74. For comparison, see (Surah AI-Aaraf, Ayats 59-64); (Surah Younus, Ayats 71-73); (Surah Houd, Ayats 25-48); (Surah Bani Israil, Ayat 3); (Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayats 76-77); (Surah Al-Mominoon, Ayats 23-30); and (Surah Al-Furqan, Ayat 37). For the details of the story of Prophet Noah, see (Surah Al-Ankabut, Ayat 15); (Surah As-Saffat, Ayats 75-82); (Surah Al-Qamar, Ayats 9-15) and Surah Nooh itself.
75. Though they had rejected only one Messenger, it amounted to rejecting all the messengers because all of them had brought one and the same message from Allah. This is an important fact which the Quran has mentioned over and over again in different ways. Thus, even those people who rejected just one Prophet have been regarded as unbelievers though they believed in all other Prophets, for the simple reason that the believer in the truth of one Messenger cannot deny the same truth in other cases unless he does so on account of racial prejudice, imitation of elders, etc.
76. The initial address of Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) to his people, as mentioned at other places in the Quran, was as follows: O my people, worship Allah alone, you have no deity other than Him. Are you not afraid (of Him)? (Surah Al-Mominoon, Ayat 23); and Worship Allah and fear Him and obey me. (Surah Nooh, Ayat 3). That is, are you not afraid of the consequences of adopting an attitude of rebellion against Allah and worshiping others than Him?
77. It has two meanings. (1) I present before you nothing but what Allah reveals to me. (2) I am a Messenger whom you have already known to be a trustworthy and honest and righteous man. When I have been honest and true in my dealings with you, how can I be dishonest and untrustworthy in conveying the message of God? Therefore, you should rest assured that whatever I am presenting is the truth.
78. That is, when I am a truthful and trustworthy Messenger, you are duty-bound to obey me alone as against all other patrons, and carry out my commands and instructions, because I represent the will of God. Obedience to me is in fact obedience to God and disobedience to me is disobedience to Him. In other words, the people are not only required to accept a Messenger as a true Messenger sent by Allah, but it inevitably implies that they have to obey him and follow his Law against all other laws. To reject a Prophet, or to disobey him after accepting him as a Prophet, is tantamount to rebellion against God, which inevitably leads to His wrath. The words “fear Allah” are, therefore, a warning that every hearer should clearly understand the consequences of rejecting the message of a Messenger or of disobeying his commands.
79. This is the second of the two arguments of Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) about the truth of his message, the first being that they had known him as a trustworthy man during his earlier life, which he had lived among them. This second argument implies this: I do not have any selfish motive or personal interest in conveying the message which I am propagating day and night in spite of all sorts of opposition and antagonism from you. At least you should understand this that 1 am sincere in my invitation, and am presenting honestly only that which I believe to be the truth and in following which I see the true success and well-being of humanity at large. I have no personal motive in this that I should fabricate falsehood to fool the people.
These two arguments are among the most important arguments which the Quran has advanced repeatedly as proofs of the truthfulness of the Prophets, and which it presents as criterion for judging Prophethood. A man who before Prophethood has lived a life in a society and has always been found to be honest, truthful and righteous, cannot be doubted even by a prejudiced person that he would suddenly start fabricating falsehood in the name of Allah and making people believe that he has been appointed a Prophet by Him, whereas he has not been. More important than that, such a lie cannot be fabricated with a good intention unless somebody has a selfish motive attached to this kind of fraud. And even when a person indulges in this sort of fraud, he cannot hide it completely from the people. The foul means and devices adopted by him to promote his business become known and all the various selfish interests and gains become all too apparent. Contrary to this, the personal life of a Prophet is full of moral excellencies. It has no trace of the employment of foul means and devices. Not to speak of any personal interest, he expends whatever he has for the cause of a mission which to all appearances is fruitless. No person who possesses any common sense and also has a sense of justice, can ever imagine that a sensible man who was leading a perfectly peaceful life, would come out all of a sudden with a false claim, when such a false claim does not do him any good, but on the contrary, demands all his money, time and energy and earns him nothing in return but the antagonism and hostility of the whole world. Sacrifice of personal interests is the foremost proof of a man’s sincerity; therefore, doubting the intentions and sincerity of a person who has been sacrificing his personal interests for years and years can only be the pastime of the one who himself is selfish and insincere. See (E.N. 70 of Surah Al-Mominoon).
80. Repetition of this sentence is not without reason. In the first case (verse 108), it implied this: You should fear Allah if you treat as false a true and trustworthy Messenger from Him, whom you yourselves have been regarding as a true and trustworthy man in the past. Here it means: You should fear Allah if you doubt the intention of a person who is working sincerely only for the reformation of the people without any personal interest. This thing has been stressed because the chiefs of Prophet Noah’s (peace be upon him) people, in order to find fault with his message of truth, accused him of struggling merely for his personal superiority: He merely intends to obtain superiority over you. (Surah Al-Mominoon, Ayat 24).
81. This answer to Prophet Noah’s (peace be upon him) message of truth was given by the chiefs, elders and nobles of his people as mentioned in (Surah Houd, Ayat 27). In answer to this, those chiefs of his people, who had rejected his message: said, We see that you are no more than a mere man like ourselves, and we also see that only the meanest from among us have become your followers without due consideration, and we find nothing in you that might give you superiority over us. This shows that those who believed in Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) were mostly the poor people, and ordinary workmen, or some youth who enjoyed no position in society. As for the influential and rich people, they had become his bitter opponents, and were trying by every trick and allurement to keep the common man behind them. One of the arguments they advanced against Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) was this: Had there been some weight and substance in Noah’s message, the rich people, scholars, religious divines, nobles and wise people of the community should have accepted it, but none of them has believed in him; the only people to follow him are the foolish people belonging to the lowest stratum of society, who have no common-sense. Now how can the noble and high ranking people like us join the company of the common people?
Precisely the same thing was being said by the unbelieving Quraish about the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his followers. Abu Sufyan in reply to the questions asked by Heraclius had said: Muhammad (peace be upon him) has been followed by the poor and weak of our people. What they seemed to be thinking was that truth was that which was considered as truth by the chiefs and elders of the community, for only they had the necessary common-sense and power of judgment. As for the common people, their being common was a proof that they lacked sense and judgment. As such, if a thing was accepted by them but rejected by the chiefs, it meant that the thing itself was without worth and value. The disbelievers of Makkah even went further. They argued that a Prophet could not be a common man. If God had to appoint a Prophet, He would have appointed a great chief to be a Prophet. They say: why has not the Quran been sent down to a prominent man of our two cities (Makkah and Taif)? (Surah Az-Zukhruf, Ayat 31).
82. This is the first answer to their objection, which was based on the assumption that the poor people belonging to the working classes and lower social strata who performed humble duties, did not possess any mental maturity and were without intelligence and common sense. Therefore, their belief was without any rational basis, and so unreliable, and their deeds were of no value at all. To this Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) replies: I have no means of judging the motives and assessing the worth of the deeds of the people who accept my message and act accordingly. This is not my concern but the responsibility of God.
83. This is the second answer to their objection, which implied that since those who were gathering around Noah (peace be upon him) as believers, belonged to the lowest social strata, none of the nobles would like to join them, as if to say: O Noah, should we believe in you in order to be counted among the low-ranking people like the slaves and servants and workmen? To this Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) answers: How can I adopt this irrational attitude that I should attend earnestly to those who do not like to listen to me, but drive away those who have believed and followed me? I am simply, a warner, who has declared openly that the way you are following is wrong and will lead you to ruin, and the way that I am inviting to is the way of salvation far all. Now it is up to you whether you heed my warning and adopt the right path, or go on following blindly the way to your ruin. It does not behoove me that I should start inquiring into the castes and ancestry and trades of the people who have heeded my warning and adopted the right path. They might be mean in your sight, but I cannot drive them away and wait to see when the nobles will give up the path of destruction and adopt the way of salvation and success instead.
Precisely the same thing was going on between the Holy Prophet and the disbelievers of Makkah when these verses were revealed, and one can fully understand why the dialogue between Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) and the chiefs of his people, has been related here. The chiefs of the disbelievers of Makkah thought exactly the same way. They said how they could sit side by side with the slaves like Bilal, Ammar and Suhaib and other men of the working class, as if to say: Unless these poor people are turned out, there can be no possibility that the nobles may consider to become believers; it is impossible that the master and the slave should stand shoulder to shoulder with each other. In answer to this the Prophet (peace be upon him) was commanded by Allah to tell the vain and arrogant disbelievers plainly that the poor believers could not be driven out of Islam just for their sake: O Muhammad, you attend earnestly to him who has shown indifference (to your message), whereas you have no responsibility if he does not reform himself; and the one who comes to you earnestly, fearing Allah, to him you pay no attention. Nay, this indeed is an admonition, so let him, who wills, accept it. (Surah Abasa, Ayats 5-12).
And do not drive away those who invoke their Lord morning and evening and are engaged in seeking His favor. You are not in any way accountable for them, nor are they in any way accountable for you: so, if you should drive them away, you shall be counted among the unjust. As a matter of fact, in this way We have made some of them a means of test for others, so that, seeing them, they should say: Are these the people from among us upon whom Allah has showered His blessings? Yes, does Allah not know His grateful servants better than they? (Surah Al-Anaam, Ayats 52-53).
84. The words in the text may have two meanings. (1) You will be stoned to death. (2) You will be showered with abuses from all sides, and cursed and reviled wherever you go.
85. That is, they have rejected me completely and absolutely and now there is no hope of their becoming believers. Here nobody should have the misunderstanding that just after this conversation between Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) and the chiefs of his people, and the rejection of his message by them, the Prophet submitted a report to Allah that his people had rejected him and now He should settle the accounts between them. The Quran has mentioned at different places the details of the long struggle that went on for centuries between Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) and his people, who persisted in unbelief. According to (verse 14 of Surah Al-Ankabut), the struggle continued for 950 years: He (Noah) remained among them for a thousand years save fifty years. Prophet Noah during this long period studied their collective behavior, generation after generation, and came to the conclusion that they had no inclination to accept the truth, and formed the opinion that in their future generations also there was no hope of anybody becoming a believer and adopting the righteous attitude: My Lord, if You should leave them, they will lead Your servants astray, and they will bear as children none but sinners and disbelievers. (Surah Nooh, Ayat 27). Allah Himself confirmed this opinion of Noah, saying: No more of your people will believe in you now than those who have already believed. So do not grieve at their misdeeds. (Sura Houd, Ayat 36).
86. You should not only give Your judgment as to who is in the right and who is in the wrong, but deliver Your Judgment in such a manner that the followers of the truth are saved and the followers of falsehood are completely annihilated from the earth.
87. Laden ship: because the ship became loaded with the believers and the pairs of animals from every species. For further details, see Surah Houd, Ayat 40.
88. For comparison, see (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayats 65-72); (Surah Houd, Ayats 50-60); and for further details of this story, see (Surah HaMim Sajdah, Ayats 13-16); (Surah Al- Ahqaf, Ayats 21-26); (Surah Az-Zariyat, Ayats 41,45); (Surah Al-Qamar, Ayats 18-22); (Surah Al-Haqqah, Ayats 4-8); and (Surah AI-Fajr, Ayats 6-8).