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Verses 1–24 ​

Chapter 71: Nūḥ (Noah) · Printed edition: Volume 39, pp. 32–49

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ‏

إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَا نُوحًا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِ أَنْ أَنْذِرْ قَوْمَكَ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ يَأْتِيَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ١ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي لَكُمْ نَذِيرٌ مُبِينٌ ٢ أَنِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ وَاتَّقُوهُ وَأَطِيعُونِ ٣ يَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ مِنْ ذُنُوبِكُمْ وَيُؤَخِّرْكُمْ إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى ۚ إِنَّ أَجَلَ اللَّهِ إِذَا جَاءَ لَا يُؤَخَّرُ ۖ لَوْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ ٤ قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّي دَعَوْتُ قَوْمِي لَيْلًا وَنَهَارًا ٥ فَلَمْ يَزِدْهُمْ دُعَائِي إِلَّا فِرَارًا ٦ وَإِنِّي كُلَّمَا دَعَوْتُهُمْ لِتَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ جَعَلُوا أَصَابِعَهُمْ فِي آذَانِهِمْ وَاسْتَغْشَوْا ثِيَابَهُمْ وَأَصَرُّوا وَاسْتَكْبَرُوا اسْتِكْبَارًا ٧ ثُمَّ إِنِّي دَعَوْتُهُمْ جِهَارًا ٨ ثُمَّ إِنِّي أَعْلَنْتُ لَهُمْ وَأَسْرَرْتُ لَهُمْ إِسْرَارًا ٩ فَقُلْتُ اسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ إِنَّهُ كَانَ غَفَّارًا ١٠ يُرْسِلِ السَّمَاءَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِدْرَارًا ١١ وَيُمْدِدْكُمْ بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينَ وَيَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ وَيَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ أَنْهَارًا ١٢ مَا لَكُمْ لَا تَرْجُونَ لِلَّهِ وَقَارًا ١٣ وَقَدْ خَلَقَكُمْ أَطْوَارًا ١٤ أَلَمْ تَرَوْا كَيْفَ خَلَقَ اللَّهُ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ طِبَاقًا ١٥ وَجَعَلَ الْقَمَرَ فِيهِنَّ نُورًا وَجَعَلَ الشَّمْسَ سِرَاجًا ١٦ وَاللَّهُ أَنْبَتَكُمْ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ نَبَاتًا ١٧ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُكُمْ فِيهَا وَيُخْرِجُكُمْ إِخْرَاجًا ١٨ وَاللَّهُ جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْأَرْضَ بِسَاطًا ١٩ لِتَسْلُكُوا مِنْهَا سُبُلًا فِجَاجًا ٢٠ قَالَ نُوحٌ رَبِّ إِنَّهُمْ عَصَوْنِي وَاتَّبَعُوا مَنْ لَمْ يَزِدْهُ مَالُهُ وَوَلَدُهُ إِلَّا خَسَارًا ٢١ وَمَكَرُوا مَكْرًا كُبَّارًا ٢٢ وَقَالُوا لَا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلَا سُوَاعًا وَلَا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْرًا ٢٣ وَقَدْ أَضَلُّوا كَثِيرًا ۖ وَلَا تَزِدِ الظَّالِمِينَ إِلَّا ضَلَالًا ٢٤

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

  1. Indeed We sent Noah to his people, [saying,] that “Warn your people before a painful punishment overtakes them.”
  2. He said, “O my people! Indeed I am a manifest warner to you.
  3. Worship Allah and be wary of Him, and obey me,
  4. that He may forgive you [some] of your sins and respite you until a specified end. Indeed when Allah’s end comes, it cannot be deferred, if you but knew.”
  5. He said, “My Lord! Indeed I have called my people night and day
  6. but my calling has only increased their evasion.
  7. Indeed whenever I called them, so that You may forgive them, they put their fingers in their ears and drew their cloaks over themselves, and persisted, and waxed very proud.
  8. Again I called them aloud,
  9. and again appealed to them publicly and confided with them privately,
  10. telling [them], ‘Plead to your Lord for forgiveness, for indeed He is All-Forgiver.
  11. He will let loose the sky upon you showering,
  12. and will aid you with wealth and children, and will provide you with gardens, and will provide you with streams.
  13. What is the matter with you that you do not speculate any weight for Allah,
  14. though He has created you in [various] stages?
  15. Have you not seen how Allah has created seven heavens in layers,
  16. and has made therein the moon for a light, and the sun for a lamp?
  17. Allah has made you grow from the earth [as] plants.
  18. Then He makes you return to it, and He will bring you forth again [a new] forth-bringing.
  19. Allah has made the earth a carpet for you
  20. so that you may travel over its spacious ways.”
  21. Noah said, “My Lord! They have disobeyed me, and have followed someone whose wealth and children only add to his loss,
  22. and they have plotted a mighty plot.
  23. They have said, ‘Do not abandon your gods. Do not abandon Wadd, nor Suwāʿ, nor Yaghūth, Yaʿūq and Nasr,’
  24. and already they have led many astray. Do not increase the wrongdoers in anything but error.”

Introduction & Commentary ​

This sūrah was revealed in Mecca and consists of 28 verses. The sūrah discusses a concise account of Prophet Noah’s mission to his people, their dismissal of his call, his complaint to the Lord, his curse against them, his appeal to God to forgive him along with his parents and any believing man or woman who entered his home, and finally the drowning of his people through divine punishment. The context of the verse reflects that it was revealed in Mecca.

إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَا نُوحًا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِ أَنْ أَنْذِرْ قَوْمَكَ مِنْ قَبْلِ أَنْ يَأْتِيَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ١

(71:1) Indeed We sent Noah to his people, [saying] that “Warn (andhir, from indhār) your people before a painful punishment overtakes them.”

The verse shows that Noah’s people were on the verge of being overtaken by punishment for their polytheism and sins, as it is further reflected below, where he introduces himself as a warner, and commands them to Worship Allah and be wary of Him (). Indhār (warning) is synonymous with takhwīf (threatening, scaring), and that is done when someone is facing a potential risk or danger, which will occur unless they take heed and avoid it.

… that (an) “Warn your people…”: The word “that” (the Arabic particle an) interprets and elaborates the mission for which We sent Noah. It implies: “We revealed to him that ‘Warn your people…’”

… before a painful punishment overtakes them: This phrase shows that if they do not act up to save themselves, the punishment will inevitably befall them.

قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ إِنِّي لَكُمْ نَذِيرٌ مُبِينٌ ٢ أَنِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ وَاتَّقُوهُ وَأَطِيعُونِ ٣

(71:2-3) He said, “O my people! Indeed I am a manifest warner to you. Worship Allah and be wary of Him, and obey me.

He first briefly introduced his mission by saying: Indeed I am a manifest warner to you. Then he elaborated his message in the next verse: Worship Allah… Noah ascribed his people to himself by saying my people. By so doing he showed his compassion and goodwill toward them. It means: “You are all my people; we are united under the umbrella of belonging to the same community. Your misfortune is my misfortune. I wish for you only your good and happiness. That is why Indeed I am a manifest warner to you…”

Worship Allah…: Noah called his people to monotheism, since they were idolaters. There is no room in idolatry for the worship of God. Instead, the idolaters worship their idols as representatives and symbols of higher lords and gods, so that they may intercede for them before God. If they also worshiped God along with their idols, then his message was to worship Him alone.

… and be wary of Him (ittaqūhu, from taqwá): Noah ordered them to refrain from all sins, both major and minor. That would mean avoiding polytheism and lesser sins. It would also entail performing obligatory righteous deeds—for their lack of observance would be a sin.

… and obey me: This would mean acknowledging him as God’s messenger, and learning from him the necessary religious teachings by which they would worship God and conduct their lives. The ternary of his message can be matched with the three principles of religion: (1) Worship Allah corresponds to monotheism. (2) And be wary of Him pertains to belief in the hereafter, which is the basis for taqwá (Godwariness, self-restraint, piety). (3) The command to unconditional obedience of him—and obey me—means acknowledging prophethood.

يَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ مِنْ ذُنُوبِكُمْ وَ يُؤَخِّرْكُمْ إِلى‏ أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى إِنَّ أَجَلَ اللَّهِ إِذا جاءَ لا يُؤَخَّرُ لَوْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ ٤

(71:4) that He may forgive (yaghfir) you [some] of (min) your sins and respite you until a specified end. Indeed when Allah’s end comes, it cannot be deferred, if you but knew.”

The meaning is: “If you worship God, be wary of Him, and obey me, He will forgive you some of your sins.” Those are sins that they committed before their conversion, including polytheism and any lesser sins. As with their future sins, forgiveness is not applicable because the sins are not committed yet. Nor does it make sense to promise them that any sin which they may commit in the future will be forgiven, because that would render religious obligations vain, since there is no retribution to be followed in that case. The are also other verses which confirm this idea [that belief in God and His religion will absolve one of one’s past sins, as a part of one’s lifetime sins]: O our people! Respond to Allah’s summoner and have faith in Him. He will forgive you [some] of your sins (); He calls you to forgive you [some] of your sins (); Say to the faithless, if they relinquish [faithlessness], what is already past shall be forgiven to them. ().

There is another verse which is addressed to believers in Islam: O you who believe! Shall I show you a deal that will deliver you from a painful punishment? Believe in Allah and His Messenger, and wage jihad in the way of Allah with your possessions and your persons. That is better for you, if only you knew. He shall forgive you your sins and admit you into gardens (). These verses seem to suggest forgiveness of all sins. However, the verbs used for belief and action [tuʾminūna and tujāhidūna] are expressed in the present tense, which shows continuity of faith and good deeds as long as one lives. That is the basis for the promised forgiveness. Otherwise, the verse does not promise forgiveness to an uncommitted sin; nor does it promise forgiveness for future sins unconditionally.

Given the apparent general sense of forgiveness in Sūrah al-Ṣaff [], some exegetes have argued:

Conversion to Islam would absolve all of one’s sins, while conversion to the previous religions only absolved them of some of their sins. This is reflected in the following verses: (1) Noah told his people: He may forgive you [some] of your sins (). (2) The messengers are quoted as having said: He calls you to forgive you [some] of your sins (). (3) The jinn said: O our people! Respond to Allah’s summoner and have faith in Him. He will forgive you [some] of your sins ().

There are two problems with this argument: (1) The verses in Sūrah al-Ṣaff [] are not about belief alone, as we explained above. (2) The verse quoted above from Sūrah al-Anfāl [] explicitly talks about the forgiveness of what is already past (), and it is addressed to disbelievers in Islam.

Here are three other implausible interpretations suggested by some exegetes: (1) The particle min (of, from) in min dhunūbikum (of your sins) is zāʾidah (extra, redundant, semantically empty). The problem with this view is that the extra min is not used in affirmative statements. (2) The particle min is bayāniyyah (explanatory, interpretive, descriptive). (3) The particle min signifies the origin of a movement (called ibtidāʾ al-ghāyah).

… and respite you until a specified end…: They will be given respite until a specific time conditional on worshiping God, being wary of Him, and obeying His messenger []. This shows that there are two kinds of ajal (end, term, time): one is fixed and specified (musammá), and the other is not. If they responded positively to the religious call, their term would be postponed until their specified time. But if they insisted with disbelief, their term would finish sooner by the hastening of the other end toward them. The verse is saying that if they believe, God will postpone their death to their specified end, which is the longest possible duration assigned to each person.

… Indeed when Allah’s end comes, it cannot be deferred…: This sentence justifies why they will be respited to a specified end if they believed. What is meant by the “coming of God’s end” is what He decrees and enacts, whether that is a specified term or an unspecified one. Nothing can deflect God’s decree; there is none who may repeal His Judgment []. The meaning is: “Worship God, be wary of Him, and obey me! Then God will postpone you to a specified end, which is the longest of your terms. If you do not do so, your unspecified end will come to you because of your disbelief. And you will not be respited, because there is no postponement of God’s end once it comes.” Therefore, the verse gives them the good promise of extension until the specified end if they believe, and also warns them of a quick punishment if they fail to believe.

Given our explanation, God’s end [in the last part of the verse] is meant in its general sense and should not be restricted—as some exegetes have done—to either the specified end, or the unspecified end. Another exegete has suggested that God’s end means the Day of Resurrection. Apparently, he has also assumed that the specified end should be interpreted as the Day of Resurrection. Then the meaning would be: “If you do not believe, God will send your punishment in this world before long. But if you believe, he will give you respite until the Day of Resurrection, which is a day that shall never be postponed when its time comes.” However, this interpretation is not concordant with the glad tidings implied by: that He may forgive you [some] of your sins.

… if you but knew”: The object of knowledge is omitted as it is implied by the previous part of the verse. The meaning is: “If you knew that God has ordained two ends, and that once the end He has specified comes it cannot be deferred, then you would respond to my call, would worship God, would be wary of Him, and would obey me.”

Some exegetes have suggested that this phrase refers to knowledge per se, as an intransitive quality. Then the complement of the conditional clause here can be either the first or the second part of the verse. The two suggested meanings are: (1) “If you were among the people of knowledge, you would respond to my call and believe in my message.” (2) “If you were among the people of knowledge, you would know that God has ordained two ends, and that once the end He has specified comes, it will not be postponed.”

قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّي دَعَوْتُ قَوْمِي لَيْلًا وَنَهَارًا ٥

(71:5) He said, “My Lord! Indeed I have called my people night and day,

The speaker here is Noah. His calling was to worship God, be wary of Him, and obey His messenger. Calling them “night and day” figuratively means his consistent propagation of the message, without weariness or failing.

فَلَمْ يَزِدْهُمْ دُعائِي إِلاَّ فِراراً ٦

(71:6) but my calling has only increased their evasion (firāran).

What is meant here is their refusal to respond to his call. Their refusal and dismissal is metaphorically called firār (escape, flight, evasion). The verse suggests that my calling was somewhat a “cause” of their evasion. This is true, because when a good thing is placed in an unsuitable setting, that goodness will be met with the evil of that setting, and will thus turn into evil. The same theme is stated about the Qur’an: We send down in the Qur’an that which is a cure and mercy for the faithful; and it increases the wrongdoers only in loss ().

وَ إِنِّي كُلَّما دَعَوْتُهُمْ لِتَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ جَعَلُوا أَصابِعَهُمْ فِي آذانِهِمْ وَ اسْتَغْشَوْا ثِيابَهُمْ وَ أَصَرُّوا وَ اسْتَكْبَرُوا اسْتِكْباراً ٧

(71:7) I called them, so that You may forgive them, they put their fingers in their ears and drew their cloaks over themselves, and persisted, and waxed very proud.

Noah mentioned God’s forgiveness as the objective of his call. That is the fruit the audience would receive by responding positively to him. He expressed his objective in this way to show that he was a sincere friend and a well-wisher for them; that he only wanted the good of both worlds for them. His expression involves an omission, where the implied meaning is: “Whenever I called them to believe so that You may forgive them…”

… They would put their fingers in their ears…: This is a metaphorical way of describing their refusal to listen to his message

… and drew their cloaks over themselves…: That is, they covered their heads and faces in their cloaks so that they do not even see me nor hear my voice. This is a figurative depiction of their aversion and unwillingness to listen to his message.

… and persisted, and waxed very proud: They insistently refrained from listening to me, and arrogantly refused to accept my call—with such outrageous pride.

ثُمَّ إِنِّي دَعَوْتُهُمْ جِهاراً ٨

(71:8) Again (thumma) I called them aloud (jihāran),

The word thumma here does not denote temporal sequence of events, but only the next part of the report and expression. Jihār means “calling with the highest pitch.”

ثُمَّ إِنِّي أَعْلَنْتُ لَهُمْ وَ أَسْرَرْتُ لَهُمْ إِسْراراً ٩

(71:9) and again appealed to them publicly (aʿlantu, from iʿlān) and confided with them privately (asrartu lahum isrāran, from isrār),

Iʿlān and isrār are opposites, meaning “public proclamation” and “private conversation,” respectively. Apparently the two pronouns “them” refer to the same noun [his people]. The meaning is: “I called them both publicly and privately, sometimes in this way and sometimes in that. I pursued every possible way and tried every prospect.”

فَقُلْتُ اسْتَغْفِرُوا رَبَّكُمْ إِنَّهُ كانَ غَفَّاراً ١٠

(71:10) Plead to your Lord for forgiveness, for indeed He is All-Forgiver (ghaffāran).

The second sentence—for indeed He is All-Forgiver—justifies Noah’s command that they should ask for God’s forgiveness. The intensive form of the attribute Ghaffār (All-Forgiver) signifies two aspects of God’s forgiveness: (1) its great extent and abundance; (2) its continuity as an incessant divine custom.

يُرْسِلِ السَّماءَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِدْراراً ١١

(71:11) He will let loose the sky upon you showering (midrāran),

The word samāʾ (sky, heaven) implies “the clouds” in this context. Midrār means “pouring and showering abundant rain.” The verb yursil is majzūm (apocopated), which indicates that this is the consequence of his commands [in the last verse].

وَ يُمْدِدْكُمْ بِأَمْوالٍ وَ بَنِينَ وَ يَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ جَنَّاتٍ وَ يَجْعَلْ لَكُمْ أَنْهاراً ١٢

(71:12) and will aid (yumdidkum, from imdād) you with wealth and children, and will provide you with gardens, and will provide you with streams.

Imdād means “supplying one with madad,” which is what helps the recipient to meet their needs. “Wealth and children” are the most primary means that are sought and used in human societies to fulfill their needs.

… and will provide you with gardens, and will provide you with streams: Gardens and streams are sub-categories of wealth, but they are mentioned separately because of their special significance in meeting the necessities of human life.

As one can see, these verses enumerate worldly blessings. Noah promised these blessings to his people if they invoke God to forgive them. This shows that forgiveness of sins has a substantial impact on the removal of large-scale disasters, and on the opening of the doors of bounties from the heaven and the earth. In other words, while the world of nature has an impact on the ease and hardship of human life, those natural conditions are themselves tied to the betterment and deterioration of human societies [in terms of leading virtuous or vicious lives]. The same theme is to be found in the following verses: Corruption has appeared in land and sea because of the doings of the people’s hands (); Whatever affliction befalls you is because of what your hands have earned (); If the people of the towns had been faithful and God wary, We would have opened to them blessings from the heaven and the earth (). The readers are encouraged to consult our discussions under these verses.

ما لَكُمْ لا تَرْجُونَ لِلَّهِ وَقاراً ١٣

(71:13) What is the matter with you that you do not speculate (tarjūna, from rajāʾ) any weight (waqāran) for Allah,

According to Majmaʿ al-bayān, the word waqār is synonymous with ʿaẓamah (greatness, magnificence, grandeur). It is derived from tawqīr, which is synonymous with taʿẓīm (to venerate, to exalt, to honor). Rajāʾ (hope) is the opposite of khawf (fear); it means “anticipating something pleasant.” Some exegetes have suggested that rajāʾ in this verse means “belief” in its general sense. Others have interpreted it as “fear” based on the mutual implication between the two. According to these suggestions, the meaning would be: “What makes you not believe in—or not fear—any greatness for God, which would impel you to worship Him?”

However, the correct view is that rajāʾ (hope) has its original meaning here, which is the opposite of fear. Lack of hope in this verse describes a state of despair. The word “hope” is used to describe one’s speculation and expectation of some benefit. When one does not anticipate any good from someone or something, one says, “I have no hope of good in him”; “There is no hope in it”; “This is hopeless.”

Also, the word waqār in this verse means thubūt, istiqrār and tamakkūn (stability, fixity, establishment), which is the original meaning of the root, as we quoted from Majmaʿ al-bayān. God’s waqār means his establishment and firmness in His quality of Lordship, which necessitates Him to be worshiped as a deity. The verse suggests that the idolaters at the time of Noah wanted some lord who is established in his lordship, so that they may worship him, but they despaired of God filling this gap for them. Thus they resorted to worshiping others. The polytheists’ line of argument was:

Our minds cannot comprehend God, so He cannot be the object of our worship directly. He is beyond our access, and reaching a God so high is pie in the sky . Worship means paying one’s due to one’s lord, and the lord is one who is in charge of directing the affairs of the world, which has been entrusted to various groups from the angels and the jinn. Hence, they are our lords: we must worship them so that they may intercede for us before God. As with God Himself, He is only the originator. He has created both the lords and their servants, but He is not in charge of directing their affairs.

This verse—What is the matter with you that you do not speculate any weight for Allah ()—and the next seven verses are centered around proving God’s waqār (stability, significance, weightiness) as a Lord. They present a decisive proof against their contrived arguments for worshiping the angels and other beings based on the idea that the management of the world is in their hands. The verses clarify that one can indeed direct one’s worship to the Almighty God.

The argument in thse verses can be summarized as follows: “What has made you deny the lordship of God, which makes Him worthy to be worshiped? Why have you lost hope in His majesty? You know that He has created you—and this world where you dwell in—as a stage of creation which is inseparable from the order which governs the universe. What does it mean to direct the affairs of the entire universe, including humans which are part of it? Directing is in fact nothing but creating the constituent stages and elements of this order one after another. In other words, direction of affairs boils down to the creation of beings. Since God is the Creator of everything, it follows that He is also the Owner and Director of the world. This means that He alone is the Lord, and there is no lord beside Him. Therefore, He is the One Who must be worshiped.”

The above argument also clarifies why we can worship God directly, because we know His excellent attributes of action such as the Creator, the Sustainer and the Merciful. Therefore, we can turn to Him through His attributes which are known to us [as opposed to His essence which we cannot comprehend].

وَ قَدْ خَلَقَكُمْ أَطْواراً ١٤

(71:14) Though He has created you in [various] stages (aṭwāran)?

Aṭwār is the plural of ṭawr, which means “the degree, position and state of something.” The meaning of the verse is: “Why do you not consider any weight for God’s Lordship, while He has brought you to existence in consecutive stages? Every one of you is created through the stages of being dust, sperm, clot of blood (ʿalaqah), lump of flesh (muḍghah), fetus, infant, child, youth, middle-aged, and old. Also, as a whole species He has created you in a variety of forms: males and females of different colors, physical appearances, capabilities, and so on. Is this anything other than tadbīr (direction of affairs, management, regulation)? Therefore, He is the director of your affairs, which means that He is your Lord [Whom you should worship].”

أَ لَمْ تَرَوْا كَيْفَ خَلَقَ اللَّهُ سَبْعَ سَماواتٍ طِباقاً ١٥

(71:15) Have you not seen how Allah has created seven heavens in layers (ṭibāqan)?

As we discussed at the beginning of Sūrah al-Mulk [], there are two possible interpretations for the word ṭibāq when used to describe the seven heavens: (1) These heavens lie one above the others (muṭābaqah). (2) There is similarity and likeness between them (taṭābuq). “Seeing” here means “knowing.” Noah said this as a part of his argument against his people, which shows that they believed in the existence of seven heavens. He referred to something that was accepted among them to illustrate his point. We can infer from this reference by Noah that the belief in the seven heavens was among the teachings of the divine messengers prior to him.

وَ جَعَلَ الْقَمَرَ فِيهِنَّ نُوراً وَ جَعَلَ الشَّمْسَ سِراجاً ١٦

(71:16) And has made therein the moon for a light, and the sun for a lamp?

The context of these verses is to pursue the following general line of argument: (a) You should worship God because He is your Lord. (b) He is your Lord because He directs all your affairs. (c) He directs all your affairs because of all these blessings which He bestows upon you. Accordingly, the current verse describes the Sun as a lamp, which refers to its role in illuminating our world. Without it, our world would have sunk into darkness. Similarly, it describes the moon as a light, meaning that it illuminates our earth with the light which it derives from the sun. The moon is not called a lamp because it is not luminous itself.

And has made therein (fīhinna) the moon for a light…: The preposition fīhinna (therein, in them) is in the plural form, referring to the seven heavens. They are mentioned as a place or container (ẓarf) for the moon. As some exegetes have clarified, what is meant is that the moon is in their space overall, even though it is really only in one of them. This is like when we say, “There is a well in these houses,” even though the well is in one of them only. Similarly, it is common to say, “I visited Banū Tamīm,” when one has visited a single person or household from that tribe.

وَ اللَّهُ أَنْبَتَكُمْ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ نَباتاً ١٧

(71:17) Allah has made you grow from the earth [as] plants (nabātan).

The last part of the verse involves an implied omission. The meaning is: “He made you grow from the earth the growing of plants” (inbāt al-nabāt). This refers to the root of humankind’s creation: it traces back to mineral elements that are composed in such a way that they absorb [nutrients], grow, and replicate. This is exactly vegetative growth. Therefore, the meaning is literal, not metaphorical.

ثُمَّ يُعِيدُكُمْ فِيها وَ يُخْرِجُكُمْ إِخْراجاً ١٨

(71:18) Then (thumma) He makes you return to it, and He will bring you forth again [a new] forth-bringing.

He makes you return to it through death and placement in the grave. He will bring you forth on the Day of Resurrection for retribution. This verse and the one before it can be matched with the verse: In it you will live, and in it you will die; and from it you will be raised [from the dead] ().

The word thumma (then) shows that “returning” is a new stage, but “bringing forth” is added to it with the conjunction “and” (the letter wāw) instead of another thumma. This shows that “returning you to the earth” and “bringing you forth from it” are part of the same process. They constitute a single act. In other words, the return is a prelude to bringing forth. Both these states belong to the abode of reality, whereas this world is an abode of illusion.

وَ اللَّهُ جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْأَرْضَ بِساطاً ١٩

(71:19) Allah has made the earth a carpet for you

What is meant here is that “He has made the earth like a carpet for you,” in the sense that you can conveniently move from one part of it to another, and travel across it.

لِتَسْلُكُوا مِنْها سُبُلاً فِجاجاً ٢٠

(71:20) So that you may travel over its spacious (fijājan) ways (subulan).”

Subul is the plural of sabīl, which means ṭarīq (way, path). Fijāj is the plural of fajj, which means “spacious way, broad road.” It has also been defined as “a path between two mountains” [that is, a ravine, a valley-way].

قالَ نُوحٌ رَبِّ إِنَّهُمْ عَصَوْنِي وَ اتَّبَعُوا مَنْ لَمْ يَزِدْهُ مالُهُ وَ وَلَدُهُ إِلاَّ خَساراً ٢١

(71:21) Noah said, “My Lord! They have disobeyed me, and have followed someone whose wealth and children only add to his loss.

In this verse, Noah returns to his initial complaint of his people to his Lord, after his detailed report of his mission and what he told them, starting from the verse: Again I called them aloud (). His first complaint of his people to God was the verse: but my calling has only increased their evasion (), which he made after a concise reference to his mission: My Lord! Indeed I have called my people night and day (). This verse shows that the affluent elite used to instigate the people to oppose and abuse him.

… someone whose wealth and children only add to his loss: Previously, Noah enumerated wealth and children among God’s blessings []. Here he says that instead of these blessings causing his people to be grateful, they have caused them to excel in kufr (ungratefulness, disbelief), which entails deprivation and loss of divine mercy.

وَ مَكَرُوا مَكْراً كُبَّاراً ٢٢

(71:22) And they have plotted a mighty (kubbāran) plot.”

Kubbār is an intensive form of kabīr (great, big).

وَ قالُوا لا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُمْ وَ لا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَ لا سُواعاً وَ لا يَغُوثَ وَ يَعُوقَ وَ نَسْراً ٢٣

(71:23) They have said, ‘Do not abandon your gods. Do not abandon Wadd, nor Suwāʿ, nor Yaghūth, Yaʿūq and Nasr,’

The elite among Noah’s people urged others to adhere to their gods and continue worshiping them. They first made a general command to worship all idols, then they specifically named five among them: Wadd, Suwaʿ, Yaghūth, Yaʿūq and Nasr. This indicates that they had a special regard for these five idols compared to other idols. The last two are added without the negative particle lā (nor, not, do not), which perhaps shows that the first three were relatively more significant to them. God knows best.

وَ قَدْ أَضَلُّوا كَثِيراً وَ لا تَزِدِ الظَّالِمِينَ إِلاَّ ضَلالاً ٢٤

(71:24) and already they have led many astray. Do not increase the wrongdoers in anything but error.”

The pronoun “they”—in they have led many astray—refers to the elite leaders of the people. This is consistent with the previous plural pronouns which also referred to the same group: they have plotted a mighty plot (); They have said, ‘Do not abandon your gods (). Some exegetes have suggested that the pronoun refers to their idols, which means that the idols have led the people astray. However, this interpretation is unlikely [given the context].

… Do not increase the wrongdoers in anything but error: Noah prayed for the ḍalāl (misguidance, straying, error) of his people. Of course, this does not mean that God should take the initiative to lead them astray. Rather, God would do so as a punishment, subsequent to their misdeeds. Noah invoked God to recompense them for their disbelief and wrongdoing. This is different than his imprecation at the end of the chapter, where he requests for their extermination.

Examining Narrations ​

  1. Imam ʿAlī said: God has made istighfār (asking His forgiveness) a means for the pouring down of sustenance and mercy on the people, as He says: Plead to your Lord for forgiveness, for indeed He is All-Forgiver. He will let loose the sky upon you showering, and will aid you with wealth and children (). So may God show mercy to one who takes up repentance, asks pardon for their sins, and outdistances his death [through doing righteous deeds before they are overtaken and hindered by death].

Author’s comment: There are numerous narrations which refer to these verses to prove that istighfār is a means for more sustenance.

  1. Imam ʿAlī said: Do much istighfār (invoke God to forgive you), and you will attract sustenance [toward yourselves].
  2. Concerning you do not speculate any weight for Allah () Imam al-Bāqir said: That is, you do not fear God’s magnificence.
  3. Concerning seven heavens in layers (ṭibāqan) () Imam al-Bāqir said: [Ṭibāqan means] some above others.
  4. Tafsīr al-Qummī says concerning My Lord! They have disobeyed me, and have followed someone whose wealth and children only add to his loss (): They followed the rich.
  5. Ibn ʿAbbās said: The same idols and gods of Noah’s people were handed down to the Arabs. Wadd was inherited by tribe Kalb, which inhabited Dūmat al-Jandal; Suwāʿ by tribe Hudhayl; Yaghūth by tribe Murād and later by [their branch] Banū Ghuṭayf, which inhabited Sabāʾ; Yaʿūq by tribe Hamdān; and Nasr by tribe Ḥimyar, [specifically] the family of Dhū al-Kalāʿ.

These were originally the names of five righteous people among Noah’s people. When they passed away, Satan inspired the people to erect monuments in their names, in the same place where they used to sit [to meditate and worship]. They acted accordingly, but the statues were not worshiped until that generation passed away and their story was lost.

Author’s comment: Perhaps what is meant here—that the same idols of Noah’s people were transmitted to the Arabs—is that the Arabs had idols with the same names or attributes. However, it is very unlikely that the exact same objects were literally passed down to the Arabs.

  1. Al-Mufaḍḍal says: Imam al-Ṣādiq told me, “Noah built his Ark with his own hands [here] in the Mosque of Kūfah. He had to bring in the wood from a far place, until its construction was complete.”… Then the Imam turned left, pointed to where the house of Dāriyyayn was—which is where Ibn Ḥakīm resided, and which is now a part of Euphrates—and said, “O Mufaḍḍal! This is where the idols of Noah’s people were installed: Yaghūth, Yaʿūq and Nasr.”

  1. In the absence of any reckoning and retribution in the hereafter, there would be no binding support for religious piety (taqwá). (Auth.) ↩︎

  2. The verb yaghfir (forgive) is majzūm (apocopated), which indicates that this is the consequence of his commands [in the last verse]. The particle min (of, from) is partitive, which is what springs to the mind first in this context. (Auth.) ↩︎

  3. The meaning would be: “He will forgive you your sins…” (Trans.) ↩︎

  4. The meaning would be: “He will forgive you—that is, your sins—…” (Trans.) ↩︎

  5. The meaning would be: “He will forgive you, starting with your sins…” (Trans.) ↩︎

  6. In other words, the verse does not mean that they literally ran away from him as one would run away from a vicious beast. Rather, the expression shows their utmost negligence and disparagement of Noah and his message. (Trans.) ↩︎

  7. The word thumma in this verse can be translated as “in addition” or “besides.” (Trans.) ↩︎

  8. Hope (rajāʾ) is conventionally used for a desirable event which is uncertain but possible. However, the Qur’an often uses it for any anticipation, speculation and prospect, such as looking forward to God (, ), expecting to encounter God (, , , , , ), anticipating any resurrection (), speculating the Last Day (, , ), expecting any reckoning () and anticipating God’s days (). What is meant in these verses is “belief,” but the Qur’an uses “hope” because the object of belief is hidden from us and thus uncertain to us. This is exactly why it is a matter of īmān (faith, belief). Belief in the unseen is speculative by nature. That is why the Qur’an uses hope, which implies a sense of expectation and uncertainty, when talking about matters of faith in the unseen. The same can be said about the word ẓann (conjecture, reckoning, speculation). In many verses it is used for sure belief—which is its opposite—on the grounds that the object of that belief is speculative by nature. (Trans.) ↩︎

  9. There are two reasons for why we only mentioned God’s attributes of actions (ṣifāt al-fiʿl) as our means of knowing Him: (1) The idolaters did not believe in any essential attributes for God. They interpreted God’s essential attributes as reducing to privative qualities. For instance, saying that God is All-Living, Omnipotent or Omniscient, meant to them, that He is not dead, weak, or ignorant. (2) The verses in question discuss God’s attributes of action. (Auth.) ↩︎

  10. This verse functions as a ḥāl (circumstantial qualifier, participial phrase), describing the condition of God in the last verse: you do not speculate any weight for Allah (). (Auth.) ↩︎

  11. In other words: “He made you grow from the earth vegetatively.” (Trans.) ↩︎

  12. Perhaps these exegetes were inspired by Prophet Abraham’s prayer: My Lord… Save me and my children from worshiping idols. My Lord! Indeed they have misled many people (). However, as the author has pointed out, the primary meanings of these verses are different based on their contextual difference. (Trans.) ↩︎

  13. Nahj al-balāghah. ↩︎

  14. Al-Khiṣāl, part of the hadith of 400. ↩︎

  15. In other words, rajāʾ (hope, speculation) is interpreted as khawf (fear), and waqār (weight) is interpreted as ʿaẓamah (greatness, magnificence, grandeur). (Trans.) ↩︎

  16. Tafsīr al-Qummī, on the authority of Abū al-Jārūd. The same idea is narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās through Sunni chains of narration. ↩︎

  17. Tafsīr al-Qummī, on the authority of Abū al-Jārūd. ↩︎

  18. Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of al-Bukhārī, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Mardawayh. The same account is narrated from Imam al-Ṣādiq in ʿIlal al-aharāʾiʿ, via its chain of narration. ↩︎

  19. Rawḍat al-kāfī, via its chain of narration. ↩︎