“…a knight, son of knights.’ ”
He was saying, “He wants to abase every knight born of knights and exalt every shepherd born of shepherds.”

The Messenger of God ﷺ then seized him by the collar of his cloak and said,

“Do I not see upon you the attire of one who lacks reason?”

He continued:

“When the Prophet of God, Noah — peace be upon him — felt death approaching, he said to his son, ‘I shall relate my final counsel to you. I command you to do two things and I forbid you two things. I command you to affirm that there is no god but Allah. Were the seven heavens and the seven earths placed on one side of a scale and ‘There is no god but Allah’ placed on the other, the statement would outweigh them all. And if the seven heavens and the seven earths were an un-shaped ring, “There is no god but Allah” together with “Glory be to Allah and praise be to Him” would encompass them. These words are the prayer of every created thing, and through them all creatures receive their provision.
I forbid you from associating partners with Allah and from arrogance.’”

I asked — or it was asked — “Messenger of Allah, we know what associating partners means, but what is arrogance? Is it that one of us owns two fine sandals with excellent straps?”
He replied, “No.”

“Is it that one of us has a handsome cloak to wear?”
He said, “No.”

“Is it that one of us possesses a mount to ride?”
He said, “No.”

“Is it that one of us has companions who sit with him?”
He said, “No.”

I asked — or it was asked — “Then what is arrogance?”
He said, “To reject the truth and to belittle people.”

This chain of transmission is sound, yet the two Ṣaḥīḥs did not record it.

Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī also narrated it through ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Sulaymān, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, that the Messenger of God ﷺ said,

“In Noah’s counsel to his son he said: ‘I enjoin upon you two traits and forbid you two traits,’”

and he related something similar.

Abū Bakr al-Bazzār likewise reported it: from Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿīd, from Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Ḍarīr, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, from the Prophet ﷺ. The stronger view, however, is that it goes back to ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, as related by Aḥmad and al-Ṭabarānī; God knows best.

The People of the Book claim that when Noah boarded the Ark he was six hundred years old. We have already cited a similar report from Ibn ʿAbbās, who added that he lived another three hundred and fifty years afterward. This statement requires scrutiny; if it cannot be reconciled with the indication of the Qur’an, it is purely erroneous. The Qur’an indicates that Noah remained among his people, after he had been sent to them and before the Flood, for one thousand years less fifty, as the Exalted says:

“We certainly sent Noah to his people, and he remained among them for a thousand years minus fifty; then the Flood overtook them while they were wrongdoers.” (Q 29:14)

God alone knows how long he lived thereafter. If what has been related from Ibn ʿAbbās is indeed preserved — that he was commissioned at the age of four hundred and eighty years and that he lived after the Flood