Ash-Shu'araa (The Poets)

109. “And I do not ask you any recompense for it, my recompense is only from the Lord of the worlds.”

110. “Then be in awe of Allah and obey me.”

111. “They said: ‘Shall we believe in you while the meanest follow you?’”

Another time for another reason, Noah (as) resorts to his rightfulness, a reason which makes the tongues of the pretext-seekers blunt when he says:

“And I do not ask you any recompense for it, my recompense is only from the Lord of the worlds.”

It is clear that the Divine motives are usually taken as the evidence for the truthfulness of the claimant of prophethood, while the material motives evidently show that the aim is gaining profit, and for the Arabs of that time, in particular, this matter was acquainted about the soothsayers and the like.

After this statement, Noah says the same sentence that he said following to the emphasis he laid on his prophecy and his trustworthiness, and said:

“Then be in awe of Allah and obey me.”

But when the obstinate pagans and the proud tyrants saw that they had no way to seek pretext, they clung to another matter, as the verse says:

“They said: ‘Shall we believe in you while the meanest follow you?’”

The value of a leader can be recognized by his followers, and so to speak, a shrine is known by means of its visitors.

The pagans told Noah that whenever they looked at his followers they saw a group of unusual, poor, miserable, and roguish people, that had some weak and insignificant jobs, who were around him. In that case, how could he expect that the rich, noble men, and famous people, who had some particular ranks and positions in the society, would obey him?

They added that they could never deal with such a group of people, because they had never sat with them at one table and had never gathered with them under one ceiling. What an irrational expectation he had!

It is true that they were right and correct in this matter that a leader can be known by means of his followers, but their great mistake was that they had lost the concept and criterion of personality.

For them, the criterion of measuring the values was property, wealth, beautiful costly clothing, houses, and mounts, and they were neglectful of purity, piety, rightfulness, and some high level standards of humane, which were found abundantly among the poor classes of their society and were very scarce among notable and noble ones.

The worst form of the thought of class division was ruling their ideas, therefore, they counted the poor class of their society ‘the roguish level’ or ‘the meanest level’.

The Arabic word /’araǒil/ is the plural form of /’arǒul/ which is also the plural form of/raǒl/ that means: ‘low and mean’. If they came out of the prison of the social class division they might clearly understand that the belief of this group was the best evidence for the legitimacy and authenticity of the call of that prophet.