Surah Hud 11:36-49 - Quran Translation Commentary

(11:36) Then it was revealed to Nuh that, ‘No one will believe of your people (any further) except for he who has already believed. So, do not be distressed by what they are doing.

(11:37) And build the boat under Our supervision and instruction,⁴⁸ and speak not to me about the wrong doers. They are to be drowned.'

(11:38) So, he set himself to building the boat. Now, whenever the chiefs of his people passed by him, they poked fun at him. He said, ‘If you poke fun at us today, then, surely, we are soon to poke fun at you the way you are poking fun (at us now).⁴⁹

(11:39) Soon you shall know to whom comes the chastisement disgracing him and on whom will be loosened a lasting punishment.'

(11:40) At length when Our command came and the oven⁵⁰ gushed forth, We directed, ‘Load into it two of every (kind of animal) male and female, as also your family, and those who have believed, except for him about whom the word has preceded. And, (the truth is), believed not with him but a few.

(11:41) So he (Nuh) said (to his followers), ‘Embark on to it. In Allah's name is its sailing and its anchoring. Verily, my Lord is Very Forgiving, Very Kind.'

(11:42) And it was sailing with them amidst mountain like waves.⁵¹ And Nuh called out to his son who was at another place ‘My son. Embark with us and be not among the infidels.'

(11:43) He replied, ‘I shall take refuge on a mountain. That will save me from the water.' Said (Nuh), ‘There is no savior this day from Allah's decree, except for him whom He showed mercy.' And a wave came in between the two and he was of the drowned.

(11:44) It was said, ‘O earth, swallow your water, and O heavens withhold.'⁵² So the water abated, the affair ended, and it berthed on Judiyy.⁵³ And it was said, ‘Away with a wrongdoing people.'

(11:45) And Nuh cried out to his Lord saying, ‘O my Lord! My son is of my family and surely, Your promise is true. However, You are the Most Just of the judges.

(11:46) He said, ‘O Nuh! Surely, he is not of your family.⁵⁴ He is an unrighteous deed.⁵⁵ Therefore, ask me not about which you have no knowledge. I admonish you not to be of the ignorant (ones).'⁵⁶

(11:47) He said: ‘My Lord, I seek Your refuge that I should ask You about what I have no knowledge. And, unless You forgive me and show me mercy, surely, I will be of the losers.'

(11:48) It was said, ‘O Nuh. Disembark in peace from Us and blessings be on you and on the people with you;⁵⁷ and nations whom We shall grant provision for a while, and then a painful chastisement shall strike them.⁵⁸

(11:49) These are tidings of the Unseen that We reveal unto you. You did not know about it, nor your people, before this.⁵⁹ So observe patience. Surely the (good) end is for the godfearing.

Commentary

48. Ibn `Abbas and others have said that Nuh did not know how to build a ship. Therefore he was ordered to build following Allah's direction and supervision (Ibn Jarir).

49. It was a large boat and took several years to build. Whenever the chiefs of the town passed by, they made fun of him. Someone would say, “So, now you have become a carpenter after you were a Prophet?!” Another would say, “So, you are making a boat. Are you? But where is it going to sail? In the sands?” (Ibn Jarir, Zamakhshari).

50. Although there have been minority opinions saying that “tannur” is the face of the earth, and a second opinion is that it is the break of the dawn, the great majority of the Salaf believed that the allusion is to the fire pit made in the earth for baking bread (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir, Shawkani).

51. This is no exaggeration. The tallest recorded waves measured 112 feet (Random House Encyclopedia, 1990 ed., p. 226).

52. The earth had been ordered to throw out its underground water and the sky was ordered to empty itself. A verse in another part of the Qur'an says (54: 11, 12),

فَفَتَحْنَا أَبْوَابَ السَّمَاءِ بِمَاءٍ مُنْهَمِرٍ (11) وَفَجَّرْنَا الْأَرْضَ عُيُونًا فَالْتَقَى الْمَاءُ عَلَى أَمْرٍ قَدْ قُدِرَ [القمر : 11 ، 12]

“Then We opened up the doors of heaven with water and we caused the earth to gush forth with springs” (Shawkani).

53. There is nothing in the hadith literature neither sahih nor da`if identifying Judiyy. Therefore, opinions have varied among the classical commentators with each opinion as indeterminate as the other (Au.).

Although what the so called modern research concludes is quite inconclusive, we may note what Asad has to say at this point, ‘This mountain, known in ancient times as Qardu, is situated in the regions of Lake Van, almost twenty five miles north east of the town of Jazirat Ibn `Umar, capital of the modern Syrian district of Al Jazirah.’ It ‘owes its fame to the Mesopotamian tradition which identifies it, and not Mount Ararat, with the mountain on which Noah's ark rested...This localization of the ark's resting place ... is certainly based on Babylonian tradition’ (Encyclopedia of Islam I, 1059). We should, however, remember that the designation Ararat (the Assyrian Uratu) at one time included the whole area to the south of Lake Van, in which Jabal Judi is situated: this might explain the Biblical statement that ‘the ark rested ... upon the mountains of Ararat’ (Genesis, viii, 4).”

54. Moved by the words, “He is not of your family,” and “He is an unrighteous deed”, and the words in Surah al Tahrim (66: 10), “the two of them were dishonest to their husbands”, some of the classical commentators have expressed the opinion that the son mentioned here was not truly Nuh's progeny, rather his wife's son, born of adultery. It could be a report of Israeli origin. But Ibn `Abbas, Sa`id b. Jubayr, Mujahid, `Ikrimah, Dahhak, Maymun b. Mahran, and many others have strongly opposed this opinion. They have said that no Prophet's wife ever committed adultery. Ibn `Abbas has explained the words “He is an unrighteous deed,” as meaning, he was different from his father in deeds and intentions. As for the words, “he is not of your family” the meaning is, “he is not of those of your family that We had promised to rescue from the punishment (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

55. A second opinion that has come down from Ibn `Abbas is that the words following words should be translated as,

إِنَّهُ عَمَلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٍ [هود : 46]

“that indeed is an unrighteous deed,” meaning, “Your request that We save your son from drowning, although you are aware that he is an unbeliever, is not a righteous deed.” Mujahid was also of this opinion (Ibn Jarir).

56. It is reasonable to believe that Nuh (asws) was not too sure of his son, whether he was a believer or not, either because the son had not opened up with his father, as it happens in many father son relationships, or, he acted hypocritically all the time to leave the father in doubt (Au.).

57. The construction of the phrase allows for the meaning that peace will be upon those who were with Nuh in the boat as well as with their progeny. Ka’b al Qurazi, Ibn Jurayj, Ibn Zayd and others were inclined to this meaning, and is preferred by Ibn Jarir.

58. In view of this verse, there was general agreement among the earliest commentators that today's entire mankind is the progeny of those who were with Nuh on that boat. This view is supported by another verse (69: 11), “When the waters rose We took you onto the boat.” Ibn `Abbas in fact is reported to have said (Qurtubi) that Nuh was second Adam (asws). That implies that the flood was universal, drowning everyone except those in the boat. If the flood was local, how does one account for mountain like waves? That is either possible if the boat was set adrift by high waters into the sea, or, alternatively, a powerful tsunami had struck.

As regards the difficulties in accepting the universality of the flood, the following might be noted.

First, the period of Nuh's advent is unknown. It could have been millions of years ago. Scientific evidences that are now emerging which suggest that man might have inhabited the earth as early as ten million years ago. But, there is no reason why man should not have been there prior to that. Lack of evidence does not rule out the possibility. In fact, hard evidences are impossible to obtain beyond a million years. The earth destroys everything. If fossil evidences of other life forms many million years older are available, it could be because those life forms were so common then. Out of millions, a few fossils survived. In contrast, early humans could not have been but a few thousand in numbers if not a few hundred.

Secondly, it is possible that humankind occupied only a specific area of the total land mass then above water. Another possibility is that all continents were then no more than just one land mass. (The scientists believe [The McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, art., Evolution of Continents] that it was some 200 million years ago that the continents started to split from a single land mass. But, there is no firm evidence yet). At all events, if the land mass was one, then the flood was universal.

Thirdly, with regard to the question as to what was the sin of the rest of the world to be destroyed by a universal flood, the commentators have said that if Allah wished He could destroy everyone on the earth whether falling in Nuh's jurisdiction or not. Why can not one who creates, destroy his creation at will?

Fourthly, it is possible that the people whom Nuh did not address directly, were as criminally disposed to truth, or more, as Nuh's own nation.

Finally, as to the question, where did all the water come from, the answer is as follows. Firstly, the earth has been losing water molecules into space. Although an infinitesimally tiny amount every year, but how much has it lost over millions of years is beyond assessment now. If that water is put back on the earth's surface, surely, the ocean levels would rise high submerging much part of land. In fact, scientists believe that millions of years ago, when all the waters were in the skies (Asimov's New Guide to Science, p. 229), at one time it rained continuously for hundreds of years at a stretch. Secondly, the present depth of the oceans varies from 3.7 km. (average) to 11 km. (maximum). In comparison, the land surface is only about less than a kilometer above the sea level. How and when did the land under the sea sink to the present level? If the depth of the oceans was not always the same as now, then, the land mass above water would have been much less. In that case several weeks of heavy down pour, plus the bursting out of water from below due to geological reasons, accompanied by a powerful tsunami, would have brought enough water on the surface to sink the entire land mass except for the mountains over one of which the boat anchored.

Having said that, we might also point out that there is no consensus of opinion among the Muslim scholars over the issue of universality of the flood. That is because, although asserted by the Bible, the Qur'an does not state this in categorical terms. We have presented a few points only to demonstrate that for it to have happened, several possibilities could have existed. While Sheikh Muhammad `Abduh believed that the floods were universal, and Rashid Rida said that the land mass must have been one, Alusi was inclined to believe that the floods were not universal, and Nuh was ordered to carry with him just those animals in the boat that he and his followers would have needed for immediate survival after leaving the boat.

The fact that Nuh could not have possibly taken all the animals of the planet on to his boat, is also indicative that the flood was perhaps not universal (Au.).

59. Asad notes: “Although the story of Noah had been vaguely known to the Arabs even before the advent of the Prophet Muhammad, they and the Prophet with them were entirely unaware of the details as narrated in the preceding Qur'anic account (Razi)...In this connection it should be remembered and it cannot be stressed too often that Anarrative” as such is never the purpose of the Qur'an. Whenever it relates the stories of the earlier prophets, or alludes to ancient legends or historical events that took place before the advent of Islam or during the lifetime of the Prophet, the aim is, invariably, a moral lesson; and since one and the same event, or even legend, has usually many facets revealing as many moral implications, the Qur'an reverts again and again to the same stories, but every time with a slight variation of stress on this or that aspect of the fundamental truths underlying the Qur'anic revelation as a whole.”