Nūḥ (, “Noah”) is the seventy-first chapter (''

surah A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into ayah, verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' (al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while ...

'') of the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

and is composed of 28 verses ('' ayat''). It is centered around the Islamic prophet Nūḥ and his complaint about his people rejecting all warnings

Allah Allah ( ; , ) is an Arabic term for God, specifically the God in Abrahamic religions, God of Abraham. Outside of the Middle East, it is principally associated with God in Islam, Islam (in which it is also considered the proper name), althoug ...

gave them through Nuh. The chapter's themes include

tawhid ''Tawhid'' () is the concept of monotheism in Islam, it is the religion's central and single most important concept upon which a Muslim's entire religious adherence rests. It unequivocally holds that God is indivisibly one (''ahad'') and s ...

(belief in Allah), signs of Allah (the Earth, Sun, Moon), and punishment for denying Allah's message.

Summary

In Nuh, the seventy-first surah, the Quran refers to Nuh’s prophethood in snippets. Nuh is a messenger of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

. When Nuh realizes the messages are not accepted by the community, he supplicated to God, who planned to flood the community of Nuh at a specified time. God commanded Nuh to warn the people.

Ayat (verses)

:1-4

Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...

sent as a warner; his message to his people :5-20 Noah’s people refuse to believe him, notwithstanding every effort :21-26 The people of Noah plot against him and are destroyed :27-28 Noah prays for the destruction of the infidels, and for the pardon of his parents and the true believers

Exegesis

1-4 Noah receives message from God

Verses 1–4 discuss the message Nuh received from God (''

'') to share with his community, to serve God.

5-20 the Earth, the sun, the moon are signs of God's existence

In Verses 5–20, Nuh informs Allah that his people are not accepting his message. Nuh tries to make clear to the people that all of the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

, the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

, the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

are signs of God's existence.

21-25 rid the world of the evildoers

In Verses 21–24, Nuh asks Allah to rid the world of the evildoers because they refused to abandon their idols and encourage others to do the same.

26-28 disbelievers all drowned

In Verses 26–28, the disbelievers were all drowned and sent to

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

(as a result of the flood). Nuh asks Allah to forgive the believers and to destroy the disbelievers because their faith will lead many astray.

Surah chronology

The surah is entirely Meccan, meaning it was revealed while Muhammad was trying to create a Muslim community in Mecca and before he migrated to Madina. According to the

Tanzil ''Tanzil'' (), ''anzal'' (), and ''nuzul'' (), and other words based on the Arabic triconsonantal root (, 'downward movement'), refers to the Islamic belief in the descent of God's message from heaven to Earth as speech, and sometimes visual, r ...

version, it was the seventy-first surah revealed. It was revealed after the sixteenth surah,

An-Nahl The Bee (Arabic: الْنَّحْل; ''an-naḥl'') is the 16th chapter (''sūrah'') of the Qur'an, with 128 verses ('' āyāt''). It is named after honey bees mentioned in verse 68, and contains a comparison of the industry and adaptability of ...

("The Bee"), and before the fourteenth surah, Ibrahim ("Abraham"). According to

Theodor Nöldeke Theodor Nöldeke (; born 2 March 1836 – 25 December 1930) was a German orientalist and scholar, originally a student of Heinrich Ewald. He is one of the founders of the field of Quranic studies, especially through his foundational work titled ...

, Nūḥ was the fifty-third surah to be revealed. It was revealed after the thirty-seventh surah, As-Saaffaat ("Those Who Set The Ranks"), and before the seventy-sixth surah, Al-Insaan or Ad-Dahr ("Man" or "Time").

References

External links

* {{Authority control Noah Nuh