Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 69 Al-Haqqah, Ayat 11-12

اِنَّا لَمَّا طَغَا الۡمَآءُ حَمَلۡنٰكُمۡ فِى الۡجَارِيَةِ ۙ‏ ﴿69:11﴾ لِنَجۡعَلَهَا لَـكُمۡ تَذۡكِرَةً وَّتَعِيَهَاۤ اُذُنٌ وَّاعِيَةٌ‏ ﴿69:12﴾

(69:11) Verily when the water rose to great heights,7 We bore you upon a floating vessel (i.e. the Ark)8 (69:12) so that We might make it an instructive event for you, and retentive ears might preserve its memory.9


Notes

7. The illusion is to the deluge of the Prophet Noah (peace be upon him), in which a whole nation was drowned because of this very crime, and only those people were saved, who had listened to and obeyed the Messenger of Allah.

8. We boarded you: Because the whole human race that exists today has descended from the people who were boarded in the Ark thousands of years ago and thus saved from the deluge. It means: You exist in the world today because in that deluge Allah had caused only the infidels to be drowned and had saved the believers.

9. The conscious ears: the ears which may hear it consciously and take it in. Although the word ear has been used, it implies the hearers who may hear the event and always remember it, take heed from it, and may never forget what dreadful fate the deniers of the Hereafter and the disbelievers of the Messenger of God would ultimately suffer.