Surah Nuh

It is Meccan by consensus, consisting of twenty-eight verses according to the Kufan count, twenty-nine according to the Basran and Syrian counts, and thirty according to others.

The rationale for its connection to the preceding Surah, as stated by Jalal al-Suyuti and alluded to by others, is that when Allah the Glorified said in Surah al-Ma’arij, "We are capable of replacing them with someone better than them," He followed it with the story of the people of Nuh (peace be upon him), which includes their being drowned to the last of them, such that not a single inhabitant remained on the earth, and they were indeed replaced by others better than them. Thus, it serves as evidence and substantiation for that claim, just as the story of the Companions of the Garden in Surah al-Qalam serves as substantiation for what that Surah concluded with. This is in addition to the similarity in the openings of both Surahs regarding the mention of the punishment promised to the disbelievers.

The connection is also manifest according to those who argue that the "questioner" (mentioned in al-Ma'arij) is Nuh (peace be upon him).

Some traditions indicate that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) will recite this Surah over the people of Nuh (peace be upon him) on the Day of Resurrection. Al-Hakim recorded from Ibn Abbas, in a marfu’ (elevated) narration, that he said: "Allah the Exalted will call Nuh and his people on the Day of Resurrection—being the first of the nations—and ask, 'How did you respond to Nuh?' They will reply, 'He did not call us, nor did he convey (the message), nor did he advise us, nor did he command us, nor did he forbid us.'

Then Nuh (peace be upon him) will say, 'I called them, O Lord, a call spread among the first and the last, nation after nation, until it reached the Seal of the Prophets, Ahmad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), who confirmed it, recited it, believed in it, and deemed it true.' Allah the Mighty and Majestic will say to the angels (peace be upon them), 'Call Ahmad and his nation.' They will be summoned, and the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and his nation will come with their light moving before them.

Nuh (peace be upon him) will say to Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and his nation, 'Do you testify that I conveyed the message to my people, that I exerted myself in advising them, and that I strove to save them from the Fire, both privately and publicly, but my invitation only increased their flight?' The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and his nation will say, 'We testify, by what you have recited to us, that in everything you said, you are among the truthful.'

The people of Nuh (peace be upon him) will then ask, 'And how did you and your nation know this, while we are the first of nations and you are the last?' The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) will then recite, 'Indeed, We sent Nuh to his people...' until he finishes the Surah. Once he finishes it, his nation will say, 'We testify that this is the true account, and there is no god but Allah, and indeed Allah is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.' At that, Allah the Mighty and Majestic will say, 'Separate yourselves today, O you criminals.'"

Nuh: (1) Indeed, We sent Nuh...

Indeed, We sent Nuh – It is a foreign name. Al-Jawaliqi added that it is Arabized. Al-Kirmani stated that its meaning in Syriac is "the dweller." It is declined because it does not exceed three letters while having a quiescent middle; in Arabic, it is not considered to have a root. As for the statement of Al-Hakim in Al-Mustadrak that he was named Nuh due to the frequency of his lamenting (nuh) and weeping for himself, and that his name was Abd al-Ghaffar, I do not think it is sound. Likewise, the report regarding the cause of his weeping—that he saw a mangy, filthy dog, spat upon it, and Allah caused it to speak, saying, "Do you mock me or do you mock my Creator?" causing him to repent and lament—is not well-known.

He is Nuh, the son of Lamak (with a fatha on the lam, a sukun on the mim, followed by a kaf), the son of Matushalkh (with a fatha on the mim, a shadda on the ta, a damma, followed by a quiescent waw, then a fatha on the shin, lam, and kha), the son of Akhnukh (with a fatha on the kha, a damma on the nun, followed by a quiescent waw, then a kha). It is famously written as "Akhnukh" with a hamza at the beginning, and he is Idris, peace be upon him. He is the son of Yarid (with a fatha on the ya, a sukun on the ra), the son of Mahla’il, the son of Qinan, the son of Anush (with a nun and shin), the son of Shith, the son of Adam, peace be upon him. This indicates that he came after Idris. In Al-Mustadrak, it is stated that the majority of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, held that he was before Idris, and there is a report from Ibn Abbas that there were ten centuries between Adam and Nuh. It also contains a marfu’ (elevated) report that Allah sent Nuh at the age of forty, and he remained among his people for a thousand years less fifty years, calling them, and he lived sixty years after the Flood until people multiplied and spread. Ibn Jarir mentioned that his birth was one hundred and twenty-six years after the death of Adam.

In Al-Tahdhib by Al-Nawawi, may Allah have mercy on him, it is said that he is the longest-lived of the prophets. It is also said he is the longest-lived of all people absolutely; for according to Shaddad, he lived one thousand four hundred and eighty years. It is not heard that anyone lived longer—meaning by consensus, so as not to contradict the case of Al-Khidr, though other responses to that exist. It is said that he was the first for whom laws were legislated and ways were established, and the first messenger to warn against idolatry, and the first whose nation was destroyed. The truth is that Adam was a messenger before him, sent to his wife Hawwa’ and then to his children, and he had a law. Whether it was abrogated by the law of Nuh is a matter of debate; some say it was, while others say his law contained nothing but the invitation to faith. Nuh is called the "Elder of the Messengers" and the "Second Adam." He was slender-faced, with great height, large eyes, thick upper arms, fleshy thighs, a large navel, a long beard, and a tall stature.

There is disagreement regarding his burial place: some say it is in the Mosque of Kufa, others say at the Red Mountain, and others say at the foot of Mount Lebanon in the city of Karak. Attributing the act to the pronoun of majesty, along with the emphasis of the sentence, carries an evident concern for the affair of sending him.

To his people – It is said that they were the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and those near it, not all the people of the earth, due to the specific mission of our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) being a universal mission among all the messengers. Nuh had no affair after the story of the flood, according to the view of its universality, that is of categorical significance. It is famously held that he resided in the land of Kufa, and it was there that he was sent.

That warn your people – Meaning: Warn your people. An (that) is explanatory of the meaning of "sending"—as it carries the meaning of a command without using its letters—so the clause has no grammatical position. Or, it is an (that) meaning "by warning them," or "for the purpose of warning them," where an is a verbal particle preceded by an elided preposition (either ba or lam). Regarding its status after the elision, there are two famous views. Abu Hayyan stated the permissibility of this view in his Bahr, while prohibiting it elsewhere, and Ibn Hisham mentioned this prohibition from him in Al-Mughni. Abu Hayyan claimed that it does not connect to the imperative, and that everything heard in that regard is an "explanatory an." He provided two proofs: first, that if they are interpreted as a verbal noun, the meaning of the command is lost. Second, that they do not occur as a subject or object; it is not valid to say "I was pleased that stand," nor "I disliked that stand," as it is valid with the past and present tenses.

The response to the first is that the loss of the "imperative" meaning when interpreted as a verbal noun is like the loss of the "past" or "future" meaning when the particle is connected to the past or present. Furthermore, he acknowledges the verbal-noun status of the lightened an in such cases as "And the fifth [oath] is that the wrath of Allah be upon her," since no supplication is understood from the verbal noun unless it is an absolute object (maf’ul mutlaq), such as suqyan (a drink) or ra’yan (pasture). As for the second proof, he denied what he mentioned because there is no meaning in suspending pleasure or dislike upon the insha’ (non-declarative utterance), nor what he mentioned. Furthermore, he should not acknowledge the verbal-noun status of kay (in order to), because it does not function as subject or object, but is only governed by the lam of causality. Moreover, what decisively refutes his claim of invalidity is Sibawayh's report: "I wrote to him that 'stand'," and the possibility of the ba being superfluous, as some claim, is a grave error, because prepositions absolutely do not enter except upon nouns or what is in the position of a noun.

Some answered the first point also by saying that when interpreting, the command is assumed, so it is said regarding what we are discussing, such as: "We sent Nuh to his people with the command to warn them." This was objected to on the grounds that there is no verb whose verbal noun is the command, such as amarna (we ordered) or na’muru (we order). Then, the meaning in such a phrase as "I ordered him that 'stand'" would be "I ordered him with the command to stand." Al-Zamakhshari indicated a response to this: when the word "command" or its equivalent—like rasamtu (I decreed)—does not precede it, the "saying" must be assumed so that the request is not invalidated. So it is said here: "We sent him by saying to him: 'Warn,'" i.e., with the command to warn. If that has preceded, there is no need to assume it, because the conclusion of the expressions—meaning "I ordered him to stand" and "I ordered him that he stand"—are the same. The "that" (stand) without the ba acts as an explanation for the command to one. In Al-Kashf, it states that if it were said that the underlying meaning is "We sent him with the command to warn" without implying "saying," because the "imperative nature" is not the essence of the word's meaning but rather from the attachment of the tool, so it is interpreted by the verbal noun as a consequence... [and so on].

And Ibn Mas’ud recited andhir (warn) without an (that), intending the saying, i.e., "Saying: Warn."

Before there comes to them a painful punishment – An immediate one, which is what befell them of the Flood, as Al-Kalbi said, or a delayed one, which is the punishment of the Fire, as Ibn Abbas said. The intent is to warn them before that so that no excuse remains for them at all.