Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 54 Al-Qamar, Ayat 9-15

كَذَّبَتۡ قَبۡلَهُمۡ قَوۡمُ نُوۡحٍ فَكَذَّبُوۡا عَبۡدَنَا وَقَالُوۡا مَجۡنُوۡنٌ وَّازۡدُجِرَ‏ ﴿54:9﴾ فَدَعَا رَبَّهٗۤ اَنِّىۡ مَغۡلُوۡبٌ فَانْـتَصِرۡ‏ ﴿54:10﴾ فَفَتَحۡنَاۤ اَبۡوَابَ السَّمَآءِ بِمَآءٍ مُّنۡهَمِرٍ ۖ‏ ﴿54:11﴾ وَّفَجَّرۡنَا الۡاَرۡضَ عُيُوۡنًا فَالۡتَقَى الۡمَآءُ عَلٰٓى اَمۡرٍ قَدۡ قُدِرَ​ۚ‏ ﴿54:12﴾ وَحَمَلۡنٰهُ عَلٰى ذَاتِ اَلۡوَاحٍ وَّدُسُرٍۙ‏ ﴿54:13﴾ تَجۡرِىۡ بِاَعۡيُنِنَا​ۚ جَزَآءً لِّمَنۡ كَانَ كُفِرَ‏ ﴿54:14﴾ وَلَقَدْ تَّرَكۡنٰهَاۤ اٰيَةً فَهَلۡ مِنۡ مُّدَّكِرٍ‏ ﴿54:15﴾

(54:9) Before them Noah's people also gave the lie (to his Message).9 They rejected Our servant as a liar, saying: “He is a madman”; and he was rebuffed.10 (54:10) Then he called upon His Lord: “Verily I am vanquished; so come You to my aid.” (54:11) Thereupon We opened the gates of the sky for water to pour down, (54:12) and We made the earth burst forth with springs,11 and all this water converged to fulfil that which had been decreed. (54:13) And We bore Noah on the vessel built of planks and nails,12 (54:14) which sailed on under Our supervision: a reward for him who had been shown ingratitude.13 (54:15) And We left the Ark as a Sign.14 Is there, then, any who will take heed?


Notes

9. That is, they denied that the Hereafter has to take place when man will have to render an account of his deeds; they denied the Prophethood of the Prophet who was making his people aware of this truth; and they denied the teaching of the Prophet, which taught them what to believe and what creed and conduct they should adopt in order to pass the reckoning of the Hereafter.

10. That is, the people not only belied the Prophet but also branded him as a madman; they uttered threats against him, showered him with curses and abuses; and did whatever possibly they could to stop him from preaching the truth, and thus made life extremely difficult for him.

11. That is, the earth so burst forth with springs at the command of Allah that it was no longer earth but presented a scene of the springs all around.

12. This signifies the Ark which the Prophet Noah had built under Allah’s care and guidance even before the coming of the Flood.

13. Literally: This was a vengeance for the sake of him whose kufr had been committed. If kufr be taken in the sense of denial, it would mean: Whose message had been denied and rejected; and if it is taken in the meaning of ingratitude for a blessing, it would mean: Who was indeed a blessing for the people, but had been ungratefully rejected.

14. It may also mean: We left this dreadful punishment as a sign of warning, but in our opinion the preferable meaning is that the Ark was left as a sign of warning. Its resting and existence on a high mountain continued to warn the later generations of the wrath of God for thousand of years and kept on reminding them how the people who had disobeyed God on this earth had met their fall, and how the believers had been rescued from it. Imam Bukhari, Ibn Abi Hatim, Abdur Razzaq and Ibn Jarir have related traditions on the authority of Qatadah saying that at the time the Muslims conquered Iraq and al-Jazirah, this Ark still existed on Mount Judi (and according to a tradition, near the settlement of Baqirda), and the early Muslims had seen it. In the modern times also some people during their flights in the airplanes have sighted an Ark-like object on a peak in this region, which is suspected to be the Ark of Noah, and on the basis of the same, expeditions have been sent from time to time to search it out. (For further details, see (E.N. 47 of Surah Al-Aaraf); (E.N. 46 of Surah Houd), and ( E.N. 25 of Surah Al-Ankabut).