“And he said, ‘Embark therein; in the name of Allah is its course and its anchorage. Indeed, my Lord is Forgiving and Merciful.’ (41) And it sailed with them through waves like mountains, and Noah called out to his son, who was apart from them: ‘My dear son, embark with us, and do not be among the disbelievers.’ (42) He said, ‘I will take refuge on a mountain that will protect me from the water.’ Noah said, ‘There is no protector today from the decree of Allah except one to whom He shows mercy.’ Then the waves came between them, and he was among those who drowned. (43)”

“And he said, ‘Embark therein’”: that is, Noah said to them, “Embark therein,” meaning, in the Ark. “In the name of Allah is its course and its anchorage”: Hamzah, al-Kisa’i, and Hafs read the first term as majraha (“its sailing”), with a fathah on the initial m, and the second as mursaha (“its anchorage”), [with a dammah on its initial m] (1). Muhammad ibn Muhaysin read majraha wa marsaha, with a fathah on both initial m’s, derived from “it sailed” and “it came to anchor”; that is, [in the name of Allah] (2) are its sailing and its anchoring. Both are verbal nouns.

The other reciters read mujraha wa mursaha, with a dammah on both initial m’s, derived from “it was made to sail” and “it was brought to anchor”; that is, in the name of Allah are its being made to sail and its being brought to anchor [and these too are verbal nouns] (3). This is like His saying: “My Lord, let me land at a blessed landing place” (The Believers 23:29), and, “My Lord, cause me to enter a sound entrance and bring me out a sound exit” (The Night Journey 17:80). What is meant in these expressions is disembarking, entering, and leaving.

“Indeed, my Lord is Forgiving and Merciful.” Al-Dahhak said: Whenever Noah wished the Ark to sail, he would say, “In the name of Allah,” and it would sail; and whenever he wished it to come to anchor, he would say, “In the name of Allah,” and it would come to anchor.

“And it sailed with them through waves like mountains.” Waves are the raised waters produced when the wind blows fiercely upon them. They are compared to mountains because of their immense size and height above the water. “And Noah called out to his son”: Canaan. Ubayd ibn Umayr said that he was Shem, and that he was a disbeliever. “Who was apart from them”: apart from Noah, having not boarded the Ark. “My dear son, embark with us”: Ibn Amir, Hamzah, Asim, and Yaqub recited this with the b pronounced distinctly (4), while the others assimilated it into the m. “And do not be among the disbelievers,” lest you perish.

His son said to him, “I will take refuge”: that is, I will go and seek refuge “on a mountain that will protect me from the water,” preserving me from drowning. Noah said to him, “There is no protector today from the decree of Allah,” meaning, from Allah’s punishment, “except one to whom He shows mercy.” It was said that “one” is in the nominative case, meaning: None can prevent Allah’s punishment except Allah, the Most Merciful. It was also said that it is in the accusative case, meaning: None is protected except one to whom Allah shows mercy—just as in His saying, “in a pleasant life” (The Inevitable 69:21), meaning, a life that is pleasing. “Then the waves came between them, and he was”: that is, he became “among those who drowned.”