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1. This is a mention of
an immutable law of the Almighty: When a people's moral degeneration reaches
an extent that they must face a decisive punishment from the Almighty,
a Rasul is assigned to them by Him to warn and admonish them. If they submit
to him, they are spared; otherwise they, as a nation, are wiped out
from the face of the earth. It was for this very purpose that the Almighty
sent forth the Prophet Nuh (sws) to his people.
2. This is in clear simple
terms a three-point agenda which formed the crux of Nuh's message. These
three points are, in fact, the basis of da‘wah (preaching) of all the Prophets
of Allah.
3. Accepting faith, as
is evident from the Qur’an, absolves a person of his earlier sins.
4. This appointed time
is governed by the law of the Almighty concerning the rise and fall of
nations which are the direct addressees of the Rusul of Allah. As long
as such a nation strongly adheres to the three points mentioned above,
it continues to flourish and prosper in this world. Once it deviates from
these directives, its existence is threatened with extinction.
5. The Prophets of Allah
invested all their time and effort in trying to warn their people of the
punishment which they would encounter if they did not mend their ways.
In this regard, the Prophet Nuh (sws) has the distinction of warning
his people for a very, very long period. His earnest calls should have
melted their hearts and stirred their souls if they had responded properly.
However, the more he called them, the more they ran away from him.
6. The verse portrays
the reaction of the leaders of Nuh's people and spells out the basic reason
for their denial: pride and arrogance.
7. This is a mention of
the second phase of Nuh's mission in which, seeing their denial, he augmented
his crusade and launched an extensive effort to beseech his nation: for
a true preacher does not get frustrated at the obstinacy of his people;
in fact the more they evade his calls the more he increases his pitch and
the more they show hostility to him, the more gracious he becomes.
8. The promise of the
Almighty, in case the people repent from their ill-ways is prosperity and
affluence in their national capacity.
9. Here the earnest pleadings
of Nuh (sws) have given way to stern words of rebuke. A nation is often
misled by its wealth and riches in the time of respite allotted to it by
the Almighty according to His laws. They consider this period of reprieve
as eternal and often cite it as a testimony of their own rectitude. The
people of Nuh (sws) too had become deeply engrossed in their misdeeds.
This verse prods them that they must not misunderstand the purpose of the
freedom given to them by Allah's majesty and grace; they must be mindful
of the precious time they are loosing and if they continue to be indifferent
the Almighty shall have to decide their fate once and for all.
10. This verse states
the reason that why must these people, who consider the Day of Judgement
as something unlikely, remain mindful of His grace and majesty mentioned
in the previous verse: if the Almighty has shown such a profound display
of His Power and Grandeur in creating man, He can easily create him a second
time.
11. Here the words of
the Prophet Nuh (sws) are interposed by those of the Almighty which continue
up to the verse twenty. These verses mention the various manifestations
of the Almighty's power and providence present in the world around man.
The way He sustains and cherishes His creations shows that one day each
person shall be held accountable for His deeds.
12. This simile is both
a claim and a substantiation of the claim: Allah has grown man from this
earth like vegetation; just as He enlivens dead vegetation, He will one
day bring forth the dead from the earth.
13. This is a mention
of the reaction of Nuh’s nation (sws), in his own words, in the third phase
of his mission when the time fixed for its respite was beginning to run
out. His people had totally disobeyed him and had followed the footsteps
of their haughty leadership.
14. These are the names
of the prominent idols which the people of Nuh (sws) worshipped, and which
continued to be worshipped for centuries by the Arabs even after these
people had been destroyed.
15. This is the final
prayer of Nuh (sws) in which he has invoked the Almighty's wrath on his
people since they had denied him completely.
16. These are the words
of the Almighty which interrupt Nuh’s prayer (sws) signifying that his
prayer had come at such a right time that it had been accepted by the Almighty
as soon as he had uttered its very first sentence. In other words, the
time when Nuh (sws) raised his hands in prayer coincided with the ending
time fixed by Allah as regards the respite to be given to the people of
Nuh (sws). The verses also refer to the punishments of the Herein and the
Hereafter encountered by them. In this world, they were drowned in a great
flood while in the Hereafter they would be cast in Hell. The punishment
of the next world has been stated in the past tense to show its certainty.
17. These harsh words
should cause no surprise, for it was almost for nine hundred years that
the Prophet Nuh (sws) had earnestly pleaded with his people to mend
their ways.
18. It seems, from these
words, that, in the final stages, Nuh (sws) had declared to his people
that whoever wanted to save himself from the imminent punishment should
take refuge in his house after accepting faith.
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