Surah Al-Qamar, Ayah 16

The Story of the People of Nuh and the Lesson from it

Allah the Exalted said,

كَذَّبَتْ

(denied) `before your people, O Muhammad,'

قَوْمُ نُوحٍ فَكَذَّبُواْ عَبْدَنَا

(the people of Nuh. They rejected Our servant) means, they denied him categorically and accused him of madness,

وَقَالُواْ مَجْنُونٌ وَازْدُجِرَ

(and said: "A madman!" Wazdujir.) Mujahid said about Wazdujir: "He was driven out accused on account of madness." It was also said that Wazdujir means, he was rebuked, deterred, threatened and warned by his people saying:

لَئِنْ لَّمْ تَنْتَهِ ينُوحُ لَتَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْمُرْجُومِينَ

("If you do not stop O Nuh, you will be among those who will be stoned.") 26:116 This was said by Ibn Zayd, and it is sound.

ذَاتِ أَلْوَاحٍ وَدُسُرٍ‌ (to board that [ ship ] which had planks and nails...54:13). The word alwah is the plural of lawh and it refers to a board or a plank. The word dusur is the plural of disar and it stands for nail. It also means a cord of fibres of the palm tree with which the planks of a ship are bound together.

God causes such events to take place in the present world as make the occurrence of Doomsday understandable in advance. An event of this type occurred in the days of the Prophet Muhammad a few years before the Hijrah, when people saw that the moon was ‘cleft in two.’ At that time, the Prophet told the people that just as the moon had broken into pieces, the world would also break into pieces and then a new world would be built. Undoubtedly, there is a lesson to be learned from such events. But this is possible only when a man applies his mind to it. Those who are slaves to their own desires, will look at such events and simply say, ‘This is magic’. They will interpret such events as they please and treat them as inapplicable to themselves. For such people even the most cogent reasoning is meaningless. They will come to their senses only when the blast of Doomsday bursts on them and deprives them of the opportunity to reform.