Surah Nuh 71:21-28 - Quran Translation Commentary

(71:28) My Lord! Forgive me, my parents, and whosoever entered my house²⁰ as a believer,²¹ and (also forgive) the believing men and believing women and increase not the wrongdoers but in destruction.’

Commentary

12. It was the wealthy class that acted arrogantly against Nuh, advising those they influenced – the poorer layers of the society – that they should in no case abandon the deities mentioned in this passage later (Thanwi).

13. The allusion could be to a detailed plot that the rich and the priestly class of Nuh’s people would have drawn to frustrate his efforts (Au.).

14. Qatadah said that these idols were imported from there into the Arab world too (Ibn Jarir).

Of them, Wadd was in the form of a man, Suwaa` had a woman’s shape, Yaghuth in the form of a lion while Nasr had the shape of an eagle (Alusi and others).

Mahdi Rizq Allah notes in his Sirah work: “Banu Kalb b. Murra of Dumatu al-Jandal had a deity called Wadd. Banu Hudhayl, who lived in a place called Rihat, some three nights off Makkah, owned a deity called Suwa`, and Banu At`am possessed a deity called Yaguth, which was also the deity of the Jahash tribe of Muzhaj al-Yemeniyyah. Another idol was Ya`uq which belonged to Banu Khaywan the Hamdani tribes, while Nasr was the chief god of Dhu al-Kila` of Himyar.”

It may be asked, how could the deities come into the Arab world when the people of Nuh were obliterated? The answer is, perhaps the flood was not universal and the deities, imported at earlier times survived. A second and more plausible answer is that Nuh’s people would have mentioned to their offspring stories of deities that had caused to bring the flood. The knowledge was conveyed from generation to generation until, several generations later, when idols reappeared, they were given the same names, and then imported from there into the Arab world (Au.).

Majid cites quotations: “..it would be a mistake to conclude that this cult was obsolete in Muhammad’s time, for we have sufficient evidence to the contrary. The poet Nabigha says, ‘Wadd, greet thee.’ .. ‘The list of Arabian deities includes a Lion-god (Yaguth) and a Vulture-god (Nasr).’ (Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites.. Ya`uc is said to have been god of the Hamdan or of the Moad or of both tribes’ .. ‘The Talmud and the Syriac doctrine of Addai, mention Nashre, the Aramaic form of Nasr, as an Arabian god.’”

15. The Sufi commentator Thanwi warns: It is images of the virtuous ones of the past generations that ultimately led their offspring to worship them. Inordinate love and respect ended in declaring them gods besides Allah. By extension it may be said that inordinate respect for the relics of the pious people of the past can have the same effect on the hearts. They might create images in the heart. It would be best to avoid having anything to do with the relics.

16. If the flood was universal, because mankind of Nuh’s time lived in one area, then apart from various other factors coming together at that spot and at that time, including a tsunami, should be considered. There are millions of comets. One of them passing by the earth in close range has the power to draw the water of the seas towards the face of the earth facing the comet; in the like manner of the moon, which from a distance of 385,000 km. exerts such tremendous pull on the waters of the earth as to draw them to one side of the earth raising the level sometimes by two meters. In our own solar system, Pluto of diameter 2300 km, has a moon of its own (Charon, of diameter 1200 km), which is just about 19,000 km from Pluto. Had there been water on Pluto, it would all be on the side facing Charon (Au.).

17. That is, into a specific Fire. (Au.).

This ayah supports the ahadith concerning “barzakh.” (Razi).

Yusuf Ali comments: “The Punishment of sin seizes the soul from every side and in every form. Water (drowning) indicates death by suffocation, through the nose, ears, eyes, mouth, throat, and lung. Fire has the opposite effects: it burns the skin, the limbs, the flesh, the brains, the bones, and every part of the body. So the destruction wrought by sin is complete from all points of view. And yet it is not death (xx. 74); for death would be a merciful release from the Penalty, and the soul steeped in sin has closed the gates of Allah’s Mercy on itself. There they will abide, unless and ‘except as Allah willeth’ (vi. 128). For time and eternity, as we conceive them now, have no meaning in the wholly new world.”

18. Qatadah said that Nuh prayed against his people in that manner only after it had been revealed to him the following:

“And it was revealed to Nuh that none of your people will believe except he who had already believed.” (Ibn Jarir).

However, Thanwi warns, that was for a Prophet. Ordinary believers are not allowed to pray for their Muslim opponents’ destruction, as noticed of some of the pseudo Sufis.

19. It is said that they had become such die-hard disbelievers that a father would pass by Nuh and instruct his child, “This is Nuh, a liar. Do not believe in anything he says. This is how my father would warn me” (Ibn Jarir, Kashshaf, Razi, Ibn Kathir).

20. By saying “my house,” Nuh meant “his place of worship.” (Ibn Jarir from Dahhak).

21. That is, not as a hypocrite (Razi). Hence the Prophet’s advice, as recorded by Ahmad, Tirmidhi and Abu Da’ud:

“Let not your companion be but a believer, and let not your food be shared but by a godly person.” (Ibn Kathir).

That is, let not your guests be, but godly persons. The hadith was declared as bearing trustworthy narrators by Munawi, as in Tuhfah. (Au.).