Tafseer of Hud · Hud · 11:40
[So it was], until when Our command came and the oven overflowed, We said, "Load upon the ship of each [creature] two mates and your family, except those about whom the word has preceded, and [include] whoever has believed." But none had believed with him, except a few.
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.
His word حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا — that is to say: "and Nūḥ built the ship — حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا — the command that We had promised him would befall his people: the flood that would drown them."
His word وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : the exegetes differed concerning its meaning.
Some said: the meaning is that the water gushed forth from the surface of the earth — وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ — and that is the surface of the earth.
Mention of those who said that:
18143 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab informed us, on the authority of Al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that he said concerning the word وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "al-tannūr is the surface of the earth." He said: "it was said to him: when you see the water upon the surface of the earth, then board, you and whoever is with you." He said: "the Arabs call the surface of the earth: the tannūr of the earth."
18144 — Al-Muthanná related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn related to us, saying: Hushaym informed us, on the authority of Al-ʿAwwām, on the authority of Al-Ḍaḥḥāk — identically.
18145 — Abū Kurayb and Abū al-Sāʾib related to us, they said: Ibn Idrīs related to us, saying: Al-Shaybānī informed us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning the word وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "the surface of the earth."
18146 — Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾida and Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related to us, they said: Ibn Idrīs related to us, on the authority of Al-Shaybānī, on the authority of ʿIkrima: وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ — "the surface of the earth."
Others said: it is the daybreak — derived from the expression "nawwara al-ṣubḥ tanwīran" (the morning shone brightly).
Mention of those who said that:
18147 — Abū Hishām al-Rifāʿī related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of ʿAbbās, the freedman of Abū Juḥayfa, on the authority of Abū Juḥayfa, on the authority of ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him), concerning the word حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "it is the daybreak."
18148 — Ibn Wakīʿ and Isḥāq ibn Isrāʾīl related to us, they said: Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Ziyād, the freedman of Abū Juḥayfa, on the authority of Abū Juḥayfa, on the authority of ʿAlī, concerning the word وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "the daybreak."
18149 — Ḥammād ibn Yaʿqūb related to us, saying: Ibn Fuḍayl informed us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of the freedman of Abū Juḥayfa — in my opinion he named him — on the authority of Abū Juḥayfa, on the authority of ʿAlī: وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ — he said: "the daybreak broke."
18150 — Isḥāq ibn Shāhīn related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of a man from Quraysh, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him): وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ — he said: "the dawn broke."
18151 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq informed us, on the authority of a man whom he named, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, concerning the word وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "he said: when the dawn broke."
Others said: the meaning is that the highest and most elevated point of the earth began to gush with water. They said: "al-tannūr" is the most elevated point of the earth.
Mention of those who said that:
18152 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "we were told that it was the highest and most elevated point of the earth, and it was a sign between Nūḥ and his Lord."
18153 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Sulaymān related to us, saying: Abū Hilāl related to us, saying: I heard Qatāda say concerning the word وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "the most elevated and highest point of the earth, out of which the water gushed."
Others said: it is the oven on which one bakes bread.
Mention of those who said that:
18154 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning the word حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "when you see the oven of your household members from which water flows, then that is the destruction of your people."
18155 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Abū Muḥammad, on the authority of Al-Ḥasan, who said: "it was a stone oven that had belonged to Ḥawwāʾ (Eve) until it came down to Nūḥ." He said: "it was said to him: when you see the water gushing from the oven, then board, you and your companions."
18156 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Shibil, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ — he said: "when the water gushed, and Nūḥ was commanded to board, he and whoever was with him."
18157 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ — he said: "the water gushed out of it as a sign that he should board the ship with his household and whoever was with him."
18158 — Al-Muthanná related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibil related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — identically, except that he said: "as a sign that his household and whoever was with him should board."
18159 — Al-Muthanná related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbdallāh related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — identically, except that he said: "as a sign that he should board with his household and whoever was with them."
18160 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Khalaf ibn Khalīfa related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: "the water gushed up in the oven, his wife noticed it and informed him of it." He said: "that was in the region of Kūfa."
18161 — [...] he said: Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: ʿAlī ibn Thābit related to us, on the authority of Al-Sarī ibn Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Al-Shaʿbī: that he swore by Allah that the tannūr only gushed in the region of Kūfa.
18162 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Ḥammānī related to us, on the authority of Al-Naḍr Abū ʿUmar al-Khazzāz, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning the word وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "the oven gushed in India."
18163 — It was related to me on the authority of Al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say, he said: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard Al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning the word وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "it was a sign for Nūḥ — if water flowed from it, then the destruction and drowning of the people had arrived."
Ibn ʿAbbās used to say concerning the meaning of "fāra": it gushed.
18164 — Al-Muthanná related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning the word وَفَارَ التَّنُّورُ : "it gushed."
Abū Jaʿfar says: The "gushing of water" is its forceful surge; one says: "fāra al-māʾ yafūru fawran wa-fuʾūran wa-fawrānan" — when its forceful surge continues.
Abū Jaʿfar says: The most correct of these opinions in our view concerning the interpretation of التَّنُّورُ is the opinion of those who said: "it is the oven on which one bakes bread", because that is the well-known meaning in Arabic usage; and the Word of Allah is only oriented toward its most current and best-known meaning among the Arabs, unless there is a proof that something of it means otherwise, which proof is then accepted. For the Exalted addressed them with what He addressed them so as to make them understand the meaning of what He addressed to them.
قُلْنَا — We said to Nūḥ, when Our punishment of his people arrived which We had promised Nūḥ to punish them with, and the oven gushed with water — which gushing We made a sign for him of the arrival of Our punishment, an announcement of the destruction of his people: احْمِلْ فِيهَا — that is to say: in the ship — مِنْ كُلِّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ — that is to say: of every male and every female, as:
18165 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ibn Numayr related to us, on the authority of Warqāʾ, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: مِنْ كُلِّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ — he said: "a male and a female of every kind."
18166 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me — identically.
18167 — Al-Muthanná related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibil related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: مِنْ كُلِّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ — "one is a zawj (member of a pair), and the zawjayn is a male and a female of every kind."
18168-18169 — Identical narrations via Mujāhid.
18170 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: قُلْنَا احْمِلْ فِيهَا مِنْ كُلِّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ — he said: "of every kind two."
18171 — It was related to me on the authority of Al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, who said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say, he said: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān related to us, saying: I heard Al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning the word مِنْ كُلِّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ : "by zawjayn-aṯnayn is meant: a male or a female."
Some of the language scholars of the Kūfan school said: "al-zawjān" means in Arabic usage "two." One says: "he is wearing two sandals" — with the singular "zawjā niʿāl", not "zawju niʿāl"; likewise "with him are two pigeons" and "he wears two shackles." He said: do you not hear His word وَأَنَّهُ خَلَقَ الزَّوْجَيْنِ الذَّكَرَ وَالأُنْثَى (Sūra al-Najm 53:45) — for they are only two?
Some of the Baṣran language scholars said concerning قُلْنَا احْمِلْ فِيهَا مِنْ كُلِّ زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ : he made "al-zawjayn" to mean "the two kinds" — the males and the females. He said: and Yūnus claimed that the poet [concerning the wolf] said: "you are one who roams at random every day / sometimes you miss and sometimes you hit" — and he called the wolf "a man." He said: but that is even stranger.
Another said: "al-zawj" is a color; every kind is called a "color", and he cited for that a verse of Al-Aʿshā: "and every kind of silk that he wears / Abū Qudāma, who has that at the same time." And Labīd said: "with splendor, which she kept for herself from the cavalry troops / and adorned with it: kinds of colored flowers."
It has been related that Al-Ḥasan said concerning the word وَمِنْ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقْنَا زَوْجَيْنِ (Sūra al-Dhāriyāt 51:49): "the heaven is a zawj, the earth is a zawj; the winter is a zawj, the summer is a zawj; the night is a zawj, the day is a zawj" — until the matter ends with Allah, the One who resembles nothing.
وَأَهْلَكَ إِلا مَنْ سَبَقَ عَلَيْهِ الْقَوْلُ — that is to say: and load also your household into the ship — by "household" is meant his children, his wives and spouses. إِلا مَنْ سَبَقَ عَلَيْهِ الْقَوْلُ — that is to say: except those of whom I have said that I will destroy them together with whoever of your people I destroy.
Then they differed concerning whom Allah excluded from his household.
Some said: it was one of the wives of Nūḥ.
Mention of those who said that:
18172 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: وَأَهْلَكَ إِلا مَنْ سَبَقَ عَلَيْهِ الْقَوْلُ — "the punishment; it was his wife, who was among those left behind in the punishment."
Others said: it was his son who drowned.
Mention of those who said that:
18173 — It was related to me on the authority of Al-Musayyab, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of Al-Ḍaḥḥāk, concerning the word وَأَهْلَكَ إِلا مَنْ سَبَقَ عَلَيْهِ الْقَوْلُ : "his son; who drowned together with whoever drowned."
وَمَنْ آمَنَ — that is to say: and load also those who believed you and followed you from your people. Allah says: وَمَا آمَنَ مَعَهُ إِلا قَلِيلٌ — that is to say: only a few affirmed the oneness of Allah together with Nūḥ from his people.
They differed concerning the number of those who believed with him and whom he loaded with him into the ship. Some said: they were eight persons.
Mention of those who said that:
18174 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning the word وَأَهْلَكَ إِلا مَنْ سَبَقَ عَلَيْهِ الْقَوْلُ وَمَنْ آمَنَ وَمَا آمَنَ مَعَهُ إِلا قَلِيلٌ : "it has been mentioned to us that in the ship there were only Nūḥ, his wife, his three sons, and their wives — eight altogether."
18175 — Ibn Wakīʿ and Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafa related to us, they said: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Ghanniyya related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Al-Ḥakam: وَمَا آمَنَ مَعَهُ إِلا قَلِيلٌ — "Nūḥ, his three sons, and his four daughters-in-law."
18176 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj related to me: "it has been mentioned to me that Nūḥ took his three sons aboard with him, and three wives for his sons, and the wife of Nūḥ — eight altogether with their spouses. The names of his sons are: Yāfith, Sām and Ḥām. Ḥām had intercourse with his wife in the ship; Nūḥ prayed that his offspring would be changed, and thus the Blacks were born."
Others said: they were seven persons.
Mention of those who said that:
18177 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Al-Aʿmash: وَمَا آمَنَ مَعَهُ إِلا قَلِيلٌ — "they were seven: Nūḥ, three daughters-in-law for him, and three sons."
Others said: they were ten, besides their wives.
Mention of those who said that:
18178 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, who said: "when the oven gushed, Nūḥ loaded into the ship whomever Allah had commanded him — and they were few as Allah said — his three sons: Sām, Ḥām and Yāfith, their wives, and six people who believed with him; ten persons altogether, with Nūḥ, his sons and their spouses."
Others said: they were eighty persons.
Mention of those who said that:
18179 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: "Nūḥ took eighty people with him in the ship."
18180 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us: "some said that they were eighty — that is to say the 'few' whom Allah meant: وَمَا آمَنَ مَعَهُ إِلا قَلِيلٌ ."
18181 — Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Masrūqī related to me, saying: Zayd ibn al-Ḥubbāb related to us, saying: Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid al-Khurāsānī related to us, saying: Abū Nahīk related to me, saying: I heard Ibn ʿAbbās say: "in the ship of Nūḥ there were eighty men, among them Jurhum."
Abū Jaʿfar says: The correct thing to say concerning this subject is what Allah said: وَمَا آمَنَ مَعَهُ إِلا قَلِيلٌ — He describes them as few without fixing their number at a particular quantity; there is no reliable narration from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and one should not transgress the limit of Allah in that, since for the extent of that number there is no limit in the Book of Allah or a narration from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
