Tafsir of Al-Anbiya' 21:76

Nuh and His People Allah tells us how He responded to His servant and Messenger Nuh, peace be upon him, when he prayed to Him against his people for their disbelief in him:

فدعا ربه أنى مغلوب فانتصر

Then he invoked his Lord (saying): "I have been overcome, so help (me)!'' (54:10)

وقال نوح رب ﻻ تذر على اﻻرض من الكفرين ديارا

إنك إن تذرهم يضلوا عبادك وﻻ يلدوا إﻻ فاجرا كفارا

And Nuh said: "My Lord! Leave not any inhabitant of the disbelievers on the earth! If You leave them, they will mislead Your servants, and they will beget none but wicked disbelievers. (71:26-27) So Allah says here,

ونوحا إذ نادى من قبل فاستجبنا له فنجيناه وأهله

And (remember) Nuh, when he cried (to Us) aforetime. We answered to his invocation and saved him and his family, meaning, those who believed with him, as Allah says elsewhere:

وأهلك إﻻ من سبق عليه القول ومن ءامن وما ءامن معه إﻻ قليل

and your family -- except him against whom the Word has already gone forth -- and those who believe. And none believed with him, except a few. (11: 40)

من الكرب العظيم

from the great distress. meaning, from difficulty, rejection and harm. For he remained among them for one thousand years less fifty, calling them to Allah, and no one had believed in him except for a few. His people were plotting against him and advising one another century after century, generation after generation, to oppose him