⦗71–73⦘ “Recite to them the account of Noah, when he said to his people, ‘My people, if my presence among you and my reminding you of Allah’s signs have become burdensome to you, then in Allah I have placed my trust. So all of you settle upon your course of action and summon your partners. Let no aspect of your plan remain hidden from you; then carry it out against me and grant me no respite. But if you turn away, I have asked you for no reward. My reward rests only with Allah, and I have been commanded to be one of the Muslims.’ But they denied him, so We saved him and those with him in the Ark, made them successors, and drowned those who denied Our signs. See, then, what was the end of those who had been warned.”
The Exalted says to His Prophet: Recite to your people “the account of Noah” concerning his call to his people. He called them to Allah for a long time, remaining among them for a thousand years less fifty, yet his call only increased them in transgression. They grew impatient and weary of him, while he—peace be upon him—neither became lazy nor slackened in calling them. He therefore said:
“My people, if my presence among you and my reminding you of Allah’s signs have become burdensome to you.” That is, if my presence among you and my reminding you, through Allah’s signs—the clear and manifest proofs—of what benefits you (1) have become burdensome and intolerable to you, and you wish to harm me or reject the truth, then “in Allah I have placed my trust.” That is, I rely upon Allah to repel every evil aimed at me or at that to which I call. This is my army and my equipment. As for you, muster whatever manpower and equipment you can.
“So all of you settle upon your course of action,” so that not one of you remains behind, and hold back (2) none of your utmost effort.
“And summon your partners”: bring forth the partners whom you used to worship and take as allies besides Allah, the Lord of all worlds.
“Let no aspect of your plan remain hidden from you.” That is, let it not be uncertain or concealed; rather, let everything be open and public.
“Then carry it out against me.” That is, inflict upon me whatever punishment and harm lies within your power, “and grant me no respite”—do not delay me even for an hour ⦗370⦘ of the day. This is a decisive proof and a tremendous sign of the truth of his messengership and the veracity of what he brought, for he stood alone, with no clan to protect him and no soldiers to shelter him.
He had taken the initiative (3) against his people by denouncing their views as foolish, declaring their religion corrupt, and faulting their gods. They harbored hatred and hostility toward him greater than firmly rooted mountains. They possessed power and might, yet he told them: Gather together—you, your partners, and whoever else you can muster—deploy every plot within your power, and strike me with it if you are able. Yet they proved unable to do any of that.
Thus it became known that he was truly truthful, while they were liars in what they claimed. Hence he said, “But if you turn away” from that to which I have called you, there is no justification for your turning away. It has become clear that you are not turning away from falsehood in favor of truth; rather, you are turning away from a truth whose soundness has been established by proof and toward a falsehood whose corruption has been established by proof.
Moreover, “I have asked you for no reward” in return for delivering my call or for your response to it, so that you might say, “He has come to us to take our wealth,” and use that as a reason for refusing.
“My reward rests only with Allah.” That is, I seek reward and recompense only from Him. Furthermore, I have not commanded you to do something while myself doing the opposite. Rather, “I have been commanded to be one of the Muslims.” Thus I am the first to submit and the first to do what I have commanded you to do.
“But they denied him” after he had called them night and day, secretly and openly. Yet his call only made them flee farther away. “So We saved him and those with him in the Ark,” which We had commanded him to build under Our watchful care. We told him that when the oven overflowed: “Carry aboard it a pair of every kind, along with your family—except those against whom the decree has already passed—and those who believe.” He did so.
Allah then commanded the sky to pour down torrents of water and caused the earth to burst forth with springs, so the waters met for a matter already decreed: “We carried him upon a vessel of planks and nails,” which sailed under Our watchful care, “and made them successors” on earth after destroying the deniers.
Allah then blessed his descendants, made them the survivors, and spread them throughout the regions of the earth. “And We drowned those who denied Our signs” after such clarification and the establishment of proof. “See, then, what was the end of those who had been warned.” It was humiliating destruction and a curse that continued to follow them in every generation that came after them. One hears of them only in terms of blame and sees nothing but censure and condemnation.
Let these deniers therefore beware lest there befall them the same destruction, disgrace, and exemplary punishment that befell those earlier denying peoples.