Tafseer of Noah · Nooh · 71:21
Noah said, "My Lord, indeed they have disobeyed me and followed him whose wealth and children will not increase him except in loss.
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.
And His statement: (Nūḥ said: My Lord, indeed they disobeyed me) — and thus they went against my command, and they rejected what I offered them of guidance and right direction (and they followed him whose wealth and children only increased him in loss) — He says: and in their disobedience to me they followed the one who called them to that, namely him whose wealth and children were many, yet the abundance of his wealth and children only increased him in loss, in distance from Allah, and in deviation from the main road of the path.
And the reciters differed over the recitation of His statement: (and his children — wa-waladuhu). Most of the reciters of Medina read it: (wa-waladuhu) with a fatḥa on the wāw and the lām, and thus they read it throughout the entire Qurʾān. And most of the reciters of Kūfa read that with a ḍamma on the wāw and a sukūn on the lām, and likewise every mention of "child" (walad) from Sūrat Maryam to the end of the Qurʾān. And Abū ʿAmr read everything of that which occurs in the Qurʾān with a fatḥa on the wāw and the lām, except this one word in Sūrat Nūḥ, for that he read with a ḍamma on the wāw.
And the correct view concerning this, in our opinion, is that all of these recitations are well-known recitations, closely related in meaning, so with whichever of them the reciter recites, he is correct.
