Nooh (Noah)
Verse 26 - 27
Table of Contents
26. And Noah said: “O Lord! Leave not one single disbeliever on the earth!
27. “Since if You leave them, they will mislead Your servants, and they will beget none but the wicked and the disbelieving.
Resuming his complaints to God Almighty from his people, Noah curses them, saying:
“O Lord! Leave not one single disbeliever on the earth!”
He uttered these words when he had totally been despaired of guiding them. He had made his last attempts to call them to monotheism, though only a few believed in him. The Arabic prepositional phrase
‘ala ’l-ardh (“on the earth”) reflects that Prophet Noah’s (as) call as well as the following tempest and the torment were worldwide. The Arabic word dayyar, cognate with dar (“house, abode”) implies one who dwells in a house. The word is also employed to imply general negation, as in “There is no soul in the house.”
In the blessed Verse 27, Prophet Noah (as) produces arguments to substantiate his curse, saying
“Since if You leave them, they will mislead Your servants,”
reflecting that the curses of the Prophets (as), like that of Noah (as), did not spring from wrath, hatred, and vengeance, but he cursed his people after the passage of nine hundred and fifty years of imparting his Prophetic Call and forbearance and it was consequent to his total despair that he uttered the curse.
How did Prophet Noah (as) notice that they were not prone to believe in God Almighty, but they led God’s servants astray and their offspring will be corrupt and they will lead others to error and corruption?
Some have suggested that God Almighty had granted him the knowledge of the unseen, though some have suggested that it had been thus revealed unto Noah (as), as reflected in the Holy Qur’an1 :
“And it was revealed to Noah (as): 'None of your people will believe except those who have already believed. Therefore, be not sorrowful owing to what they used to do.'“
The same theme is to be found in numerous traditions.2 It has been also suggested that Noah (as) had thus inductively concluded by taking into account the natural courses of the event, since his people had been called by his impressive expressions, though they failed to believed and he could not set his hopes on guiding them; furthermore, no suggestions could stand against Qur’anic Verses and traditions.
The Arabic word fajir is applied to one who commits vile deeds. The Arabic intensive present participial form kaffar denotes going to extremes in disbelief. The difference between the twain rests in practical and doctrinal aspects respectively, as it is reflected in the blessed Verses in question that Divine torments are based on Wisdom.
The prospective generations of a corrupt people who lead others to error and corruption will be jeopardized by their vile deeds. Such people are not entitled to live according to Divine Wisdom and they will be entangled with afflictions such as tempest, lightning, and earthquake, hence their effacement from the face of the earth, as the tempest obliterated Noah’s (as) vile and wrong doing people from the face of the earth.
Granted that such Divine Law is not particular to any specific time and place, we are supposed to bear in mind that Divine torments are in store for the corrupt people who lead others astray and whose offspring are disobedient and disbelievers, since there is no exception to the Law and it is a Divine Tradition that such vile people meet their dire fate.
The Arabic clause
yudhdhilu ‘ibadaka (“they mislead Your servants”)
may suggest the scarcity of those who believed in Prophet Noah’s (as) Prophetic call in such long time, though it may also imply that the deprived are forced by their wrong doing leaders to follow their beliefs.