Al-Haaqqa (The Reality)

11. When the water rose beyond its limits, We carried you on the floating Ark.

12. That We might make it an admonition for you and that it might be retained by the retaining ears.

The blessed Verses allude to the fate of the people of Noah (as) and their excruciating torment, saying:

“When the water overflew its banks, we embarked you on the Ark.”

The water burst such that leaden clouds enwrapped the sky and heavy showers of rain were sent such that torrents were seemingly pouring down from the sky. Fountains appeared on the earth as well. Thus, everything was drowned, the gardens, farms, palaces, and the mansions of the disobedient people. The believers were only saved by embarking upon the Ark with Prophet Noah (as).

The verbal form

hamalnakum (“we carried you”)

alludes to our ancestors, since had they not been saved, we would not have come into being.

The blessed Verse 12 makes a reference to the main goal behind such chastisements, saying:

“That We might make it an admonition for you and that it might be retained by the retaining ears.”

In other words, God Almighty never willed to take vengeance, but the goal behind their being inflicted with torments is to lead people on the path of spiritual growth such that they tread the path of development and perfection and attainment to union with the desired object.

The Arabic verbal form

ta‘iyaha (“retain it”)

derives from w-‘-a originally denoting preserving something in the heart, but owing to semantic generalization, any vessel was termed as wa‘a, since it contains something. The verbal form is herein used in the sense of the ears listening to the truths and preserving them. In other words, one may at times hears something undesirable by one ear and the undesirable utterance instantly goes out of the other.

The idiomatic expression “it goes into one ear and out the other” implies the same sense in colloquial expressions. However, one may at times reflect upon something and preserve it in his heart and make use of it as the lamp shedding light on his life. The latter sense is intended herein.

Finally, it is narrated in many authoritative tradition and exegetic sources from the Noble Prophet (S) as saying that he invoked God Almighty to make ‘Ali’s (as) ears listen to the truths and preserve them.

Imam ‘Ali (as) is reported as saying:

“Thereafter I never consigned to oblivion whatever I heard from Allah’s Messenger (S), but I remembered his words at all times.”1