Tafseer of Hud · Hud · 11:38
And he constructed the ship, and whenever an assembly of the eminent of his people passed by him, they ridiculed him. He said, "If you ridicule us, then we will ridicule you just as you ridicule.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the word of Allah the Exalted: وَيَصْنَعُ الْفُلْكَ وَكُلَّمَا مَرَّ عَلَيْهِ مَلأٌ مِنْ قَوْمِهِ سَخِرُوا مِنْهُ قَالَ إِنْ تَسْخَرُوا مِنَّا فَإِنَّا نَسْخَرُ مِنْكُمْ كَمَا تَسْخَرُونَ ("And he built the ark, and every time a group of the notables of his people passed by him, they mocked him. He said: If you mock us, then we mock you just as you mock. Soon you will know.") (38)
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah the Exalted says: And Nūḥ built the ship, and every time a group of the notables of his people passed by him ("they mocked him") — they laughed at Nūḥ and said to him: "Have you become a carpenter after prophethood, building a ship on dry land?" Then Nūḥ would say to them: ("If you mock us") — if you laugh at us today, then we will laugh at you in the Hereafter, just as you laugh at us in this world. ("Soon you will know"), when you behold the punishment of Allah, which of us it was that wronged himself.
Nūḥ's building of the ship was as follows:
18133 — Al-Muthannā and Ṣāliḥ ibn Mismār related to me, they said: Ibn Abī Maryam related to us, he said: Mūsā ibn Yaʿqūb informed us, he said: Fāʾid, the freedman of ʿUbaydallāh ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Rāfiʿ, related to me: that Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Rabīʿa informed him: that ʿĀʾisha, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, informed him: that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "If Allah had wished to show mercy to anyone of the people of Nūḥ, He would have shown mercy to the mother of the child!" The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Nūḥ remained among his people for nine hundred and fifty years, calling to Allah, until the end of his time drew near. He planted a tree, which grew and shot out in all directions. Then he cut it down and began to build a ship. People passed by and asked him, and he said: 'I am building a ship!' They mocked him and said: 'You are building a ship on dry land — how will it sail!' He said: 'Soon you will know.' When it was completed, and the oven boiled over, and the water gathered in the streets, the mother of the child was afraid for him — she loved him with an intense love. She went out toward the mountain until she reached a third of the way. When the water reached her, she climbed until she had reached two-thirds. When the water reached her, she climbed until she stood upon the mountain. When the water reached her neck, she lifted the child up with both her hands — until the water carried her away. If Allah had wished to show mercy to anyone of them, He would have shown mercy to the mother of the child."
18134 — Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, he said: It was reported to us that the length of the ship was three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, its height thirty cubits, and its door in its width.
18135 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, he said: Mubārak related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, he said: The length of the ship of Nūḥ was twelve hundred cubits, and its width six hundred cubits.
18136 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Mufaḍḍal ibn Faḍāla, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān, on the authority of Yūsuf ibn Mahrān, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: The apostles (al-ḥawāriyyūn) said to ʿĪsā ibn Maryam: "Could you raise up for us a man who witnessed the ark, so that he may tell us about it!" He went with them until he came to a sandhill. He took a handful of that sand in his hand and said: "Do you know what this is?" They said: "Allah and His Messenger know best." He said: "This is the shinbone of Ḥām ibn Nūḥ." He struck the sandhill with his staff and said: "Arise, by the permission of Allah!" And he arose, shaking the sand from his head — he had turned grey. ʿĪsā said to him: "Did you die like this?" He said: "No, but I died as a youth. However, I thought it was the Last Hour, and on account of that I turned grey." He said: "Tell us about the ship of Nūḥ." He said: "Its length was twelve hundred cubits, its width six hundred cubits. It had three decks: a deck for the beasts of burden and the wild animals, a deck for the people, and a deck for the birds. When the dung of the beasts of burden increased, Allah revealed to Nūḥ: 'Rub the tail of the elephant.' He rubbed it, and a male pig and a female pig came out, which began to eat the dung. When the mouse began to gnaw at the middle part of the ship, Allah revealed to Nūḥ: 'Strike the lion between its eyes.' Out of its nostrils came a male cat and a female cat, which began to eat the mice." ʿĪsā asked him: "How did Nūḥ know that the lands had been drowned?" He said: "He sent the raven to bring him news. The raven found a carcass and alighted upon it. Nūḥ cursed it with fear, and so ever since it shuns dwelling-places." He said: "Then he sent the dove, which returned with an olive leaf in its beak and clay on its feet. Thus he knew that the lands had been drowned." He said: "Nūḥ embraced her around the neck with the green color that is on her neck, and prayed for her that she would be in companionship and safety. Therefore ever since she likes to live near dwelling-places." He said: "We said: O Messenger of Allah, shall we not take him with us to our family so that he may sit with us and tell us?" He said: "How can he follow you, when he has no provision?" He said to him: "Return, by the permission of Allah." And he returned to dust.
18137 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of someone he did not suspect, on the authority of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr al-Laythī: that he used to relate that it had reached him that they seized Nūḥ by the throat — that is, his people — and strangled him until he lost consciousness. When he came to, he would say: "O Allah, forgive my people, for they do not know." Until, as they persisted in disobedience and their sin grew great upon the earth, and his condition and theirs dragged on for a long time, and the trial of them weighed heavily upon him, and he awaited generation after generation, but no generation came that was not worse than the one before it — until the last of them said: "This was also so with our fathers and grandfathers — just as mad!" — they accepted nothing from him. Until Nūḥ complained of this concerning their condition to Allah the Exalted, as Allah has told us in His Book: رَبِّ إِنِّي دَعَوْتُ قَوْمِي لَيْلا وَنَهَارًا * فَلَمْ يَزِدْهُمْ دُعَائِي إِلا فِرَارًا to the end of the account, until he said: رَبِّ لا تَذَرْ عَلَى الأَرْضِ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ دَيَّارًا * إِنَّكَ إِنْ تَذَرْهُمْ يُضِلُّوا عِبَادَكَ وَلا يَلِدُوا إِلا فَاجِرًا كَفَّارًا to the end of the account [Sūrat Nūḥ: 5-27]. When Nūḥ complained of them to Allah and asked Him for aid against them, Allah revealed to him: أَنِ اصْنَعِ الْفُلْكَ بِأَعْيُنِنَا وَوَحْيِنَا ... وَلا تُخَاطِبْنِي فِي الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا — that is: after today — إِنَّهُمْ مُغْرَقُونَ . Nūḥ devoted himself to building the ark and left his people alone. He began cutting wood, forging iron, and preparing the materials of the ark from pitch and other things that only he could arrange. His people passed by him while he was occupied with this work, and they mocked him and laughed at him. He said: إِنْ تَسْخَرُوا مِنَّا فَإِنَّا نَسْخَرُ مِنْكُمْ كَمَا تَسْخَرُونَ * فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ مَنْ يَأْتِيهِ عَذَابٌ يُخْزِيهِ وَيَحِلُّ عَلَيْهِ عَذَابٌ مُقِيمٌ . He said: and they said, as it has reached me: "O Nūḥ, you have become a carpenter after prophethood!" Allah made the wombs of the women barren, so that no more children were born to them. And the people of the Torah claim that Allah commanded him to build the ark from teakwood (khashab al-sādj), and to build it with a curved prow, and to coat it within and without with pitch, and to make it eighty cubits long, and to divide it into three decks: a lower one, a middle one, and an upper one, and to make windows in it. Nūḥ did what Allah had commanded him. When he had finished with it — and Allah had already promised him: إِذَا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ قُلْنَا احْمِلْ فِيهَا مِنْ كُلٍّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ وَأَهْلَكَ إِلا مَنْ سَبَقَ عَلَيْهِ الْقَوْلُ وَمَنْ آمَنَ وَمَا آمَنَ مَعَهُ إِلا قَلِيلٌ — and Allah had made the oven a sign between Himself and him, and had said: "When Our command comes and the oven boils over, then bring aboard of every kind two, a male and a female, and embark." When the oven boiled over, Nūḥ took into the ark whomever Allah had commanded him, and they were few, as Allah has said. He took aboard of every living creature possessing a soul and of every plant a male and a female. He took his three sons with him: Sām, Ḥām, and Yāfith, and their wives, and six people of those who had believed in him. Thus they were ten persons: Nūḥ, his sons, and their wives. Then he brought the beasts of burden aboard as he had been commanded, but his son Yām stayed behind — he was an unbeliever.
18138 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn Dīnār, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd, on the authority of Yūsuf ibn Mahrān, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: I heard him say: The first living creature that Nūḥ brought aboard the ark was the ant (al-dharra), and the last was the donkey. When the donkey was brought aboard and stuck its chest in, Iblīs seized its tail, so that its hind legs no longer lifted up. Nūḥ kept saying: "Woe to you, come in!" The donkey tried to move but could not. Until Nūḥ said: "Woe to you, come in — even if the devil is with you!" He said: it was a word that slipped from his tongue. When Nūḥ had said this, the devil let it go. The donkey went in, and the devil went in with it. Nūḥ said to him: "What brings you to me, O enemy of Allah?" He said: "Did you not say: 'Come in, even if the devil is with you'?" Nūḥ said: "Get away from me, O enemy of Allah!" He said: "You have no choice but to take me aboard!" And so it was, as they claim, on the after-deck of the ark. When Nūḥ had settled himself in the ark and brought aboard those who had believed with him — and that was in the month [lacuna in the text] of the year in which Nūḥ embarked, after six hundred years of his life, seventeen nights after the beginning of the month — the springs of the deepest earth stirred, and the gates of the heaven were opened, as Allah said to His Prophet Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: إِذَا فَتَحْنَا أَبْوَابَ السَّمَاءِ بِمَاءٍ مُنْهَمِرٍ وَفَجَّرْنَا الأَرْضَ عُيُونًا فَالْتَقَى الْمَاءُ عَلَى أَمْرٍ قَدْ قُدِرَ [Sūrat al-Qamar: 11-12]. Nūḥ and those with him entered the ark, and he closed the cover over himself and those with him. Between the moment Allah sent the water and the moment the water lifted the ark were forty days and forty nights. Then the water lifted the ark, as the people of the Torah claim, and the water rose and increased and ascended — Allah says to Muḥammad: وَحَمَلْنَاهُ عَلَى ذَاتِ أَلْوَاحٍ وَدُسُرٍ [Sūrat al-Qamar: 13] — and "al-dusr" are the nails, the iron nails. The ark began to sail with him and those with him upon waves like mountains. Nūḥ called out to his son who had perished with those who perished — he had kept himself apart when Nūḥ had beheld the truth of the promise of his Lord. He said: يَا بُنَيَّ ارْكَبْ مَعَنَا وَلا تَكُنْ مَعَ الْكَافِرِينَ — but he was a wretched one, who had concealed disbelief in his heart. قَالَ سَآوِي إِلَى جَبَلٍ يَعْصِمُنِي مِنَ الْمَاءِ — he knew the mountains as shelter from rains when they came, and thought it would be as he knew. Nūḥ said: لا عَاصِمَ الْيَوْمَ مِنْ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ إِلا مَنْ رَحِمَ وَحَالَ بَيْنَهُمَا الْمَوْجُ فَكَانَ مِنَ الْمُغْرَقِينَ . The water rose until it overflowed and ascended above the mountains — as the people of the Torah claim — by fifteen cubits. Thus all the creatures on the face of the earth perished, every living creature and every plant. Nothing remained of the creatures except Nūḥ and those who were with him in the ark, except ʿŪj ibn ʿAnaq, according to the claim of the people of the Book. Between the moment Allah sent the flood and the moment the water swallowed up were six months and ten nights.
18139 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn Dīnār, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān — Ibn Ḥumayd said: Salama said: and ʿAlī ibn Zayd related to me, on the authority of Yūsuf ibn Mahrān, he said: I heard him say: When the human excrement troubled Nūḥ in the ark, he was commanded to rub over the tail of the elephant. He rubbed it, and two pigs came out, which began to eat the excrement. And the mouse multiplied in the ark. When they troubled him, he was commanded to make the lion sneeze. It sneezed, and out of its nostrils came two cats, which began to eat the mice.
18140 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd, on the authority of Yūsuf ibn Mahrān, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: When Nūḥ was in the ship, the mice gnawed through the ropes of the ship. Nūḥ complained about it, and Allah revealed to him. He rubbed over the tail of the lion, and two cats came out. There was excrement in the ship. He complained about it to his Lord. Allah revealed to him. He rubbed over the tail of the elephant, and two pigs came out.
18141 — Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb al-Jawzjānī related to us, he said: al-Aswad ibn ʿĀmir related to us, he said: Sufyān ibn Saʿīd informed us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd, on the authority of Yūsuf ibn Mahrān, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — the same.
18142 — It was related to me via al-Musayyib ibn Abī Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, he said: Sulaymān al-Qarāsī said: Nūḥ built the ship in four hundred years, and let the teakwood grow for forty years until its length was four hundred cubits, measured to the shoulder.