Surah Hud, Ayah 39

The Revelation to Nuh concerning what would happen to the People and the Command to prepare for It

Allah, the Exalted, sent revelation to Nuh when his people hastened the vengeance and punishment of Allah upon themselves. Then, Nuh supplicated against them, as Allah mentioned, when He said;

رَّبِّ لاَ تَذَرْ عَلَى الاٌّرْضِ مِنَ الْكَـفِرِينَ دَيَّاراً

(My Lord! Leave not one of the disbelievers inhabiting the earth!) 71:26 And he said,

فَدَعَا رَبَّهُ أَنُّى مَغْلُوبٌ فَانتَصِرْ

(Then he invoked his Lord (saying): "I have been overcome, so help (me)!")54:10 At this point Allah revealed to him,

أَنَّهُ لَن يُؤْمِنَ مِن قَوْمِكَ إِلاَّ مَن قَدْ ءَامَنَ

(None of your people will believe except those who have believed already.) Therefore, do not grieve over them and do not be concerned with their affair.

In the third verse (38), mentioned there is the total lack of concern for their sad end shown by the people of Sayyidna Nuh (علیہ السلام) during the period he was making the ark. When the chieftains of his people saw him busy with his project under a Divine command, they would ask him, ` what are you doing?' He said, ` a flood is to come, therefore, I am making an ark.' They would mock at him and say, ` we have no water to drink here and this wise man is planning to sail in a boat on this dry land.' In response, Sayyidna Nuh told them, ` if you mock at us today, then remember the day is sure to come when we shall be laughing at you.' The sense is that conditions would change and events would unfold in a manner that they themselves would become the cause of their being mocked at. For, in reality, ridicule is contrary to the spiritual station of prophets. It is simply not permissible for any-one in fact, it is Haram (unlawful). Says the Holy Qur'an: لَا يَسْخَرْ‌ قَوْمٌ مِّن قَوْمٍ عَسَىٰ أَن يَكُونُوا خَيْرً‌ا مِّنْهُمْ ( O those who have believed, no people should mock at [ other ] people - may be, they are better than them - 49:11) Therefore, the mocking referred to here is a pragmatic response to their mockery. This is like saying, ` when you are seized by the punishment, we shall be telling you that this was the outcome of your mockery.' This is as it was said after that in the fourth verse (39): ` So, you shall soon know to whom will come the punishment that will humble him, and upon whom will befall the lasting punishment.' The first punishment refers to the punishment in the mortal world, and the ` lasting punishment' means the never-ending punishment of the Hereafter.

The faith required of man is one at which he has arrived as a conscious and voluntary decision. Those who do not accept the Faith, in spite of the Prophet’s best missionary efforts, prove that they are not yet ready to become the Faithful of God of their own free will. The second stage for such people is having their freedom taken away and then being directly presented before God in all His Majesty, so that what they had not accepted as believers they should have to accept as criminals and be made to face the punishment befitting their arrogance. After hundreds of years of Noah’s missionary efforts, this stage had come for his community. Thereafter, Noah was told that, after having fully discharged the responsibility of preaching God’s word he should build an Ark, so that when the flood sent by God came to drown the arrogant people, he and his companions in Faith could take refuge in it. Noah then built a large boat with three decks. This took several years. While Noah was working on the boat along with his companions, the arrogant people of the community used to see it as they came and went. They thought that all talk of punishment was simply imaginary, and when they saw that a boat was even being built for protection from that imaginary punishment, they started ridiculing Noah much more. When a man amasses wealth by means of arrogance and injustice, one who is enamoured of appearances will take him to be successful, judging by his worldly assets. But one who knows that the world is subject to moral laws, will see in the aforesaid person’s temporary success a glimpse of his total destruction in the Hereafter. Such superficial people of Noah’s community made fun of him but, in reality, they were themselves about to become the subject of ridicule.