Surah Nooh – Ahmad Khader Al-Tarabulsi

Nooh ("Noah") is the 71st surah of the Quran, in the 29th juz. It is a Meccan surah of 28 verses, 71st in the traditional order of revelation, after An-Nahl. It is devoted entirely to the prophet Noah: his long call to his people, the arguments he used, their stubborn refusal, and the flood that ended it.

It opens with God sending Noah to warn his people before a painful punishment reaches them (71:1), with a simple message: worship God, fear Him and obey me (71:3). Most of the surah is Noah's account to his Lord: he called them night and day, openly and in private, yet they put their fingers in their ears, covered themselves with their garments and persisted in arrogance (71:5-9).

His appeal is among the best-known passages on seeking forgiveness: ask forgiveness of your Lord, for He is ever Forgiving; He will send you abundant rain, give you wealth and children, and grant you gardens and rivers (71:10-12). He also pointed them to the signs of creation: their creation in stages, the seven heavens, the moon as a light and the sun as a lamp (71:13-20).

His people followed leaders whose wealth and children only increased their loss, and told one another not to abandon their gods Wadd, Suwa', Yaghuth, Ya'uq and Nasr (71:23). Ibn Abbas explained that these were the names of righteous men of Noah's people; after their death statues were set up in their memory, and later generations came to worship them (al-Bukhari). The people were drowned for their sins (71:25), and the surah ends with Noah's prayer against the disbelievers and for the forgiveness of himself, his parents, whoever enters his house as a believer, and all believing men and women (71:26-28).

Noah's story is told at greater length in Hud, while Al-Ankabut states that he lived among his people a thousand years less fifty.