate explicitly his succession: left it: « Allah refuses: and the believers: anything but Abu Bakr. » (peace be upon him) And the saying of the disbelievers of the people of Nuh to him: « and we see not in you any merit over us »: there has not appeared to you any command since your attaining faith: « rather we think you liars. » He said: « O my people: what think you: had I a clear proof from my Lord: and He gave me a mercy from Him obscured from you: would we compel you to it while you averse to it? »
This is delicacy in addressing them: and gentleness toward them in the call to truth: « So speak to them a gentle word: perhaps they will remember: or fear. » (Ta-Ha, 44) « Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom: and good exhortation: and dispute with them by that which is best. » (an-Nahl, 125) « What think you: had I a clear proof from my Lord: and He gave me a mercy from Him »: meaning prophethood: and messengerhood: « obscured from you »: meaning: you understood it not: and were not guided to it: « would we compel you to it »: meaning: I would force you into it: and compel you to it: « while you averse to it. »
« I have in you no stratagem: and the state is this: and O my people: I ask of you no wealth for it: my wage falls only upon Allah. » I seek not from you a reward for conveying to you what benefits you in your world: and would I seek that except from Allah: whose reward is better for me: and more lasting than what you give me. « And I will not drive away those who believed: they will meet their Lord: but I see you a people who are ignorant. » As though they had asked of him that he distance these from him: and promised him to join him were he to do that: he refused that to them: and said: « they will meet their Lord: and I fear that were I to drive them away: they would complain of me to Allah.
» « And O my people: who would aid me against Allah were I to drive them away? Will you not then remember? » And for this: when the disbelievers of Quraysh asked the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to drive from him the weak of the believers: like 'Ammar: Souhayb: Bilal: Khabbab: and their like: Allah forbade him that: as we showed in the two suras al-An'am: « And I say not to you that I possess the treasuries of Allah: nor do I know the unseen: nor do I say that I am an angel. » Meaning: rather I am a servant: a messenger: I know of the knowledge of Allah only what He taught me: and I am able only upon what He gave me power over: and I own for my soul no benefit: nor harm: except what Allah wills: « nor do I say to those whom your eyes disdain »: meaning: of his followers: « Allah will never give them good: Allah knows best what is in their souls: were I so, I would be of the wrongdoers.
» Meaning: I do not testify against them that they have no good with Allah on the Day of Resurrection: Allah knows them best: and He will recompense them for what is in their souls: if good: good: and if evil: evil. « Shall we believe you: while the most abject follow you. » He said: « My knowledge of what they used to do is naught: their account falls only upon my Lord: were you to perceive: and I will not drive away the believers: I am only a clear warner. »
And time was prolonged: and the disputation between him and them: he remained among them a thousand years less fifty years: and the flood seized them while they were wrongdoers (al-'Ankabout, 14): and despite this long duration: only few of them believed in him: and each time a generation died: they recommended to those after them not believing in him: and fighting him: and opposing him: and the father: when his son attained understanding of his words: recommended him in secret never believing in Nuh: as long as he lived: and ever remaining: and their qualities refused faith: and following the truth: « and beget none but a wicked ingrate. » (Nuh, 27)
« O Nuh: you have disputed with us: and multiplied disputation with us: so bring us what you promise us: if you are of the truthful. » He said: « Allah alone brings it to you, if He wills: and you cannot frustrate Him. » Allah alone (exalted is He) has power over that: for He: nothing frustrates Him: « Be: and it is »: « and my counsel profits you not: though I wish to counsel you: should Allah intend to lead you astray: He is your Lord: and to Him you will be returned. » He whom Allah intends His trial: none will own his guidance: He guides whom He wills: and leads astray whom He wills: and He is the Effective of what He intends: and He is the Mighty: the Wise: knowing who merits guidance: and who merits straying: and to Him the penetrating wisdom: and the crushing proof.
« And it was revealed to Nuh: none of your people will believe except those who have already believed: so be not grieved by what they used to do. » And this is a consolation for Nuh (peace be upon him) concerning his people: that none of them will believe but those who already believed: and a solace to him for what would befall them: « so be not grieved by what they used to do: let not sadden you what occurred: for the help is near: and the report wondrous. »
« And construct the ship under Our eyes and Our revelation: and address Me not concerning those who wronged: they will be drowned. »
And that because Nuh (peace be upon him): when he despaired of their amendment: and their success: and saw that there was in them no good: and they reached causing him harm: and opposing him: and denying him: by every way of deeds: and sayings: he invoked against them an invocation of anger for Allah: Allah therefore answered his invocation: and granted his request: « And indeed Nuh called Us: what excellent answerers We are: and We saved him: and his family: from the great distress. » « And Nuh: when he called Us before: We answered him therefore: and saved him: him and his family: from the great distress. » « My Lord: my people denied me: so judge between me and them with a decisive judgment: and save me: and whoever of the believers is with me. » He invoked his Lord: « I am overcome: so aid Me.
» « My Lord: aid me: because they deny me. » « For their sins they were drowned: then entered into a Fire: they found for themselves: against Allah: no helpers. » « And Nuh said: my Lord: leave upon the earth no dweller of the disbelievers: if You leave them: they mislead Your servants: and beget none but wicked ingrates. » So gathered against them their sins: of their disbelief: and their wickedness: and the invocation of their prophet against them: Allah the Most High commanded him then to construct the ship: which is the great vessel having no like before it: nor will there be after it its like: and Allah the Most High announced to him beforehand: that when His command comes: and He befalls them with His assault which is not repelled from the criminal people: he would not return to him about them: nor plead: for perhaps at beholding the punishment descending upon them a tenderness for his people might seize him: for the report is not the beholding: « and address Me not concerning those who wronged: they will be drowned.
»
« And he constructed the ship: and every time an assembly of his people passed by him: they mocked him. » That is: they derided him: deeming improbable what He threatened them with: he said: « if you mock us: we shall mock you: as you mock: we are those who mock you: and wonder at you: in your persistence upon your disbelief: and your obstinacy requiring the falling of the punishment upon you: and its befalling you: you will then know to whom comes a punishment disgracing him: and upon whom descends an enduring punishment. » And their qualities were the heavy disbelief: and the extreme obstinacy in this world: and thus in the Hereafter: for they deny also that a messenger of Allah came to them: Moussa ibn Isma'il narrated to us: Abd al-Wahid ibn Ziyad narrated to us: al-A'mach narrated to us, from Abu Salih: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « Nuh will come (peace be upon him): "Have you conveyed? "Yes.
"O Lord: has he conveyed to you? "No: no prophet came to us. "Who bears witness for you? "Muhammad: and his community.
» « And thus We made you a middle community: that you be witnesses over the people: and the messenger a witness over you. » (al-Baqara, 143)
Justice: this community bears witness to the testimony of its prophet, the truthful, the confirmed: that Allah sent Nuh with the truth: and sent down upon him the truth: and commanded him with it: and that he conveyed it to his community in the most complete of ways: and the most perfect: and left nothing of what benefits them in their religion but that he commanded them it: and nothing of what may harm them but that he forbade them it: and warned them of it: and such is the state of all the messengers: to the point that he warned his people of the Antichrist deceiver: though he did not expect his going forth in their time: out of caution for them: and solicitude: and mercy for them: 'Abdan narrated to us: 'Abdallah narrated to us, from Yunus: Ibn 'Oumar said: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stood among the people: praised Allah as He merits: then mentioned the Antichrist: « I signal him to you: and there is no prophet but that he warned his people: Nuh warned his people: but I say to you about him a word no prophet said to his people: you know that he is one-eyed: and that Allah is not one-eyed.
» And this hadith is in the two Sahihs also: from the hadith of Chayban ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, from Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from Abu Hurayra: he said: « Shall I not tell you about the Antichrist a story no prophet told his people: he is one-eyed: and he will come with the likeness of Paradise: and the Fire: that is the Paradise: and that is the Fire: and I warn you as Nuh warned his people. » The wording of al-Bukhari.
When Allah answered his command: to plant a tree to make of it the ship: he planted it: and waited for it a hundred years: then carved it another hundred: in forty years: and Allah knows best: Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: and it was of the wood of sādj: of the pine: and that is the text of the Torah: and He commanded him to make its length eighty cubits: and its width fifty cubits: and to coat its exterior and interior with pitch: and to make for it a prow parting: that cleaves the water: and it was said: « Its length was three hundred cubits: upon a width of fifty cubits: and that is what is in the Torah: according to what I saw: six hundred: upon a width of three hundred: one thousand two hundred cubits upon a width of six hundred cubits. » And it was said: its length was a thousand cubits: and its width a hundred cubits: and its height thirty cubits: and it was three levels: each of ten cubits: the lower for the beasts: and the wild beasts: the middle for the people: and the upper for the birds: and its door was in its width: and it had a lid above it: fitted upon it.
« My Lord: aid me: because they deny me. » « We revealed therefore to him: construct the ship under Our eyes and Our revelation. » That is: by Our command to you: and by Our vision of your making it: and Our witnessing of that: to guide you to the correct in its making: « Then when Our command comes: and the oven boils: introduce therein of each kind two mates: and your family: except him against whom the word preceded among them: and address Me not concerning those who wronged: they will be drowned.
» There came to him by His great: and lofty command: that when His command comes: and His assault befalls: he would load in this ship: of each kind two mates: of the animals: and of all that has in it a soul: of edibles: and other: for the survival of its kind: and his household: except him against whom the word preceded among them: meaning: except whoever was a disbeliever: for the irrevocable invocation had permeated him: and the assault which is not repelled became obligatory upon him: and He commanded him not to plead for them: when there should befall them the great punishment He decreed upon them: the Effective of what He wills: as we presented its clarification before.
The « oven » with the majority of scholars: is the face of the earth: meaning: the earth would gush from all its sides: until the ovens gushed: which are the sites of the fire: « the oven is a spring in India: in Koufa: in Jezireh. » What is meant by the oven: the rising of the morning: its shining and brightness: that is: at that time: load therefore therein of each kind two mates: and this is a strange saying.
« Until, when Our command came: and the oven boiled: We said: load therein of each kind two mates: and your family: except him against whom the word preceded: and those who believed: but none believed with him except few. » This is a second command: upon the befalling of the punishment on them: that he load therein of each kind two mates: and in the Book of the People of the Book: that he was commanded to load of everything eaten seven pairs: and of what is not eaten: two mates: male and female: « two »: were we to make that the object: and as for making it an emphasis of « two mates »: and the object omitted: there is no contradiction: and Allah knows best.
And some mentioned: that the first of the birds to enter was the budgerigar: and the last of the animals was the donkey: and that Iblis entered clinging to the tail of the donkey. My father narrated to us: Abdallah ibn Salih narrated to us: al-Layth narrated to me: Hicham ibn Sa'd narrated to me, from Zayd ibn Aslam: he said: when Nuh loaded in the ship of each kind two mates: his companions said: « And how shall we be secure: and how shall the livestock be reassured: with the lion among us? » Allah subjected to him the fever: and it was the first fever descended upon the earth: « And the mouse spoils our food: and our goods. » Allah revealed therefore to the lion: and it sneezed: and the cat came out of it: and the mouse hid from it.
It is without chain. « And your family: except him against whom the word preceded »: meaning: whoever of them the invocation was answered: among the disbelievers: and he was among them his son Yām: who drowned: « and those who believed: but none believed with him except few. » This despite the length of the duration: and the standing among them: and their firm invocation: night and day: by all kinds of discourse: and forms of tact: and threatening: and warning at once: and encouragement: and promise at another.
And there was divergence over the number of those who were with him in the ship: from Ibn Abbas: they were eighty souls: with their wives: and from Ka'b al-Ahbar: they were seventy-two souls: and it is said: they were ten: they were only Nuh: and his three sons: and their four wives: except the wife of Yām: who estranged herself: and isolated herself: and followed another path than the path of salvation: she was not fair when she estranged: and this saying about her contradicts the apparent of the verse: rather it is a text that there rode with him: besides his family: a group of those who believed in him: « and save me: and whoever of the believers is with me »: they were seven: as for the wife of Nuh: who is the mother of all his sons: and they are Ham: Wisam: Yafith: and Yām: and the People of the Book call her Canaan: and he is the one who drowned: and 'Abir: who died before the flood: she drowned with the drowned: and she was of those against whom the word preceded: for her disbelief: and with the People of the Book: she was in the ship: it is possible she disbelieved after that: or that she was deferred to the Day of Resurrection: « leave not upon the earth any dweller of the disbelievers.
»
« Then, when you are settled: you and those with you: upon the ship: say: praise to Allah who delivered us from the wrongdoing people: and say: my Lord: cause me to land at a blessed landing: and You are the best of those who cause to land. » He commanded him to praise his Lord: for what He subjected to him of this ship: by which He saved him: and decided between him and his people: and comforted his eye against those who opposed him: and denied him: He who created all the couples: « and who made for you the ships: and the livestock: upon which you ride: that you settle upon their backs: then remember the favor of your Lord: when you settle upon it: and say: glory to He who subjected this to us: we could not have harnessed it: and to our Lord we surely return.
» (az-Zoukhrouf, 12-14) And thus one is commanded of invocation at the beginning of affairs: that it be upon good: and blessing: and that its outcome be praiseworthy: when he emigrated: « Say: my Lord: cause me to enter an entrance of truth: and cause me to exit an exit of truth: and make for me from Yourself an authority helping. » (al-Isra, 80)
And Nuh (peace be upon him) complied with this recommendation: and said: « Embark in it: in the name of Allah: its course and its anchorage: my Lord is indeed Forgiving: Merciful. » That is: in the name of Allah: the beginning of its going: and its ending: « my Lord is indeed Forgiving: Merciful »: that is: and Possessor of a painful punishment: while being Forgiving: Merciful: His assault is not repelled from the criminal people: as He befall the people of the earth: who disbelieved in him. « And it sailed with them: through waves: like mountains. » And that because Allah the Most High sent from the heaven rain the earth had never known before him: nor will it rain after him: like the mouths of waterskins: and He commanded the earth: and it gushed from all its valleys: and all its sides: he invoked his Lord: « I am overcome: aid Me.
» « We opened therefore the gates of the heaven: with water pouring down: and burst the earth into springs: and the water met upon an order already decreed: and We carried him upon a vessel: of planks: and of nails. » The nails: « sailing under Our eyes »: that is: by Our protection: Our assistance: Our guarding: and Our witnessing of it: « a recompense for him who was denied. »
Ibn Jarir and others mentioned: that the flood was on the thirteenth of the month of Ab: in the heat of summer: « We carried therefore: when the water rose: you: in the floating vessel »: meaning: the ship: « to make it for you a reminder: and that a receptive ear retain it. » The water rose above the highest mountain on the earth fifteen cubits: and that is what is with the People of the Book: eighty cubits: and it covered all the earth: its length: and its width: its plains: and its valleys: its mountains: and its deserts: and its sands: and there remained upon the face of the earth of those who were upon it of living beings: no eye that blinks: nor small: nor great. The imam Malik said: « The people of that time had filled the plain: and the mountain: there was not a spot on the earth but it had a possessor: and a holder. » Ibn Abi Hatim related both.
« And Nuh called his son: who was apart: O my son: embark with us: and be not with the disbelievers. He said: I shall take refuge upon a mountain: protecting me from the water. He said: there is no protector today from the command of Allah: except He upon whom He has mercy: and the wave interposed between them: he was therefore of the drowned. » And this son is Yām: brother of Sam: and of Ham: and of Yafith: his name is Canaan: and he was a disbeliever: an actor of no righteousness: contradicting his father in his religion: and his school: he perished therefore with those who perished.
« And it was said: O earth: swallow your water: and O sky: withhold: and the water subsided: and the matter was accomplished: and it settled upon the Djoudi: and it was said: away with the wrongdoing people. » That is: when He finished with the people of the earth: and there remained of it no one: of those who worshipped other than Allah (exalted is He): Allah commanded the earth: to swallow its water: and commanded the heaven: to withhold: meaning: to hold back the rain: « and the water subsided »: meaning: decreased from what it was: « and the matter was accomplished »: meaning: there befell them what had preceded in His knowledge: and His destiny: of His making them undergo what came upon them: « and it was said: away with the wrongdoing people »: meaning: they were called at the voice of power: that they be far from the mercy: and the forgiveness: « they denied him therefore: We saved them therefore: and those who were with him in the ship: and drowned those who denied Our signs: they were a blind people.
» « They denied him therefore: We saved him therefore: and those with him in the ship: and made them successors: and drowned those who denied Our signs: so see how was the end of those who were warned. »
« And We aided him against the people who denied Our signs: they were an evil people: We drowned them therefore all. » « We saved him therefore: and those with him in the laden ship: then We drowned thereafter the rest: there are in that indeed signs: but most of them were not believers: and your Lord is indeed the Mighty: the Merciful. » And the Most High said: « We saved him therefore: and the people of the ship: and made it a sign for the worlds. » « Then We drowned the others.
» And He said: « And indeed We left it as a sign: is there then anyone who will remember? How then were My punishment: and My warning? And We have indeed made the Quran easy for remembrance: is there then anyone who will remember? » « For their sins they were drowned: then entered into a Fire: they found for themselves: against Allah: no helpers.
» « And Nuh said: my Lord: leave not upon the earth any dweller of the disbelievers: if You leave them: they mislead Your servants: and beget none but wicked ingrates. » And Allah the Most High answered his invocation: to Him the praise: and the favor: and there remained of them no eye that blinks.
Abu Ja'far ibn Jarir: and Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Hatim: related in their two Tafsirs: by the route of Moussa ibn Ya'qoub az-Zam'i: from Faïd: client of Ubaydallah ibn Abi Rafi': that Ibrahim ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Rabi'a informed him that Aïsha: mother of the believers: informed him: « Had Allah had mercy on one of the people of Nuh: out of respect for the mother of the infant. » « Nuh (peace be upon him) remained among his people a thousand years: less fifty years: and he planted a hundred years the tree: which grew great: and went in every direction: then he cut it: then made it a ship: and they passed by it: and mocked him: you make a ship on land: how will it sail? » « You will know.
» When he finished: and the water gushed: and went into the paths: the mother of the infant feared for him: and she loved him an intense love: she went out with him toward the mountain: until she reached its third: when the water reached her: she went out with him until she settled upon the mountain: when the water reached her neck: she lifted him with her two hands: they both drowned: « Had Allah had mercy on one of them: out of respect for the mother of the infant. » And this is a strange hadith: and it has been related from Ka'b al-Ahbar: and Mujahid: and more than one: something resembling this story: and it is more fitting for this hadith to be a mawquf: received from the like of Ka'b al-Ahbar: and Allah knows best.
The point: that Allah left no dwellers of the disbelievers: that 'Ouj ibn 'Anouq: son of 'Inaq: was present from before Nuh: until the time of Moussa: and they say: he was a disbeliever: rebel: tyrant: obstinate: outside of right guidance: his mother 'Anouq daughter of Adam bore him of fornication: and that he took with his height the fish: from the depths of the seas: and roasted it in the sun: and that he said to Nuh: « What is this little seat of yours? »: and mocked him: and they mention that his height was three thousand three hundred and thirty-three cubits: and a third: and other than that of such nonsense: were it not that it is written in many books of exegesis: and other histories: and the days of the people: we would not have engaged with relating it: for its fall: and its shallowness: and then it contradicts the rational: and the transmitted.
As for the rational: how is it permitted therein that Allah destroy the son of Nuh: for his disbelief: while his father is the prophet of the community: and the chief of the people of faith: and not destroy 'Ouj ibn 'Anouq: who is the most unjust: and most rebellious: according to what they mentioned: and how would Allah not have mercy on one of them: nor the mother of the infant: nor the infant: and leave this claimant: the tyrant: the obstinate: the wicked: the hardened disbeliever: the rebellious devil: according to what they mentioned?! « Then We drowned the others. » « My Lord: leave not upon the earth any dweller of the disbelievers. » And this height they mentioned contradicts what is in the two Sahihs from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): that he said: « Allah created Adam: and his height sixty cubits: then creation has not ceased to diminish: until now.
» And it is the text of the Truthful: the Confirmed: preserved: who speaks not of passion: it is only a revelation revealed: « then creation has not ceased to diminish: until now »: meaning: the people have not ceased being in diminution in their height from Adam: until the day he informed of that: and hastening until the Day of Resurrection.
And this requires that there not have existed of the descendants of Adam anyone taller than him: how then is this abandoned: and neglected: and recourse made to the sayings of the liars: the disbelievers: of the People of the Book: who altered the Books of Allah sent down: and distorted them: and interpreted them: and placed them in other than their places: what then do you think of what they take pride in transmitting: or are trusted with: they the liars: the treacherous: upon them the continuing curse of Allah: until the Day of Resurrection: and I do not think this report about 'Ouj ibn 'Anaq to be but an invention: of some of their heretics: and their profligates: who were enemies of the prophets: and Allah knows best.
Then Allah the Most High mentioned Nuh's appeal to his Lord: concerning his son: and his question to Him about his drowning: by way of inquiry: and investigation: « and your family: except him against whom the word preceded among them »: this one was of those against whom the word preceded among them: in that he would drown by his disbelief: and for that the destinies carried him to turn aside from the domain of the people of faith: he drowned therefore with his party: the people of disbelief: and rebellion: « It was said: O Nuh: descend with peace from Us: and blessings upon you: and upon communities of those with you: and communities to whom We shall give enjoyment: then will touch them from Us a painful punishment.
» This is a command to Nuh (peace be upon him): when the water drained from the face of the earth: and travel became possible upon it: and settling upon it: that he disembark from the ship which had settled: after its great voyage: upon the back of mount Djoudi: which is a famous mountain in the land of Jezireh: and we already gave its mention: at the creation of the mountains: « with peace from Us: and blessings »: meaning: descend safe: blessed: upon you: and upon communities: of those who will be born after: meaning: of your sons: for Allah gave no progeny to anyone of those who were with him: of the believers: the Most High said: « and We made his descendants those who survive. » (as-Saffat, 77) Everyone upon the face of the earth today: of the other kinds of the sons of Adam: traces therefore to the three sons of Nuh: who are Sam: and Ham: and Yafith.
Abd al-Wahhab narrated to us: Sa'id narrated to us, from Qatada, from al-Hasan: he said: « Sam is the father of the Arabs: and Ham the father of the Abyssinians: and Yafith the father of the Romans. » And at-Tirmidhi related it, from Bichr ibn Mou'adh al-'Aqadi, from Yazid ibn Zouray', from Sa'id ibn Abi 'Arouba, from Qatada, from al-Hasan, from Samoura: raised to the Prophet: its like. And it has been related from 'Imran ibn Houssayn: from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): its like. And what is meant by « the Romans » here: are the first Romans: who are the Greeks: tracing to Roumi ibn Liti ibn Yunan ibn Yafith ibn Nuh (peace be upon him).
Then it was related from the hadith of Isma'il ibn 'Ayyach: from Yahya ibn Sa'id: « The sons of Nuh: three: Sam: and Yafith: and Ham: and each one of these begot three: Sam begot the Arabs: and the Persians: and the Romans: and Yafith begot the Turks: and the Saqaliba: and Gog: and Magog: and Ham begot the Copts: and the Sudanese: and the Berbers. » And the hafiz Abu Bakr al-Bazzar said in his Musnad: Ibrahim ibn Hani' narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Yazid ibn Sinan ar-Rahawi narrated to us: my father narrated to me, from Yahya ibn Sa'id, from Sa'id ibn al-Moussayyab: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « There were born to Nuh: Sam: and Ham: and Yafith: there were born to Sam: the Arabs: and the Persians: and the Romans: and the good is in them: and there were born to Yafith: Gog: and Magog: and the Turks: and the Saqaliba: and there is no good in them: and there were born to Ham: the Copts: and the Berbers: and the Sudanese.
» We know it not related raised to the Prophet: except by this route: Muhammad ibn Yazid ibn Sinan alone related it: from his father: and a group of the people of knowledge related from him: and bore his hadith: and others related it from Yahya ibn Sa'id: without a chain: and did not attribute it: and made it among the sayings of Sa'id: and what Abu 'Oumar mentioned is the preserved: it is the saying of Sa'id: and thus it was related from Wahb ibn Munabbih: its like: and Allah knows best: and Yazid ibn Sinan: Abu Farwa ar-Rahawi: is weak entirely: he is not relied upon.
These three sons were not born to Nuh (peace be upon him) except after the flood: and only born to him before the ship: Canaan: who drowned: and 'Abir: who died before the flood: and the correct: his three sons were with him in the ship: they: and their wives: and their mother: and it is the text of the Torah: and it was mentioned that Ham beheld his wife in the ship: and Nuh invoked against him: that the creation of his sperm be disfigured: there was born to him therefore a black son: who is Canaan ibn Ham: grandfather of the Sudanese: rather: he saw his father asleep: and his privy parts had appeared: and he covered them not: and his two brothers covered them: for this he invoked against him: that his sperm be changed: and that his children be servants of his brothers.
And the imam Abu Ja'far ibn Jarir mentioned, by the route of Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jou'dane: from Youssouf ibn Mihran: the disciples said to Issa ibn Maryam: « Will you send to us a man who saw the ship: that he tell us of it? » He departed with them: until he came to a mound of earth: he took a handful of that earth in his palm: « Do you know what this is? » « Allah and His messenger know. » « It is the heel of Ham ibn Nuh.
» And he struck the mound with his staff: « Rise by the permission of Allah. » And there he was: standing: shaking the earth from his head: he had aged. « Issa (peace be upon him): thus you died? » « No: but I died while young: but I thought it was the Hour: from there I aged.
» « Tell us then of the ship of Nuh. » « Its length was one thousand two hundred cubits: and its width six hundred cubits: and it was three levels: a level therein for the beasts: and the wild beasts: and a level therein for the humans: and a level therein for the birds: when the droppings of the beasts became many: Allah (exalted is He) revealed to Nuh (peace be upon him): pierce the tail of the elephant: he pierced it: and there fell from it a pig: and a sow: who fell upon the droppings: and when the mouse pierced the ship: gnawing it with its tooth: Allah (exalted is He) revealed to Nuh (peace be upon him): strike between the two eyes of the lion: there came out of its muzzle a tomcat: and a female cat: who fell upon the mouse. » « How did Nuh (peace be upon him) know the lands had been drowned?
He sent the crow: to bring him the report: and it found a carcass: and settled upon it: he invoked against it the fear: and for that it does not grow familiar with the houses: then he sent the dove: it came with a leaf of olive in its beak: and clay upon its feet: and he knew the lands had emerged: he ringed therefore its neck with the green color in its neck: and invoked for it to be in friendliness: and safety: from there it grows familiar with the houses. » They said: « O messenger of Allah: shall we not go with him to our families: that he sit with us: and tell us? » « How would follow you he who has no provision? » He said to him therefore: « Return by the permission of Allah »: so he returned to earth: and this is a very strange athar.
And 'Ilba ibn Ahmar related, from 'Ikrima: eighty men were with Nuh in the ship: with their families: and that they were in the ship one hundred and fifty days: and that Allah directed the ship toward Mecca: and it circled the House forty days: then directed it to the Djoudi: and it settled upon it: Nuh (peace be upon him) sent therefore the crow: to bring him the report of the earth: it went: and settled on the carcasses: and delayed on them: he sent therefore the dove: it came to him with the leaf of the olive: and stained its feet with clay: Nuh knew therefore the water had withdrawn: he descended to the lower part of the Djoudi: and built a village: and named it Thamaneen: they rose one morning: and their tongues had become confused in eighty tongues: one of them: the tongue of the Arab: and some of them did not understand the speech of others: and Nuh (peace be upon him) interpreted for them.
They rode in the ship on the tenth day of the month of Rajab: and they sailed one hundred and fifty days: and it settled with them upon the Djoudi a month: and their going out of the ship was on the day of 'Achoura of Mouharram: and Ibn Jarir related a report raised to the Prophet: conforming to this: and that they fasted that day. Chibl narrated to us: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed by some people of the Jews: they said: « This is the day Allah saved Moussa: and the Children of Israel from the drowning: and drowned in it Pharaon: in gratitude to Allah (exalted is He). » The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « We are worthier of Moussa than you: and we fast this day. » And this hadith has a witness in the Sahih: from another route: and the strange is the mention of Nuh also: and Allah knows best.
It is mentioned: that they ate of the surplus of their provisions: and of grains that were with them: which they had carried: and they ground the grains that day: and kohl'd their eyes with antimony: to strengthen their sights: when they were dazzled by the light: after they had been in the darkness of the ship: and all of this: nothing is established of it: and only interrupted athars are mentioned in it: from the Children of Israel: not relied upon: nor taken as example: and Allah knows best.
When Allah willed to stop that flood: He sent a wind upon the face of the earth: the water stilled: and the springs of the earth were closed: and the water began to decrease: and subside: and recede: and the settling of the ship upon the Djoudi was: according to the claim of the People of the Torah: in the seventh month: on its seventeenth night passed: and on the first day of the tenth month: the heads of the mountains were seen: then when forty days passed after that: Nuh opened the porthole of the ship he had made in it: then sent the crow: to look for him what the water had done: it returned not to him: then he sent the dove: she returned to him: and found not for her feet a place: he extended therefore his hand to the dove: and took her: and brought her in: then seven days passed: then he sent her to look for him: she returned in the evening: with in her beak a leaf of an olive: Nuh knew therefore the water had lessened from the face of the earth: then he remained seven days: then he sent her: and she returned not to him: Nuh knew therefore the earth had emerged: when the year was complete: between what Allah sent the flood: and what Nuh sent the dove: and entered a single day of the first month: of the second year: the face of the earth emerged: and the dry land appeared: and Nuh removed the cover of the ship.
And in the second month of the second year: in its twenty-sixth nights: « It was said: O Nuh: descend with peace from Us: and blessings upon you: and upon communities of those with you: and communities to whom We shall give enjoyment: then will touch them from Us a painful punishment. » « Go out of the ship: you: and your wife: and your sons: and the wives of your sons with you: and every beast that is with you: and grow: and multiply upon the earth. » They went out therefore: and Nuh built an altar for Allah (exalted is He): and took of every lawful beast: and the lawful bird: and slaughtered them: an offering toward Allah (exalted is He): and Allah covenanted with him not to repeat the flood upon the people of the earth: and made the reminder of the covenant toward him the bow which is in the cloud: which is the rainbow: we already related from Ibn Abbas: that it is a protection from drowning: and in it is an indication: that it is a bow: without a string: meaning: from this cloud will not come a flood: like the first time: and Allah knows best.
And a group of the ignorance of the Persians: and the people of India: denied the occurrence of the flood: and others of them acknowledged it: « It was only in the land of Babylon: and it reached us not: and are we not descended: inheriting dominion: elder from elder: from Kayoumorth »: meaning Adam: « until this time of ours. » And that is the saying of whoever of the heretics of the Magians said it: worshippers of fires: and followers of the devil: and this from them is a sophism: and an atrocious disbelief: and an extreme ignorance: a defying of the sensed things: and a belying of the Lord of the earth: and the heavens: and the people of the religions: relating from the messengers of the Most Merciful: with the mass transmission among the people: in all the ages: have been unanimous on the occurrence of the flood: and that it covered all the lands: and Allah left none of the disbelievers in worship: in answer to the invocation of His prophet: aided: preserved: and in execution of what preceded in the destiny: irrevocable.