“Indeed, those who believe, do righteous deeds, and humble themselves before their Lord—they are the people of Paradise, abiding therein forever. (23) The likeness of the two groups is that of the blind and deaf and the seeing and hearing. Are they equal in comparison? Will you not then take heed? (24) We certainly sent Noah to his people: ‘I am indeed a clear warner to you: (25) Worship none but Allah. Indeed, I fear for you the punishment of a painful Day.’ (26)”

“Those who believe, do righteous deeds, and humble themselves”: Ibn Abbas said, “They feared.” Qatada said, “They turned back in repentance.” Mujahid said, “They found tranquility.” It was also said: “They humbled themselves.” “Before their Lord” means: for their Lord. “They are the people of Paradise, abiding therein forever.”

“The likeness of the two groups”—the believer and the disbeliever—“is that of the blind and deaf and the seeing and hearing. Are they equal in comparison?” Al-Farra’ said: He did not say, “Are they equal,” using the plural, because the blind and deaf are in one category, as though they were a single person, since they describe the disbeliever; and the seeing and hearing are in one category, as though they were a single person, since they describe the believer. “Will you not then take heed?” That is, (1) take admonition.

Allah, Exalted is He, says: “We certainly sent Noah to his people: ‘I am indeed a clear warner to you.’” Ibn Kathir, Abu Amr, al-Kisa’i, and Yaqub (2) recited “that I am,” with the hamzah pronounced with an opening vowel—meaning, “with the message that I am”; the remaining reciters pronounced it with a kasrah vowel, meaning: “So he said, ‘Indeed, I am,’” because sending carries the meaning of speaking: “Indeed, I am a clear warner to you.”

“Worship none but Allah. Indeed, I fear for you the punishment of a painful Day”—that is, a punishment that causes pain. Ibn Abbas said: Noah, peace be upon him, was commissioned when he was forty years old. He remained calling his people for nine hundred and fifty years and lived for sixty years after the Flood; thus, he lived for one thousand and fifty years.

Muqatil said: He was commissioned when he was one hundred years old.

It was also said: He was commissioned when he was fifty years old.

And it was said: He was commissioned when he was two hundred and fifty years old, remained calling his people for nine hundred and fifty years, and lived for two hundred and fifty years after the Flood. Thus, he lived for one thousand four hundred and fifty years. Allah, Exalted is He, says: “And he remained among them a thousand years, less fifty years” (al-Ankabut 29:14)—that is, he remained among them calling them.