Verses 36–49

Examining Narrations

(1) In al-Durr al-Manthūr, Ishāq b. Bishr and Ibn ʿAsākir report from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: ‘Indeed, Noah would be beaten and then wrapped in a cloth. He would be thrown into his house, and his assailants assumed he was dead. Then he would emerge and call them to monotheism again until he despaired of his people ever believing in him. A man came to him with his son, leaning on a stick, and said, “O my son, look at this old man, do not let him deceive you.” The son said, “O Father, give me your stick.” He then took the stick and said, “Put me on the ground.” He put him down, then he walked towards Noah, hit him and wounded him, causing blood to pour from his head.

Noah said: “O Lord, you see what your servants are doing to me. If You need them, guide them, otherwise grant me patience until You judge. You are the best of judges.” Then God revealed to him that no believers remained among the men and women. God said, “O Noah, None of your people will believe except those who already have faith; so do not lament for what they used to do. Build the Ark Noah asked, “O Lord, what is the Ark?” He replied, “It is a wooden structure that f oats on water. I will drown the people who disobeyed Me and cleanse My earth from them.” Noah asked, “O Lord, where is the water?” God replied, “I have power to do whatever I will.”’

20:67(2) In al-Kāfī, al-Kulaynī narrates via his chain of transmission that al-Mufaḍḍal said: ‘I was with Abū ʿAbd Allāh in Kūfa when Abū al-ʿAbbās (the first ʿAbbāsid caliph) entered the city. When we reached al-Kināsa, he said, “Here my uncle Zayd was crucified, may God have mercy on him.” Then he proceeded until we reached the arch of olive vendors market, which is at the end of the lamp-makers street. He stopped and said, “Descend, for this is the site of the first mosque of Kūfa, which Adam had marked out. I dislike entering it on horseback.” I asked, “Who changed its layout?” He said, “Firstly, the Flood during Noah’s time. Then the associates of Khusraw and al-Nuʿmān altered it, then Ziyād b. Abī Sufyān altered it again.” I asked, “Was Kūfa and its mosque present during Noah’s time?” He said to me: “Yes, O Mufaḍḍal. Noah and his people lived in a village by the Euphrates, west of Kūfa.” He continued: “Noah was a carpenter and then God exalted him and made him a prophet. Noah was the first to make a ship that f oated on water. He said, “Noah stayed with his people for 950 years, calling them to God Almighty, but they mocked and ridiculed him. When he saw this, he cursed them and said, ‘My Lord! Do not leave on the earth any inhabitant from among the faithless. If You leave them, they will lead astray Your servants and will not beget except vicious ingrates’ (71:26–27). Then God revealed to Noah to build the Ark, to enlarge it and hasten in its construction. So, Noah built the Ark at the mosque of Kūfa with his own hands and brought wood until it was finished.”’

Al-Mufaḍḍal said: ‘Abū ʿAbd Allāh paused his discourse at noon. Abū ʿAbd Allāh stood, prayed Ẓuhr and ʿAsr, then left the mosque. He turned to his left and pointed to the site of Dār al-Dārayn, the house of Ibn Ḥakīm, which is where the Euphrates currently flows. He said, “O Mufaḍḍal, here is where the idols of Noah’s people: Yaghūth, Yaʿūq, and Nasr were erected.” Then he continued walking until he mounted his ride.

I asked: “May I be your sacrifice! How long did Noah take to build his ship?” He replied, “He did it in two cycles (dawrayn).” I asked, “And how long is a cycle (dawr)?” He replied, “Eighty years.” I asked, “But the masses say he worked on it for five hundred years?” He said, “No. How? And God says: …by Our revelation...” I asked, “Tell me about the saying of God, When Our edict came and the oven gushed… Where was this place? And how was it?” He replied, “The oven was in the house of a believing old woman, in the direction of the qibla on the right side of the mosque.” I asked him, “Where is that?” He said, “The location is the corner of Bāb al-Fīl (the Elephant Gate) today.”

20:68Then I asked him, “Did the water start gushing out from that oven?” He replied, “Yes. Indeed, God wanted to show the people of Noah a sign, then God sent rain upon them, it flooded the land and all the springs overflowed as well, and God drowned them. And saved Noah and those with him in the Ark.”

Author’s comment: The narration is lengthy and not related to the explanation of the verse, but we mention it here as an exemplar of many of the narrations that have come down with the same sort of content from both Shi’a and Sunni sources, and it will aid us in our understanding of the stories of the verses by referring to these narrations.

The narration also suggests a certain amount of urgency in the construction of the Ark, alluding to the divine commandment, ‘Build the Ark before Our eyes and by Our revelation’ In this narration, the Umayyad governor Ziyād b. Abīh (lit. ‘Ziyād the son of his father’) is acknowledged as the son of Abū Sufyān. However, the name used in the original words of the Imam is ‘Ziyād’, without mentioning any parent, to which ‘ibn Abū Sufyān’ has been added by some narrators.

(3) In the same source, there is a narration from Abū Razīn al-Asadī, who narrates from the Commander of the Faithful, who recounts: ‘Indeed, Noah finished constructing the Ark and the appointed sign from his Lord for the annihilation of his people was the overflow of the oven. This oven was in a woman’s house and when it overflowed, she reported it. Noah came to the oven and sealed it. The water rose, and those who wanted to enter the Ark did so, and those who wanted to leave, left. Then he came to its seal and removed it, God says: Then We opened the gates of the sky with pouring waters, and We made the earth burst forth with springs, and the waters met for a preordained purpose. We bore him on a vessel made of planks and nails (54:11–13).

20:69The narrator adds: ‘Noah’s shipyard was in the centre of your mosque. And indeed, seven hundred cubits have been deducted from its length.’

Author’s comment: The overflowing of the oven being a sign for him through which he knew the imminence of the flood, is confirmed in several narrations from both Shi’a and Sunni sources, and the context of the verse, When Our edict came and the oven gushed, clearly indicates that it was an sign appointed by God for Noah.

(4) In the same source, there is a narration with a chain of transmission from Ismā’īl al-Ju’fī from Abū Ja’far al-Bāqir (a.s.,) who said: ‘The law of Noah was to worship God with monotheism and devotion and to abandon the worship of idols, which is the natural disposition (fiṭra) upon which people were created. God took a covenant from Noah and the prophets to worship God, the Blessed and Exalted, and not associate anything with Him, and He commanded prayer, enjoining good and forbidding evil, and to observe the lawful and the unlawful, but no penal laws or inheritance laws were imposed upon him. This was his code of laws. Noah stayed among his people for 950 years, inviting them to his way both secretly and openly. When they refused and persisted in their ways, he said, “My Lord, I have been overcome, so help” (54:10). God the Mighty and Majestic revealed to him, “None of your people will believe except those who already have faith; so do not lament for what they used to do.” (11:36) This refers to Noah’s saying, “If You leave them, they will lead astray Your servants and will not beget except vicious ingrates” (71:27) So, God revealed to him, “Build the Ark ...”’

Author’s comment: al-ʿAyyāshī also narrates this from al-Juʿfī and the narration apparently indicates that he made two supplications against his people; the first one being his saying, “My Lord, I have been overcome, so help” (54:10) which is in Sūrah al-Qamar, and the second one after God caused him lose hope in his people ever believing, which is his saying, “‘My Lord! Do not leave on the earth any inhabitant from among the faithless. If You leave them, they will lead astray Your servants and will not beget except vicious ingrates’ (71:26–27), which is in Sūrah Nūḥ.

20:70(5) In Maʿānī al-Akhbār, al-Ṣadūq narrates via his chain of transmission from Ḥumrān from Abī Ja’far al-Bāqir regarding God’s saying, And none believed with him except a few, that he said: ‘They were eight in number.’

Author’s comment: al-ʿAyyāshī also narrates this from Ḥumrān, from him, and people have expressed other opinions regarding their number: six, seven, ten, seventy-two, eighty, but there is no evidence for any of these. (6) In ʿUyūn Akhbār al-Riḍā, al-Ṣadūq transmits via his chain of narrators from ʿAbd al-Salām b. Ṣāliḥ al-Harawī that Imām al-Riḍā said: ‘When Noah descended to earth, Noah, his sons, and those who followed him were eighty souls in total. He built a village where he landed and named it ‘The Village of Eighty.’

Author’s comment: There is no contradiction between the two narrations as it is possible that apart from the eight, there were others from the family of Noah, and he had lived for almost a thousand years by then. (7) In the same source, with a chain of narration from al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī al-Washāʾ from Imām al-Riḍā: ‘I heard him say: my father said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh: “Indeed, God, exalted and majestic, said to Nūḥ: Indeed He is not of your family ‘ because he was an opponent to him, and He counted those who followed him his family instead.” Then he asked me: “How do the people recite this verse about the son of Noah?” So, I said: “people recite it in two ways: ‘this is an unrighteous deed,’ and ‘he is the result of an unrighteous deed.” He said: “They lie, he is his son, but God denied him being from him when he opposed him in his religion.’”

Author’s comment: perhaps when he says, ‘and He counted those who followed him his family instead’ this is a reference to the verse: We responded to him and delivered him and his family from the great agony (21:76). As it appears that what is meant by his family is everyone who was saved with him.

When, in this tradition, the Imam asks, ‘how do the people recite this verse…?’, he is, in fact, asking how they explain its meaning. Therefore, the two recitations mentioned refer to the explanations that Noah’s wife bore the son from someone else but claimed it was his. For this reason, some have recited the verse, ‘Noah called out to her son.’ They attribute this recitation to ʿAlī and some of the Imams from his descendants.

20:71(8) In al-Kashāf, al-Zamakhsharī writes: ‘… and ʿAlī, may God be pleased with him, recited it as “her son” (ibna-hā), and the pronoun refers to his wife. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī and ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr recited it as ibna-ha, with a fatḥa on the ha (instead of an alif), which was a contraction of ibna-hā (“her son” instead of “his son”). This supports the school of thought of al-Ḥasan. Qatāda said: “I asked him and he said: ‘by God, he was not his son.’ So I said: “But God quotes him as saying: ‘My son is indeed from my family ‘, and you are saying he was not his son, and the People of the Book do not disagree that he was his son!” At this point, he said: “Who takes their religion from the People of the Book?” and he adduced as evidence the fact that Noah said “from my family”, rather than “from me.”’

Author’s comment: This is a nonsensical argument because, as we have already seen, God promised Noah that He would save his family (ahl). He did not promise to save those who were ‘from him.’ If he had, then Noah would have said to God, ‘My son is indeed from me’ when he asked Him about his salvation. Moreover, we have already explained how the wording of verses does not permit such a reading.

Regarding the claim that there is no disagreement among the People of the Book about Noah’s son, this is questionable, because the Torah does not tell us anything about the son of Noah who drowned.

(9) In al-Durr al-Manthūr, al-Suyūṭī narrates from Ibn al-Anbārī’s Maṣāḥif and Abū al-Shaykh, both of whom narrated from ʿAlī that he recited the verse: ‘And Noah called her son (ibna-hā).’ (10) In the same source, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, and Abū al-Shaykh narrate from Abī Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. ʿAlī about the verse, Noah called out to his son (11:42): ‘It was not his son but the son of his wife, and this is spoken in Arabic in the dialect of the Tayy tribe.’

Author’s comment: al-ʿAyyāshī reported this in his Tafsīr from Muḥammad b. Muslim.

(11) In Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī, it is narrated from Mūsā, from al-ʿAlāʾ b. Sayāba from Imām al-Ṣādiq regarding the verse, Noah called out to his son: It was not his son but the son of his wife, and in the language of Tayy, they call the son of a man’s wife “his son.”’ (12) In the same source, it is narrated from Zurāra from Imām al-Bāqir regarding Noah’s saying, ‘O my son! Board with us …’ that he said: ‘He was not his son.’ Zurāra asked, ‘But then why did Noah say, “O my son”?’ He replied: ‘Indeed, Noah said that, but he did not know.’

20:72Author’s comment: The most reliable of the above reports is the one narrated by al-Washshāʾ from Imām al-Riḍā.

(13) In the same source, from Ibrāhīm b. Abī al-ʿAlāʾ from either Imām al-Bāqir or Imām al-Ṣādiq: ‘When God said: “O earth, swallow your water! O sky, leave off!”, the earth said: “I was commanded to swallow only my water, and I was not commanded to swallow the water of the sky.” So the earth swallowed its own water, and the water of the sky remained and became a sea surrounding the world.”’

(14) In the same source, it is narrated from Abū Baṣīr, from Imām Mūsā al-Kāẓim, in a tradition mentioning Mount Judi: ‘It is a mountain near Mosul.’

(15) In the same source, it is narrated from al-Mufaḍḍal b. ʿUmar, from Imām al-Ṣādiq: ‘…and it settled on Judi—it is the Euphrates at Kufa.’

Author’s comment: This narration is supported by others.

(16) In the same source, it is narrated from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Abī al-Daylam, from Imām al-Ṣādiq, who said: ‘When Noah boarded the ship, it was said: “Away with the wrongdoing lot!”’

(17) In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, about the verse, It was said, Then it was said, ‘O earth, swallow your water …!’, al-Ṭabrisī writes: ‘It is narrated that the disbelievers of Quraysh wanted to meet the challenge of the the Qurʾan, so they refrained from eating grains, the meat of sheep, and drinking wine for forty days, so that their minds would be clear. But just as they began to undertake their task, they heard this verse, and some of them said to each other, “This is speech like no other, and it does not resemble the speech of creatures,” so they abandoned their task and dispersed.

20:73Qurʾanic, Narrative, Historical, and Philosophical Studies on the Story of Noah

Introduction:

The Qurʾan mentions Noah’s name on over forty occasions, sometimes referencing parts of his story in general and at others explaining them in detail. However, his story is not fully outlined in any one place in the style of a historical narrative that recounts his lineage, family, birthplace, place of residence, upbringing, occupation, lifespan, death, burial place, and all other personal details. This is because Qurʾan was not sent down to serve as a book of history or to chronicle the lives of people, whether good or wicked.

On the contrary, the Qurʾan is a book of guidance that explains to people the means by which they can attain happiness and makes plain for them the manifest truth so that they will follow it and achieve success in this life and the Hereafter. Sometimes, it alludes to parts of the stories of the prophets and nations to illustrate how God deals with His servants, and to draw a lesson from the lives of those whom His grace has enveloped and who have been ennobled by His dignity, and to establish a conclusive argument against the rest.

The story of Noah has been detailed in six chapters of the Qurʾan: al-Aʿrāf, Hūd, al-Muʾminūn, al-Shuʿarāʾ, al-Qamar, and Nūḥ. The most detailed account is found in Sūrah Hūd, which discusses his story in twenty-five of its verses (11:25–49).

The Story of Noah in the Qurʾan, His Mission and Prophethood: After Adam, humanity lived as a single nation in simplicity and innocence, following the innate human disposition (fiṭra) with which they had been endowed. However, arrogance and rebelliousness gradually began to spread among them, leading some to assert dominance over others and turning some of them into rulers of others. This is the original seed that, if nurtured and allowed to flourish, would bear nothing but a religion of idolatry and severe inequality between social classes, characterized by the strong exploiting the weak and the powerful enslaving and demeaning the dispossessed and resulting in disputes and conflicts among the people.

During the time of Noah, corruption had spread across the earth. People turned away from the religion of monotheism and the way of social justice and, instead, turned towards the worship of idols. God Almighty named some of these idols as Wadd, Suwāʿ, Yaghūth, Yaʿūq, and Nasr (71:23).

20:74Societal classes had diverged significantly by this point, with the wealthy and those with large families trampling the rights of the weak and dispossessed. Tyrants belittled those beneath them and ruled according to their whims (See the accounts in the chapters al-Aʿrāf, Hūd, and Nūḥ).

In response, God sent Noah to humanity with a scripture and a law. He called upon them to recognise the oneness of God, renounce the worship of idols, and establish equality among themselves (2:213) by delivering both comforting promises and solemn warnings to them.

His Religion and Law, Peace be Upon Him:

Noah called upon his people to recognise the oneness of God Almighty and reject any partners (as is evident from all the Qurʾanic stories about him), to submit to God (as evident from the chapters Nūḥ and Yūnus, and verse 3:19), to bid people to what is good and forbid them from evil (as illustrated by 11:27), to perform prayers (4:103 and 26:8), to promote equality and justice, to avoid sinful and evil acts, to speak the truth, and to fulfil promises (6:151–152). In addition to this, Noah is the first prophet mentioned in the Qurʾan to have initiated the practice of invoking the name of God for important matters (see 11:41).

His Preaching to His People:

Noah tirelessly invited his people to have faith in God and His signs, calling them to the truth day and night, both openly and in private. However, their only response was obstinacy and arrogance. The more fervently he called them, the more entrenched they became in their rebellion and disbelief. Only his family and a small number of others believed in him. Eventually, having lost all hope in of his people ever having faith, he complained about them to his Lord and sought His help (See the chapters Nūḥ, al-Qamar, and al-Muʾminūn).

His Life Among His People:

We are told that Noah remained among his people for a thousand-lessfifty years (29:14), calling them towards God. Yet, they responded to him with only mockery, derision, and accusations of madness. They believed he was trying to gain dominance over them. Eventually, he sought help from his Lord (Sūrah al-ʿAnkabūt). God revealed to him that no one among his people would believe except those who had already done so, and He consoled him in their midst (Sūrah Hūd). Consequently, Noah prayed to God for their destruction and requested that He cleanse the earth from their presence to the very last one (Sūrah Nūḥ). God then revealed to him that he should construct the Ark under His observation and guidance (Sūrah Hūd).

20:75His Construction of the Ark:

God commanded Noah to construct the Ark, supporting and guiding him through the process. As he began construction, groups of his people would pass by, mocking him for building a ship on dry land. Noah responded, ‘If you ridicule us, we shall ridicule you just as you ridicule us. Soon you will know whom a disgraceful punishment will overtake and on whom a lasting punishment will descend’ (11:38). God established a sign for the onset of the punishment in the form of water gushing forth from the oven (Sūrah Hūd and al-Muʾminūn).

The Onset of Punishment and the Advent of the Flood:

When the construction of the Ark was complete and the divine decree came, God instructed Noah to take a pair of every living creature and all his family members aboard the ship, with the exception of his treacherous wife and his son who refused to board, as they had been condemned to drown. He was also to bring aboard those who believed (Sūrah Hūd and al-Muʾminūn). Once all were aboard, God opened the heavens with pouring rain and caused the springs of the earth to gush forth, converging the waters from above and below as preordained (Sūrah al-Qamar). The waters rose, lifting the ship as it navigated waves as high as mountains (Sūrah Hūd). The ensuing deluge engulfed the wrongdoers and drowned them all. God had commanded Noah, when he and those with him settled on the Ark, to praise God for delivering him from the wrongdoing people and to invoke His blessings. He said: ‘All praise belongs to Allah, who has delivered us from the wrongdoing lot,’ and ‘My Lord! Land me with a blessed landing, for You are the best of those who bring ashore’ (23:28–29).

20:76The Conclusion of the Matter and the Disembarkation of Noah and His Companions from the Ark:

After the flood covered the earth and drowned the people (as evidenced in Sūrah al-Sāffāt, 37: 77), God commanded the earth to swallow its water and for the skies to clear. The waters receded, and the Ark rested on Mount Judi. It was proclaimed, “‘Away with the wrongdoing lot!’ (11:44), and God told Noah to disembark with His peace and blessings upon him and the nations who were with him. There would never be another universal flood after this, and God would bless some of the nations with the good things of this worldly life before they were seized by a painful punishment. Thus, Noah and those with him disembarked to worship God in monotheism and submission. His offspring inherited the earth, and God decreed that they would be the successors (Sūrah Hūd, al-Sāffāt).

The Story of Noah’s Drowned Son:

When Noah was boarding the Ark with his family and the believers, one of his sons did not join him. This son did not believe his father’s warning that those who stayed behind would inevitably drown. Seeing his son keeping apart from him, Noah called out, ‘O my son! Board with us, and do not be with the faithless!’ His son replied, ‘I shall take refuge on a mountain; it will protect me from the flood.’ Noah said, ‘There is none today who can protect from Allah’s edict, except someone upon whom He has mercy’—referring to the occupants of the Ark. However, his son did not heed his words. The waves came between them, and he was among those who drowned (11:42–43).

Now, while Noah knew of his wife’s treachery, he had not been aware of his son’s hidden disbelief. Had he known, his son’s fate would not have grieved him so. He, after all, was the one who prayed, ‘My Lord! ‘Do not leave on the earth any inhabitant from among the faithless. If You leave them, they will lead astray Your servants and will not beget except vicious ingrates’ (71:26–27). He, who said, ‘My Lord! Indeed my people have impugned me. So judge conclusively between me and them, and deliver me and the faithful who are with me’ (26:117–118). Furthermore, he had already heard God’s words when it was revealed to him, ‘and do not plead with Me for those who are wrongdoers: they shall indeed be drowned’ (11:37). Therefore, had he known the truth of the matter, he would not have grieved as he did.

20:77However, being unaware of his son’s faithlessness, Noah found himself gripped by anguish and called out to his Lord, ‘My Lord! My son is indeed from my family. Your promise is indeed true, and You are the fairest of all judges. You are not unjust in Your judgement, and You are not ignorant in Your decree. So, what has happened to my son?’ It was only the intervention of divine providence that prevented him from explicitly asking God about his son’s salvation—for this was a matter he had no knowledge about—and God revealed to him, ‘O Noah! Indeed He is not of your family. Indeed he is unrighteous conduct. So do not ask Me that of which you have no knowledge. I advise you lest you should be among the ignorant’ (11:45–46).

It was at this point that the matter became clear to Noah, and he sought refuge with his Lord saying, , ‘My Lord! I seek Your protection lest I should ask You something of which I have no knowledge. If You do not forgive me and have mercy upon me I shall be among the losers’ (11:47).

Who was Noah?

Noah was the first of the Those Endowed with Resolve (ūlū al-ʿazm), who are the foremost of God’s prophets. God sent him to all of mankind with a heavenly book and a divine code of law; his book was the first of the heavenly books containing God’s laws, and his code was the first divine code of law.

He is also the second patriarch of the present human race. Everyone alive today traces their lineage back to him, and all are his descendants, as God says,

He is the second father of the present human race. To him all lineages trace back, and all are his descendants, as God has said, “ and made his descendants the survivors (37:77). Noah is also the father of all the prophets mentioned in the Qurʾan, except for Adam and Enoch. God has said, and left for him a good name among posterity (37:78).

Noah was the first of God’s messengers to open the door of divine legislation, to bring a book and a law, to speak to people with rational arguments and to debate with them, in addition to the bringing them divine revelation. He is the origin from which the religion of monotheism in the world sprang forth. Thus, all monotheists until the Day of Judgement owe him a debt of thanks. It is for this reason that God blessed him with a universal peace—something which He has granted to no one else. As said by the Exalted, “ Peace to Noah, throughout the nations! (37:79).

20:78God chose Noah above all the worlds (3:33) and counted him among the truly righteous (6:84, 37:80). He also called him a grateful servant (17:3) and included him among His believing servants (37:81). He also referred to him as a righteous servant (66:10).

The last of Noah’s prayers that has been recounted to us is his saying: ‘My Lord! Forgive me and my parents, and whoever enters my house in faith, and the faithful men and women, and do not increase the wrongdoers in anything except ruin’ (71:28).

The Story of Noah in the Present Torah:¹

When humans began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful. They took for themselves wives of all that they chose, so the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not contend with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days. And also afterward, when the sons of God went in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Then God said to Noah, ‘I am determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the Ark with compartments, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it: the length of the Ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the Ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the Ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall enter the Ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the Ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.’ Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

20:79Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Enter the Ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before me in this time. Of every clean animal you shall take with you seven pairs, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female; also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.’ Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.

And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him entered the Ark because of the water of the flood. Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the Ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.

After seven days, the waters of the flood came upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. Rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the Ark. They and every beast according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. They went into the Ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

20:80The flood continued for forty days on the earth. The waters increased and lifted up the Ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the Ark f oated on the face of the waters. The waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. God blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the Ark. The waters prevailed on the earth for one hundred and fifty days.

Then God remembered Noah, and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the Ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

After forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the Ark and sent out a raven. It went back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. The dove could not find a resting place for her foot, and returned to him to the Ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. He put out his hand and took her and brought her into the Ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the Ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and she did not return to him again.

20:81In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. Noah removed the covering of the Ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out.

Then God said to Noah, ‘Go out from the Ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds, animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.’ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the Ark.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. Be fruitful and multiply, increase abundantly on the earth and multiply in it.’

20:82God spoke to Noah and his sons with him, saying, ‘Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, from all that go out of the Ark to every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’

God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’

The sons of Noah who went forth from the Ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the people of the whole earth were dispersed. Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.’ He also said, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.’ After the flood Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and then he died.

20:83A Discussion of the Biblical Account:

As you can observe, this narrative contradicts the Qurʾan from a number of aspects:

Firstly, it does not mention the exception of Noah’s wife; instead, it explicitly states that she boarded the ark and was saved with her husband. Some have sought to rationalise this apparent incongruity by suggesting that Noah may have had two wives—one who drowned, and one who survived.

Secondly, it omits the account of Noah’s son who drowned, which is narrated in the Qurʾan.

Thirdly, it does not mention any believers other than Noah and his family, restricting the account to him, his sons, his wife, and the wives of his sons.

Fourthly, it cites Noah’s total lifespan as nine hundred and fifty years, while the Qurʾan indicates that this was merely the period he spent preaching among his people, inviting them to God before the flood. As God says, “ Certainly We sent Noah to his people, and he remained with them for a thousand-less-fifty years. Then the flood overtook them while they were wrongdoers. (29:14)

Fifthly, it mentions the appearance of a rainbow, describes Noah sending out a raven and a dove to investigate, and includes details such as the ark’s dimensions—its length, width, height, its three levels—the flood’s duration, the water’s elevation, and other specifics which are not mentioned in the Qurʾan. Some of these details seem far-fetched and unlikely, such as the divine covenant symbolized by the rainbow. Many of these elements have found their way into Islamic accounts of Noah’s story through narrations transmitted by the Companions and Successors, and the majority of these appear to borrowings from Jewish and Christian sources (Isrāʾīliyyāt).

Accounts of the Flood in Different World Cultures:

The author of Tafsīr al-Manār highlights that accounts of the Flood have appeared in the annals of various ancient civilizations and nations. Some of these accounts broadly align in their details with the narrative found in Genesis, while others differ from it significantly

The narrative closest to this is that of the Chaldeans, who experienced the flood in their own land. It is narrated by the Babylonian chronicler Berossus and the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus that the Sumerian king Xisuthrus dreamt, following his father Otiartes’ death, that water would overwhelm and drown all of humanity. He was instructed to build an ark in which he, his family, and especially his friends could seek refuge, which he did. This aligns with the Genesis narrative, wherein there was a generation of giants on earth, who were corrupt and filled the world with wickedness, for which God punished them with a flood.

20:84An English Assyriologist, George Smith (d. 1876) discovered clay tablets inscribed with this narrative in cuneiform from the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, around six hundred and sixty years before the birth of Christ. These were transcriptions from an older script dating back to the seventeenth century B.C. or earlier, which would make them older than the Book of Genesis.

The Greeks have a flood narrative that Plato recounts in Timaeus: the Egyptian priests told Solon, the Greek philosopher, that the heavens had sent a flood that altered the earth’s surface, destroying humanity multiple times through various means. Nothing remained of the previous generation’s landmarks or knowledge for subsequent generations.

The Egyptian priest Manetho narrates a flood account that occurred after the first Hermes, who came after Menes I. This account predates the Torah. Ancient Greeks also told the story of a global flood, from which only Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha survived.

Ancient Persians narrated a flood narrative, in which God drowned the earth due to the rampant corruption and evils spread by Ahriman, the god of darkness and evil. They claim the flood began as waters surged from the oven of an old woman while she was baking her bread. However, the Zoroastrians did not believe that this flood covered the entirety of the earth, asserting it was confined to the region of Iraq and ended at the borders of Kurdistan.

Similarly, ancient Indian legends af rm the occurrence of the flood seven times, in a mythic form. The last of these accounts tells of their king and his wife surviving in a great ship, which their god had commanded them to build. The ship was launched and filled with pitch until it came to rest on the Himalayas. But, like the Zoroastrians, the Brahmans deny a global flood, instead saying that it merely drowned all of India. Flood accounts have can also be found from Japan, China, Brazil, Mexico, and other places. All these narratives concur that the cause of such a cataclysm was God’s punishment for human oppression and wickedness.

20:85In the Zoroastrian holy book, the Avesta, it is recorded that Ahura Mazda revealed to Yima (whom the Zoroastrians believe to be the ancient Persian king Jamshid) that a flood would engulf the earth. He was commanded to construct a high wall to protect those inside from drowning. He was to gather within it a group of men and women suitable for procreation, introduce two of every kind of animal species, and build houses and domes in various layers for the assembled people to live in and provide refuge for the animals and birds. He was also instructed to plant fruit trees and cultivate crops to sustain human life and allow them to repopulate the world after the waters had subsided.

In ancient Indian legends² there is a flood story in which Manu (whom they believed to be the son of God) was washing his hands when a fish appeared. Manu was amazed when the fish spoke, asking to be saved from destruction, and promising in return to save Manu from a great danger in the future. The fish foretold that a great flood would come and sweep away all creatures. Consequently, Manu kept the fish safe in a jar.

When the fish grew, it informed Manu about the year the flood would occur and instructed him to build a large ship, which he should board to remain safe during the deluge. The fish promised to save him from the flood. Manu constructed the ship, and as the fish grew larger than the jar could accommodate, he released it into the sea.

The flood occurred as the fish had predicted. When Manu entered the ship, the fish swam towards him, and he fastened the ship to a horn on its head. It pulled him towards the northern mountains, where Manu tied the ship to a tree. As the water receded and dried up, Manu remained alone.

Was Noah’s prophethood universal for all humankind?

The question of whether Noah was a prophet for all humankind is a matter on which scholars have differing views. Among the Shīʿa, it is commonly believed that his message was universal and intended for all humankind. This view is supported by traditions narrated from the Household of the Prophet that suggest that Those Endowed with Resolve (ūlū al-ʿazm)— including Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad—were sent to all humanity.

20:86As for the Sunnī school of thought, some scholars assert that Noah’s message was universal, relying on the apparent meaning of verses that speak of the flood affecting all the inhabitants of the earth. Such verses include God’s statement: ‘Do not leave on the earth any inhabitant from among the faithless’ (71:26), His saying, ‘There is none today who can protect from Allah’s edict, except someone upon whom He has mercy.’ (11:43), and His statement: and made his descendants the survivors (37: 77). This view also draws on a tradition from sources they deem authentic that Noah was the first Messenger sent by God to the people of the earth, suggesting his mission was to all of them.

However, other Sunnī scholars reject this based on a tradition in the Saḥīḥ from the Prophet: ‘Each Prophet was sent specifically to his people - and I was sent to all of mankind.’ These scholars say that the aforementioned verses should be interpreted with this in mind. It is plausible, they argue, that ‘the earth’ mentioned in the verses refers only to the land inhabited by Noah’s people, their homeland, as when Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron, ‘…so that supremacy may be yours in the land (al-ard)?’ (10:78).

This could render the meaning of the first verse: ‘Leave not one disbeliever of my people on this earth.’ The second could mean: ‘None can protect my people from God’s edict today,’ and the third could mean: ‘And We made his descendants the survivors of his people.’

However, the reality is that this topic has not been fully explored in their discussions. What must, at the very least, be stated is that prophethood emerged in human society in response to a genuine need for it and a real bond between people and their Lord. It is based on a cosmic reality rather than being an arbitrary matter of convention. One of the real principle operating within the cosmic order is that all species must move towards perfection and be guided towards their existential goals. God says, …who created and proportioned, who determined and guided (87:3-4), and also, … who gave everything its creation and then guided it (20:50).

In other words, every kind of being, from the moment of its inception, is directed towards the perfection of its existence and the goal of its creation, wherein lies its ultimate good and happiness. The human species is no exception to this principle; its individuals and communities are directed towards their perfection and happiness. Moreover, it is crucial to note that such perfection cannot be achieved by the human being alone, given his numerous vital needs and the myriad tasks that must be performed to meet them. The practical intellect, which drives him to benefit from everything possible and utilise inanimate objects, plants, and animals for his own benefit, also encourages him to benefit from the works of other members of his own species by cooperating with them.

20:87And yet, individuals are all alike, each possessing the same practical intellect and unique human sensibilities as the other. These spur them to cooperate with one another: Everyone works for the collective good and profits from the works of others to the extent that they contribute their own efforts. God says, It is We who have dispensed among them their livelihood in the present life, and raised some of them above others in rank, so that some may take others into service (43:32).

This is what we mean when we say that human beings are fundamentally built for collaborative association. The necessities of life and our social dynamics compel us to function as cooperative beings. Despite this, human nature’s primary instinct is to maximise the benefit they derive from anything that presents them with an opportunity to do so, even if this the efforts of other people. Thus, regardless of how strong or self-suf cient a person may become, if they start to exploit others without compensation, this only confirms God’s words: Indeed man is most unfair and ungrateful! (14:34) and Indeed man becomes rebellious when he considers himself without need. Indeed to your Lord is the return (96: 8).

Moreover, it is essential to realize that collaborative associations among individual human beings can only arise through the establishment of laws to govern these associations and guardians to enforce them. This is demonstrated by the continuous historical trajectory of human societies. Regardless of how complete or deficient, sophisticated or primitive a society may be, there exist customs and norms wholly or mostly observed. History, experience, and observation all attest to this simple fact. These customs, norms, or, if you prefer, laws, are mental concepts that are applied either entirely or mostly in society, resulting in happiness either in reality or at least in perception. These laws are elements that are integral to the human pursuit of perfection, and they provide a course for humans to follow in their transition from a primal state to a complete form living in society. They guide humans towards the ultimate purpose of their existence.

20:88We understand it to be a matter of divine necessity for God to guide humans towards the fulfilment of their life’s purpose and the perfection of their existence, just as He guides all other species towards these goals. As such, He has guided them through their own nature and instinct to seek their wellbeing and happiness; through the order of the universe and the faculties with which He has furnished them and which allow them to distinguish benefit from harm, good from evil, and happiness from misery. As God says, by the soul and Him who fashioned it,and inspired it with its virtues and vices: one who purifies it is felicitous, and one who betrays it fails (91:7–10).

God guides humanity, through His necessary care (ʿināya), towards the foundational and practical principles of belief and action. The application of these principles completes and fulfils the human’s life purpose. God’s divine care for the perfection of all species, in accordance with their unique nature, necessitates this kind of guidance, as does it the guidance towards purely physical flourishing also.

However, the intellect with which the human being has been equipped, as useful as it may be, is not by itself suf cient in this respect. As we have already discussed, the intellect incites us to make use of things for our benefit and to discern one thing from another. Now, it is impossible for one faculty to perform two opposing actions or to yield two contradictory results. Nevertheless, those individuals who disregard society’s laws and commit crimes against others are still rational beings, who benefit from the faculties of reason.

Thus, it becomes clear that there must be another path for teaching humanity the truth of the divine law and showing them the path of perfection and happiness in addition to that of thinking and intellect: This is the path of revelation. This divine form of communication conveys to humans what will lead them to success by acting on it and believing in it, both in this worldly life and in the Hereafter.

Now, one might argue that revelation makes no difference, for the law of the prophets does not provide anything more than what reason can: humanity will refuse to submit to the laws of the prophets as surely as it has refused to submit to the laws of the intellect. Therefore, if revelation cannot direct human society or guide it to the path of truth, what use is it?

20:89To this, I would respond by saying that this discussion has two dimensions. The first is that it is a divine necessity to guide human society through teachings that would cause people to flourish and be fulfilled if they are followed—this is the guidance of revelation, and reason by itself is not enough here. The second dimension is the question of what the external reality and actual situation is. Our focus in this discussion is on the first dimension, and the fact that this prophethood has scarcely led people towards its intended purpose does not in any way diminish our argument. This is akin to how God’s care guides plant and animal species towards the perfection of their creation and the purpose of their existence. Yet, most individuals of each species fall short of reaching their species-specific purpose and perish before attaining their natural lifespan.

In summary, the path of prophethood and revelation is indispensable for the cultivation and nurturing of mankind when considering God’s care for His creatures. Without revelation, God’s argument over mankind would not be complete based solely on reason, for it has a role beyond this scope, namely calling humans towards what is in their own best interest. Even if it calls them towards something beneficial for the species, it does so because of its relevance to their individual wellbeing. Understand this, and consider carefully God’s words: We have indeed revealed to you as We revealed to Noah and the prophets after him, and (as) We revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, Jesus and Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon,—and We gave David the Psalms—and messengers We have recounted to you earlier and messengers We have not recounted to you,—and to Moses Allah spoke directly—messengers, as bearers of good news and warners, so that mankind may not have any argument against Allah, after the (sending of the) messengers; and Allah is all-mighty, allwise (4:163–165).

Therefore, it is a necessary and logical corollary of God’s care and concern for His creatures that He reveals a religion for human society to follow and a code of laws for them to observe in their social lives, without focusing only some groups and leaving others aside without care. The necessary implication of this is that the first code of law revealed to humankind— meaning the laws brought by Noah—must be a universal law.

20:90God has informed us of this universal principle in His saying, ‘Mankind were a single community; then Allah sent the prophets as bearers of good news and as warners, and He sent down with them the Book with the truth, that it may judge between the people concerning that about which they differed (2:213). This indicates that people were initially and naturally a single body, showing no signs of conflicts or disputes. Then, when differences emerged among them, God sent prophets with a code of laws and a scripture with which to judge truthfully in those matters they differed in, and to settle the subjects of contention and dispute that existed between them.

As for the special favor that God showed to the Prophet Muḥammad, He says in the Qurʾan, He has prescribed for you the religion which He had enjoined upon Noah and which We have revealed to you, and which We had enjoined upon Abraham, Moses and Jesus (42:13). The context of this verse suggests that the divine laws revealed to all of humanity are those mentioned and no others. The first law mentioned is that of Noah. Had it not been universal for all humans, especially in his time, there would have been another prophet with another law for those other than Noah’s people, and such a prophet has not been mentioned in this verse or in any other place in the Qurʾan. And if Noah’s law was not universal and no such prophet was sent, then this would have meant that God had neglected the rest of humankind who were not part of Noah’s people, both at his time and thereafter.

Therefore, it is clear that Noah’s mission as a prophet was universal, and he was given a book that contained a code of laws that was intended to eliminate disagreements. His book was the first of the heavenly scriptures containing the divine law. The part of the aforementioned verse which says, and He sent down with them the Book with the truth, that it may judge between the people concerning that about which they differed, refers to his book, or to his book alongside the books of other Resolute Prophets: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muḥammad.

It also appears that any indication found in the traditions that his call was not universal contradicts the explicit meaning of the Qurʾan. For example, in a tradition from Imām al-Riḍā, we read: ‘Those Endowed with Resolve are five in number. Each of them had a code of laws and a book, and their prophetic mission was universal for everyone besides them, whether these were prophets or not.’ We have already discussed this tradition in our commentary on the verse, Mankind were a single community (2:213).

20:91Did the flood cover the entirety of the earth?

The answer to this question was clarified in the previous chapter. The universality of Noah’s prophetic mission necessitates the universality of the divine punishment. This is indeed an excellent indication that all the verses that appear to indicate the global nature of the Flood do in fact point to this. For example, when God recounts statements from Noah such as, ‘Do not leave on the earth any inhabitant from among the faithless’ (71:26), His saying, ‘There is none today who can protect from Allah’s edict, except someone upon whom He has mercy.’ (11:43), and God’s own statement: and made his descendants the survivors (37: 77).

Further evidence for the Flood being worldwide can be found in two places in the Qurʾan. First, when God commanded Noah to load two of every species of animal into the Ark, when it is clear that if the Flood was a localized event—for example, to Iraq, as has been suggested—there would have been no need to carry two of every single species in the Ark—as should be obvious.

In spite of this, some scholars have argued that the flood was localized to the land of Noah’s people. For example, Rāshid Riḍā, the author of the commentary al-Manār, argues exactly this. For instance, after discussing the salvation of Noah and his family, speaks about the verse, and made his descendants the survivors (37: 77). He says that while the phrase ‘the survivors’ (al-bāqīn) might imply the meaning of ‘the only survivors’, this could mean ‘the only survivors of his people.’ As for when Noah said, ‘Do not leave on the earth any inhabitant from among the faithless’, Rāshid Riḍā says that ‘the earth’ (al-arḍ) here need not refer to the entirety of the globe, as it is often the case in the stories of various prophets and nations that the term al-arḍ is used to denote their land or homeland. For example, God recounts Pharaoh telling Moses and Aaron: ‘… so that supremacy may be yours in the land (al-arḍ)?’ (10:78) Here, Pharaoh uses al-arḍ to refer to the land of Egypt. Equally, consider the verse addressed to the Prophet, They were about to hound you out of the land (al-arḍ), to expel you from it (17:76), where al-arḍ refers to the land of Mecca. Then there is the verse, We decreed to the Children of Israel in the Book: ‘Twice you will cause corruption in the land (al-arḍ), and you will perpetrate great tyranny’ (17:4), where the meaning of al-arḍ is their homeland. According to him, there are many examples of this.

20:92Moreover, he argues that the apparent meaning of the verses, combined with contextual evidence and the accounts received from the People of the Book, indicate that during Noah’s time, his people were the only ones alive on Earth. All of them were wiped out by the Flood, and only his descendants remained afterwards. This suggests that the Flood must have occurred in the area of the earth in which they lived, covering its plains and mountains, but not the entire planet. Unless of course the dry land at that time was minimal due to its relatively recent formation and the even more recent emergence of humans on it. Indeed, scholars of formation and geological strata suggest that when Earth separated from the Sun, it was a f ery, inflamed sphere. It then became a watery sphere, and dry land gradually emerged on it over millions of years.

Next, he highlights the evidence presented by some thinkers that the Flood covered the entire Earth. They claimed that the presence of certain seashells and fossilized fish at the tops of mountains, which can only form in the sea, indicates that water once reached these heights. This could only have occurred if the water had indeed covered the Earth.

However, he rejects this argument because the presence of seashells and marine animals at the tops of mountains does not necessarily indicate that this was due to that Flood. Instead, it is more likely that this was a result of the formation of mountains and other dry land in water, as previously mentioned. After all, a few days would not provide suf cient time for the waters to reach such heights.

Finally, Rashīd Riḍā argues to the effect that these historical issues are not the primary objectives of the Qurʾan. Therefore, they were not clarified with any definitive verses. As a result, he maintains what he has previously stated as an apparent explanation of the texts, but he does not adopt it as a definitive religious belief. He goes on to say that if geological science proves otherwise, it would not affect his religious beliefs, because such scientific findings do not contradict any explicit text in his belief system.

Author’s comment: In response to the views of Rashīd Riḍā: His interpretation of these verses is an arbitrary restriction of the meaning of the text, without any evidence to support it. Likewise, his rejection of seashells and fish being found on mountain tops as evidence for a global flood—because a few days would not have given suf cient time for the waters to rise so high—is vulnerable to counter-arguments, because it is entirely possible that these remains were carried to such heights by the waves of the Flood and remained there after the water receded. It is also not necessarily impossible for a Flood to submerge towering mountains within a few days.

20:93In addition to this, Rashīd Riḍā has ignored what the verses do make explicit, namely that Noah was ordered to take two of each kind of animal species. This is virtually a clear declaration that the Flood would cover all, or most, of the Earth’s dry lands, the majority being tantamount to all.

The truth is that the apparent meaning of the Qurʾan—a meaning that is, in fact, undeniable—is that the Flood was global and that all human beings on Earth were drowned save for those aboard the Ark with Noah. No definitive argument has yet arisen that could divert the text from this apparent meaning.

I asked my esteemed friend, Dr. Sahabi³, a professor of geology at Tehran University, to enlighten me about on what light geological research can shed on this global Flood and whether there is any comprehensive evidence supporting it. He responded by forwarding an article, a summary of which is detailed in the following sections:

1. Sedimentary Lands: In geology, ‘sedimentary lands’ refers to the Earth’s layers formed by deposits of running water on the Earth’s surface, such as plains and channels which are covered by sand and gravel particles.

We can recognise sedimentary lands by the accumulation of smooth rounded sand and gravel particles. These were originally sharp-edged, angular pieces of stone that were gradually smoothed by the friction caused by them colliding together in running water and great floods. The water then carried them and spread them on the Earth, depositing them in both nearby or distant locations.

Sedimentary lands are not limited to plains. Most terrains of this type are mixed with or formed of extremely fine sand. Because of its f neness and lightness, this sand was transported to far off locations by the flow of water and floods.

20:94Sedimentary lands are covered by several layers of sand and soil, some stacked atop others without any order or system. This indicates, firstly, that these layers were not formed at the same time and, secondly, that the flow of water and floods, or their intensity, changed over different periods.

This suggests that the sedimentary lands were once channels and pathways for significant amounts of water and large floods, even though they might appear far removed from such things today.

These lands, which tell the story of extensive water flow and enormous floods, are found in most areas of the earth, including most of the regions of Iran, such as Tehran, Qazvin, Semnan, Sabzevar, Yazd, Tabriz, Kerman, Shiraz, and others. They are also found in Mesopotamia, particularly its southern regions, Transoxiana, the Syrian desert, India, southern France, eastern China, Egypt, and most parts of America. The thickness of the sedimentary layer in some places reaches hundreds of metres. In Tehran, it exceeds four hundred metres.

From what has been mentioned, it can be deduced firstly, that the earth’s surface was not too long ago (as will be discussed further) regularly experienced enormous floods that may have covered most or all of its plains.

Secondly, considering the thickness of the sedimentary crust in some places, the flood did not occur once or within a single year or a few years. Instead, it lasted or repeated over hundreds of years. Each time it occurred, it formed a sedimentary layer, then, if it stopped, a layer of soil covered it. If it recurred, it formed another layer, and so forth. The variations in the sedimentary layers, in terms of the precision of their sand grains and lack thereof, suggest differences in the intensity and weakness of the floods.

1. Sedimentary layers are the youngest geological crusts and strata: Sedimentary layers usually settle horizontally. However, their accumulated parts might have been subject to intense pressures from above and below. As a result, they gradually shift from a straight horizontal orientation and become curved or twisting. This effect is not apparent over short periods but becomes more noticeable over the course of millions of years. As a result, mountains and their twisting ranges are formed, with some of their hills overlapping each other and their peaks rising above sea levels.

From this, we can infer that the surviving horizontal sedimentary layers and crusts are among the most recent strata to be formed on the earth’s surface. The available technical evidence suggests that they were not formed more than ten to fifteen thousand years before our present time.⁴

1. The expansion of the seas: It appears that the new sedimentary crusts have played a role in the expansion of most of the world’s seas. Their waters rose and covered most of their coasts, forming islands surrounded by the sea on most sides.

20:95For example, it was during this time that the British Isles became entirely separated from France and the rest of Europe. Europe became separated from Africa on its southern side and Africa from Europe on its northern side, where the two had previously been connected by land, due to the expansion of the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, the Italian and Tunisian peninsulas were formed, along with the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and others. The Indonesian islands from Java and Sumatra side to southern Japan, which had been connected to Asia from the south-east until now, became separated and assumed their current form. Similarly, the separation of North America from Northern Europe is one of the remaining effects of this period – the era of the Flood.

The internal movements and transformations of the earth have had effects on the flow of these waters and how they have settled in the depressions on the earth’s surface. This is why the water receded from some submerged coastal areas when the Flood dominated most of the surface, forming lakes and expanding seas. An example of this is the southern coast of Khuzestan, from which the waters of the Persian Gulf receded.⁵

1. Factors influencing the increase of water during the era of the Flood: The geological evidence to which we have referred supports the fact that the atmospheric precipitations were unusual in the early stages of the current human life cycle—that is, during the era of the Flood. In fact, the Flood appears to have occurred due to major and extraordinary climatic changes. The air was warmer in this cycle to what it was previously, which was characterized by intense cold that covered most of the northern half of the globe with snow, frost, and ice. It is highly likely that the frost accumulated from the previous climatic cycle was still present and had not yet melted in the valleys of most of the northern temperate region.

20:96The heat acting on the Earth’s surface in two successive cycles, along with the accumulation of frost and ice, resulted in a drastic change in the atmosphere and a massive inversion, influencing the rise of water vapor into the atmosphere and its accumulation therein. This was followed by intense precipitation and unusually heavy rainfall.

These incessant and heavy rains, which fell on elevations and in valleys, especially on the newly-formed mountain ranges in southern and western Asia, southern Europe, and northern Africa—such as the Alborz, Himalayas, and Alps—and in the west of America, was followed by the flow of enormous, tremendous floods over them.⁶ These floods carved the rocks, excavated the earth, uprooted stones, and carried them to the lands and sloping valleys, creating new valleys, deepening old ones, and expanding them. They then spread the stones, pebbles, and sand they carried, forming new sedimentary layers.

What contributed to the intensity of the Flood and added to the intensity of its waters was that the excavation of new valleys revealed additional subterranean water reserves, which are the sources of wells and running springs. The flood removed the layers that had obstructed their flow, causing the springs to erupt and add their own waters to the f oodwaters, increasing their destructive power and assisting them in f ooding the earth’s plains and mountains and inundating them.

However, the earth’s water reserves are finite. They were eventually depleted, and with this and the ceasing of the rain from the sky, the Flood came to an end. The waters receded into to the seas, low-lying lands, and some of them were absorbed into some of the empty spaces and pockets within the Earth, which the floods had emptied.

1. Conclusion of the Study: We can correlate much of this scientific research to what God has said about the specific characteristics of the Flood that occurred in Noah’s time, such as His saying: Then We opened the gates of the sky with pouring waters, and We made the earth burst forth with springs, and the waters met for a preordained purpose (54:12); and His saying, When Our edict came and the oven gushed … (11:40); and His saying, Then it was said, ‘O earth, swallow your water! O sky, leave off!’ The waters receded; the edict was carried out … (11:44).

20:97In line with this study, some newspapers⁷ in Tehran recently published a report summarized as follows: A group of scientists from America, guided by the Turkish military, on a mountain peak some 1,400 feet high in Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, discovered pieces of wood whose measurements suggest were the remnants of an ancient ship that ended up there. Some of these pieces date back to approximately 2,500 B.C. Their measurements suggest that these are parts of a ship that was roughly two-thirds the size of the English ship “Queen Mary”, which is 1,019 feet long and 118 feet wide. The wood was transported to San Francisco for further investigation: could these pieces be linked to what scholars believe to be Noah’s Ark?

Noah’s exceptionally long life

The Qurʾan indicates that Noah lived a long life and that he invited his people to worship God for a thousand years minus fifty. Some researchers have dismissed this due to human lifespan generally not exceeding one hundred or one hundred and twenty years. Some even suggested that the ancients considered each month a year, so nine hundred and fifty years equates to eighty years minus ten months. However, this interpretation is highly improbable.

Some have argued that Noah’s long life was a divine grace granted to him as a miracle. For example, al-Thaʿlabī in his Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ described Noah thus: ‘He was the longest-lived of all the prophets, and was called the most senior of the prophets (akbar al-anbiyāʾ) and the elder of the messengers (shaykh al-mursalīn). His miracle was himself, for he lived a thousand years without his age diminishing, and his strength did not decrease.’

20:98The truth is that there is no evidence yet to deny that a human being can live such long lives. Rather, it is more likely that early humans lived much longer than the current average lifespan due to their enjoying simpler lifestyles, with fewer worries, and encountering fewer of the diseases that we face today, and the absence of other factors detrimental to human life. Whenever we find a person who lived one hundred and twenty to one hundred and sixty years, we find that they led a simple life with few worries and a simple understanding of the world. Therefore, it is not far-fetched that some people in the past lived for hundreds of years.

However, questioning God’s word about something like the age of Noah, which is among the miraculous signs that defy the ordinary, is rather strange. We have already discussed the nature and scope of miracles earlier in our commentary.

Where is Mount Judi?

Some have said that it is in Diyarbakr, near Mosul, in mountains connected to the Armenian Mountains. It is named Ararat in the Torah. Al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ states: ‘Judi is a mountain in Northern Mesopotamia where Noah’s Ark came to a rest. In the Torah, it is called “Ararat”.’ In Marāṣid al-Iṭṭilāʿ, we read: ‘Judi, a tall mountain that overlooks Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar to the east of the Tigris in the vicinity of Mosul, where Noah’s Ark came to a rest when the waters of the Flood subsided.’

The reason for the Flood

Some might object that God drowned Noah’s people due to their sinfulness, but that the rest of the animals on Earth were blameless, so why did they have to perish due in the f oodwaters? This objection is baseless as not all destruction, even if widespread, is a necessarily punishment or revenge. Disasters that kill thousands, such as earthquakes, floods, pandemics, and plagues, occur frequently throughout history, but there is still wisdom in God’s decree.

On Idol Worship

Human beings and their reliance on sense perception

A human being, in their social life, acts on the basis of the law of cause and effect and other universal laws that they have derived from observing the cosmic order. In this, they differ from the behavior of other animals, because they engage in reflection and deduction—by which I mean logical reasoning—in order to achieve long-term goals.

20:99And yet, human beings cannot feel confidence in their examination and inquiry without forming a verdict regarding the cause of this observable world, of which they are a part, whether af rmatively or negatively. This is because they realize that their life’s happiness, which they desire above anything else, fundamentally differs based on whether they af rm or deny the existence of this agent known as God. It is obvious that there can be no comparison between the life of a human being who af rms the existence of a living, knowledgeable, and capable Creator for the world, who inevitably submits to His greatness and majesty and lives his life according to what He loves and approves of, and the life of a human being who views the world as aimless, without a beginning or an end, and where human life is but a limited existence that perishes with death and is nullified by passing, and humanity has no higher purpose in it except what animals have in terms of lust, anger, and the desire for food and sex.

Therefore, there is an innate intellectual tendency in humans to ask the question: Is there a God? This is followed by a second tendency, which is the innate tendency to af rm and decide that there is a God who created everything in existence with His power and set the cosmic order in motion with His Lordship, guiding everything towards its goal and perfecting its existence in accordance with His will, and that everything that exists will ultimately return to its Lord just as it originated from Him.

Moreover, a human’s constant engagement with perception and what is perceptible throughout their life, their immersion in materiality, and their attachment to the earth all lead them to represent everything they understand and imagine in a tangible perceptible form, even if it something completely inaccessible to perception and imagination, such as universal principles and abstract truths that are detached from matter. However, humans gain an understanding of objects of intellect through their faculties of sense and imagination—two faculties on which they rely extensively in their thought.

This inherent human tendency means that one often imagines gives their God an imaginary form based on what they are familiar with from tangible, physical matters. Even most monotheists, who believe in the utter transcendence and sanctity of the Lord of the Worlds above the limits of physicality and its conditions, establish in their minds a vague, imaginary image of Him that is separate from the world. This image comes to mind when they turn to Him regarding a matter or speak about Him. However, religious education rectif es this by establishing a balance between negation and af rmation and by drawing a distinction between anthropomorphism and transcendence. The monotheistic Muslim says: ‘He is something unlike anything else, He has power unlike the power of His creation, and knowledge unlike any other knowledge’—and so on, in this fashion.

20:100Rarely does it happen that a human turns towards the realm of divinity and majesty, with their self being free from this anthropomorphic tendency. It is even more unusual for there to be a person who has devoted himself utterly to God, with his heart unattached to anything other than Him, and who is untouched by satanic anthropomorphisms. God has said: Clear is Allah of whatever they allege, except Allah’s exclusive servants (37:160). He has also related that Iblis said: ‘By Your might, I will surely pervert them, except Your exclusive servants among them’ (38:83).

In summary, humans are strongly inclined to imagine non-perceptible matters in the form of perceptible things. So, when they hear that there is something beyond physical nature that is stronger, more capable, greater, and higher than nature, and that it is active in it, which encompasses it, predates it, manages it, and rules it, such that nothing comes into being but by its command, and nothing changes from one state to another except by its will and decision, they can only initially comprehend this by analogy to their understanding of physical attributes.

Often, they imagine it in their minds as a human figure above the heavens, seated on a majestic throne, governing the affairs of the world through his contemplation, directing them by his will and issuing commands and prohibitions. The existing Torah explicitly states that God is so, and that He created humans in His image, and the Gospels also appear to indicate this as well.

It so happens that it is a feature of human nature, especially in primitive early humans, is to create an image for their God, who is free from similarity and comparison, that resembles physical beings and matches the descriptions and attributes they ascribe to Him, just as they represent the Trinity as a human with three faces, as if each of the general attributes is a face of the Lord turning towards His creation with it.

20:101Turning towards the worship of God:

When a person determines that the cosmos has a deity who created it through His knowledge and power, it is inevitable that he will submit to Him through the humility of worship, in accordance with the universal law of the cosmos. This law is the submission of the weak to the strong, the obedience of the powerless to the powerful, and the surrender of the lesser to the greater. This is a general law that governs all aspects of existence and affects causes and their effects.

When this law becomes evident to beings endowed with senses and will, such as animals, it sets a precedent for submission and obedience of the weak to the strong. This can be observed in the behavior of animals when the weaker ones recognise the superiority of the stronger ones and give up any resistance or opposition to them.

This law becomes manifest in the human world in a way that is broader and more apparent than in any other creature due to the depth of the human being’s cognition and his capacity for rational thought. In fact, it can be observed in most of our goals and actions, where we rely on it to seek benefit or avoid harm. Examples of this include subjects submitting to their ruler, the poor to the rich, the subordinate to the leader, the commanded to the commander, the servant to the served, the student to the teacher, the lover to the beloved, the needy to the affluent, the slave to the master, and the creature to the Creator.

All of these relationships of submission are, in fact, one and the same. They represent psychological humility and abasement before something that is perceived to be greater and more dominant. The physical act that embodies and exemplifies this humility is worship, no matter to whom or by whom it is performed. There is no distinction in this regard between submission to the Almighty God, to a master by a slave, to a ruler by the subjects, or to the affluent by the needy: In reality, all of these acts of submission are forms of worship.

In any case, there is no way to deter a person from submitting themselves in this way, because it is based on an innate judgement from which humans cannot deviate unless they realize that which they believed was powerful and before which they abased themselves was not greater than them as they assumed, but merely their own equal, for instance.

20:102Hence, we observe that Islam did not prohibit the worship of deities other than God until it demonstrated to people that these deities were created beings like them, and that all power and glory belonged to God alone. As said in the Qurʾan, in Sūrah al-Aʿrāf, Indeed those whom you invoke besides Allah are creatures like you (7:194); Those whom you invoke besides Him can neither help you, nor help themselves. If you call them to guidance, they will not hear. You see them observing you, but they do not perceive (7:198). Meanwhile, in Sūrah Āl ʿImrān, God says, Say, ‘O People of the Book! Come to a word common between us and you: that we will worship no one but Allah, and that we will not ascribe any partner to Him, and that we will not take each other as lords besides Allah.’ But if they turn away, say, “Be witnesses that we are muslims.’ (3:64) This verse concludes by telling the faithful to af rm their submission to God after instructing them to refrain from worshipping other deities and rejecting submission to all beings who are created like themselves. In Sūrah al-Baqarah, we read: power, altogether, belongs to Allah (2:165); while Sūrah al-Nisāʾ says, indeed all honor belongs to Allah (4:139); and Sūrah al-Sajda reads, You do not have besides Him any guardian or intercessor (32:4). And there are countless other verses with similar meanings to these.

No entity other than God possesses the necessary qualities to demand our unqualified submission. Therefore, it is not appropriate to submit to anyone or anything other than Him, unless that submission is ultimately directed towards God. Any respect, reverence, or allegiance directed to anyone else must ultimately be oriented towards Him. As God states in the Qurʾan, those who follow the Messenger, the uninstructed prophet … those who believe in him, honor him, and help him and follow the light that has been sent down with him, they are the felicitous (7:157). He also says, Your guardian is only Allah, His Messenger, and the faithful who maintain the prayer and give the zakat while bowing down (5:55). Elsewhere, it is written, But the faithful, men and women, are comrades of one another: they bid what is right and forbid what is wrong … (9:71), and And whoever venerates the sacraments of Allah—indeed that arises from the Godwariness of hearts (22:32). Hence, in Islam, there is no submission to anyone other than God unless this submission ultimately returns to Him and is intended for Him.

20:103How did idolatry originate, and how did it begin?

As we established in the previous section, human beings have an innate desire to make abstract concepts substantial and shape intangible ideas into tangible forms through representation and imagery. At the same time, humans are instinctively drawn to submit to any superior, dominating force and to be obedient to its commands.

This is why we see that the spirit of polytheism and idolatry has historically prevailed in human societies. It is a phenomenon that seems almost impossible to prevent or avoid, even in modern, advanced societies, and even in those societies explicitly founded on the rejection of religion altogether. In these societies, we can see the erection of statues and images of people, the reverence and respect shown towards them, and the degree of submission to them calls to mind the idolatrous practices of the very earliest times and earliest humans. Nevertheless, today there are hundreds of millions of idolaters—in one form or another—on the face of the Earth, residing in its east and west.

With this in mind, we might hypothesise that idolatry among humans began with them making of statues of great men and raising up their likenesses, especially after their death, to serve as a memorial to them. Narrations from the Imāms of the Prophet’s Household support this idea. For example, in Tafsīr al-Qummī and ʿIlal al-sharāʾiʿ, it is narrated from Imām al-Ṣādiq, commenting on the verse of the Qurʾan: They said, ‘Do not abandon your gods…’ (71:23), that he stated: ‘They used to worship God, but when they died, their people were grieved. Then Satan—may he be cursed by God!—came to them and suggested, ‘Why not make statues in their image? Then you can look at them, find comfort in them, and worship God.’ He then made idols resembling them, and the people continued to worship God, but also looked to these idols. When the winter and rains came, they took the idols into their houses.

They continued to worship God until that generation passed away. When their children grew up, they said, “Our forefathers used to worship these idols.” Thus they started worshipping the idols instead of God. This is what God Almighty meant when He said, They said ‘… Do not abandon Wadd, nor Suwa’ (71:23).

History records that, in ancient Rome and Greece, the master of a house would be worshipped in his own home and, when he died, an idol was made in his honor for his household to worship. Many kings and great men were also deified by their people. For example, the Qurʾan mentions Nimrod, the king who lived at the time of Abraham and debated with him about his Lord, and Pharaoh, who was the enemy of Moses. This is evident in today’s places of idol worship, as well as in the ancient artefacts preserved from various religions which practice idolatry; there idols of many great religious figures, like the statues of Buddha and many Brahmin figures and others.

20:104Their making of idols for the deceased and worshipping them, at the very least, show that these peoples did not believe that life ended with death but that people’s spirits endured and they could continue to influence events and care for their families as they did during their lives. In fact, in some cases they might be thought to have become more powerful and influential because they were freed from the confines of material existence and limited from corporeal limitations. Consider the case of Pharaoh: He worshipped idols while he himself was considered a god and worshipped by his own people. As God said: “The chiefs of Pharaoh’s people said: The elite of Pharaoh’s people said, ‘Will you leave Moses and his people to cause corruption in the land, and to abandon you and your gods?’ (7:127).

Taking up idols as deities:

Creating statues for human beings seems to have stimulated the idea of creating an idol for God, even though people had not habitually created a physical representation of God thus far, as He is beyond definition or imagination. This fact seems to have deterred people from creating an idol for Him. Instead, they took divergent approaches, with each person focusing on what mattered to them most in the visible cosmic order, seeking to worship God through the mediation of the entity they believed God had delegated for managing that specific aspect of their existence.

For instance, peoples who lived along the coastlines worshipped the god of the sea, hoping to benefit from its bounty and to be spared from floods and tumultuous waves. People who inhabited valleys worshipped the god of the valley, while warriors worshipped the god of war, and so forth. In this way, it was not long before each individual fashioned a deity according to their own preferences, imagining for it a specific form and shape, and crafting it from metal, wood, stone, or some other material. It is reported that the Banū Ḥanīfa tribe from Yamāma made an idol out of date cakes, which they ended up eating during a period of drought and hunger.

20:105Equally, when a person came across a beautiful tree or stone, they might be inclined to worship it. They often sacrificed sheep or camels, smearing the blood on their chosen idol. If their livestock fell ill, they would bring it to the idol and rub it against it. Many trees were treated as deities and seen as sources of blessing, thus people were careful not to harm these trees by cutting or breaking them. Instead, they would seek to propitiate them with offerings, vows, and gifts.

This explosion of polytheism led people to diverge widely in their practices relating to idols, to the extent that these could hardly be captured systematically or fully accounted for. However, a common belief among idol worshippers was that they treated these idols as intercessors who would plead with God on their behalf to bring them good fortune and ward off evil. Some people may have even viewed the idol as a deity in its own right, independent of God and not just an intercessor with Him. Others may have viewed it as an intercessor but placed it before or above God Himself. For example, the Qurʾan recounts in the verse: But what is for their partners does not reach Allah, and what is for Allah reaches their partners (6:136).

Some idolaters worshipped angels, others worshipped jinn, some worshipped fixed stars like Sirius, and a group considered the planets (which they believed were ‘wandering stars’) as gods. All of these practices have been touched upon in the Qurʾan, and they did all of this either out of desire to obtain benefit from these false deities or in order to ward off their perceived harm.

It was rare for people to worship a deity other than the One God without creating an idol to which they directed their worship. Whenever they chose something as an intercessory being, they created an idol for it from wood, stone, or metal. They fashioned it into a representation of what they imagined it to embody in terms of life, creating it in the form of a human or an animal, even if the entity the idol represented didn’t necessarily align with this form, such as the fixed stars, planets, or gods of knowledge, love, provision, war, and so on.

The rationale behind adopting idols as partners to God lies in peoples belief that, because God is transcendent and beyond sensory perception, like the deities representing various species and all other non-material deities, or because His appearance isn’t fixed, like a star that transitions from rising to setting, making it dif cult to focus on it whenever one wishes, it is necessary to create an idol to represent His attributes and qualities and to which worship can be directed. Hence, they would turn to the idol as a means of reaching the deity whenever they desired.

20:106Sabaeanism:

Even though all idolatry—roughly speaking—originates from the same source of seeking intercessors with God and worshipping their idols and images, and despite its dominance over the earth and the human world, as the Qurʾan relates about the nations of Noah, Abraham, and Moses, the differences between the various groups of idolaters because of their divergent whims and superstitions are so great that making an exhaustive list of all the various idol worshipping faiths and their unique practices is almost impossible. This is doubly so because most of these faiths do not rely on established principles or consistent, harmonious rules.

However, the Sabaeans, Brahmans, and Buddhists could all be counted as relatively organized, stable, and established sects of idol worship.

As for the Sabaean religion, it is built on linking the phenomena and events of the terrestrial world to celestial bodies like the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. They believe that these celestial bodies, with their associated spirits, govern the observable world, each managing the events related to it as determined by the science of astrology. The cycle of worldly events is believed to repeat with the recurrence of the orbits of these celestial bodies indefinitely and without end.

The Sabaeans believe these celestial bodies serve as intermediaries between God and the observable world and that worshipping them brings humans closer to Him. Consequently, it is necessary to create idols and images for these entities, and then worship these idols and images to draw closer to them, in order to draw closer to the supreme Godhead.

Historical chronicles report that the person who established and refined the religious doctrines of the Sabaeans was Yudhāsaf, an astrologer who appeared in India during the reign of Tahmuras, the Shah of Iran. He propagated his teachings and amassed a large number of followers during his lifetime. His teachings even spread to regions like Rome, Greece, Babylon, and elsewhere. Temples and shrines were built, housing idols representing the various celestial bodies, each with their own set of rules, customs, sacrifices, and offerings that were managed by a dedicated priesthood. They have occasionally been accused of human sacrifice.

20:107Sabaeans assert the oneness of God in His divinity, not in His worship. They believe He is transcendent above any deficiencies or imperfections, and believe that He must be described through negations rather than af rmations, such as saying He is not impotent, ignorant, mortal, unjust, or oppressive. They refer to these attributes the Most Beautiful Names, but they do not claim that these names represent any absolute reality. We have discussed some of the Sabaean’s history in our commentary on the verse, Indeed the faithful, the Jews, the Christians, and the Sabaeans (2:62) in the first volume of this work.

Brahmanism:

Bahmanism (or Hinduism), as we have already mentioned, is one of the most well-established idolatrous religions. It is perhaps the oldest human religion, as Indian civilization is one of the earliest human civilizations, which appears to have begun in pre-history. It is not clear when Indian peoples began to worship idols, but the classical historian al-Masʿūdī⁸ has said that Brahman was the name of the first king of India, who founded the country, established the foundations of civilization therein, and dispensed justice amongst its people.

If this is true, it is likely that Brahmanism originated sometime after him and was named in his honor. Many past nations have worshipped their kings and nobility, believing that they possessed supernatural authority and that divinity was manifested in them in some way. This is somewhat corroborated by the content of the Vedas, a body of scripture, which was compiled from various letters and treatises. Each part was written by different religious men in different eras. These were inherited by their successors, who compiled them and bound them into a book to serve as the basis for a systematic religion. This has been confirmed by scholars of Sanskrit. Therefore, it is inevitable that Brahmanism, like other sects of idolatry, began with rudimentary ideas, which went through stages of evolution and integration until it reached its peak of perfection.

20:108Below is a summary of the information compiled by al-Bustānī⁹ in his encyclopaedia, the Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif:

‘Brahm (Brahma) is the first and greatest deity worshipped by the Hindus. For them, he is the origin of all existence; a singular, unchanging, and unknowable eternal entity. He precedes all creation and created the whole world in one go simply by willing it and uttering the word ‘Om’, which means ‘be.’

The story of Brahm is quite similar to the story of the Buddha in many respects, with the differences mainly in the name and attributes. The Hindus often regard Brahm himself as the name for the three hypostases that constitute the Hindu Trinity, namely, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The worshippers of Brahma are known as Brahmans or Brahmins.

As for Brahma, this is the name given to Brahm after he began his works (which is indicated by the addition of the ‘a’ at the end). He is the first hypostasis of the Hindu Trinity, meaning that Brahm manifests himself in three hypostases each time; the first hypostasis that appears is Brahma, the second is Vishnu, and the third is Shiva.

When Brahma emerged, he spent a long period sitting under a fig tree called ‘Kamala’ in Hindi and ‘Bodhi’ in Sanskrit, looking in every direction. With four heads and eight eyes, all he could see was a vast, dark expanse filled with water. He was taken aback by this and was unable to comprehend the secret of his origin, so he remained silent, engrossed in contemplation.

Generations had passed when, suddenly, a voice rang in his ears, rousing him from his slumber and urging him to rush to ‘Bagadan’ , a title for Brahm. Brahm then appeared as a man with a thousand heads. Brahma prostrated before him and began to glorify him. Bagadan’s chest expanded, he emanated light, dispelled the darkness, and revealed to his servant the state of his existence and all beings in the form of dormant seeds, giving him the power to bring them out of their torpor.

20:109Brahma contemplated this for a hundred divine years, equivalent to thirty-six thousand solar years, before he began his work. He first created the seven heavens, known to them as ‘Svarga’, and illuminated them with celestial bodies known as ‘devas’. He then created ‘Mrityuloka’, the abode of death, followed by the earth and its moon. Afterwards, he created the seven lower realms known as ‘Patala’ and illuminated them with eight gems placed on the heads of eight serpents.

The seven heavens and the seven lower abodes constitute the fourteen worlds in Hindu mythology.

Then, Brahma created seven pairs to assist him in his work, but ten of them, ‘Muni’ and the nine ‘Rishis’, including ‘Narada’, refused to help and were solely devoted to worldly contemplations. Therefore, he married his sister ‘Saraswati’ and they had a hundred children. The first-born was named ‘Daksha.’ Daksha had fifty daughters, thirteen of whom married ‘Kashyapa’, who is sometimes called ‘the first Brahman’. He fathered a son named ‘Marichi’ for Brahma.

One of the aforementioned daughters, named ʿĀditi’, gave birth to the enlightened spirits known as ‘devas’, which perform good deeds and inhabit the heavens. Her sister ‘Diti’ gave birth to a large number of evil spirits known as ‘Daityas’ or ‘Asuras’, inhabitants of the dark, responsible for all evil in the world.

The earth was uninhabited at this point. Some say that Brahma brought forth Swayambhuva Manu—the first man—from himself, while others claim that he existed before him and is actually the same as the god Brahma. Then Brahma married him to Shatarupa—the first woman—and instructed them to be fruitful and multiply.

Others say that Brahma had four sons: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. The first came from his mouth, the second from his right arm, the third from his right thigh, and the fourth from his right foot. These four became the progenitors of the four primary castes of human beings.

The latter three sons married three women who also came forth from him: one from his right arm, the second from his left thigh, and the third from his left foot. They were named after their husbands with the addition of the feminine suf x “ni”. Brahmin also married a wife descended his father, but she was from the wicked Asura lineage. This is what the Vedas say about the creation of the world.

20:110After being a powerful creator god, Brahma fell from his rank to Vishnu, the second person of the trinity, and Shiva, the third person. This was because he became puffed up with pride and vanity, considering himself equal to the Supreme Godhead. He fell into Naraka, or Hell, and was only forgiven on the condition that he incarnate once in each of the four yugas (or world ages within a cosmic cycle). He first incarnated as a poetic raven named ‘Kakabhushunda’, then as the poet ‘Valmiki’ who was first a thief, then a stern and penitent man, and finally a famous interpreter of the Vedas and author of the Sanskrit epic the Ramayana. In his third incarnation, he was Vyasa, the poet and author of the other great Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata, as well as the Bhagavata Purana, and several other Puranas, or works of lore and legend. In his fourth incarnation, in the current age, which is known as the Kali Yuga, he became Kalidasa,¹⁰ the great allegorical poet, author of the play Abhijñānaśākuntala, and editor of Valmiki’s works.

Brahma has appeared in three states. In the first state, he was the One, the Eternal, the All, the Supreme. In the second state, he emerged from the first, active in creation. In the third state, he appeared incarnated as a human and a sage.

Brahma is not widely worshipped in India; he has only one temple there. However, the Brahmans, who make him the object of their worship, invoke him in the evening and the morning. They throw water three times with the palms of their hands onto the ground and towards the sun, and they renew their worship at midday by offering him a flower. In the consecration of fire, they offer him clarified butter, as they offer to the god of fire. This ceremony is more important and sacred than anything else in their faith, and its name is Homa or Havan.

Brahma is typically depicted as a man with a long beard, in one hand the chain of beings, and in the other, the vessel containing the heavenly water of life. He is riding Hamsa, the divine bird that resembles a stork or an eagle.

20:111Brahmin is the first-born son of Brahma, who was brought forth from his mouth, as we mentioned earlier. His contribution was the four holy books, called the “Vedas”, symbolic of the four words he spoke from his four mouths.

When Brahmin wanted to marry like his siblings, Brahma told him: ‘You were born for study and prayer, so you must abstain from physical relations.’ However, Brahmin was not convinced by his father’s words, which angered Brahma. He then married him to one of the wicked demonic creatures who are known as asura. From this union came the Brahmans, the sacred priests, who were given the exclusive duty of interpreting the Vedas. They were entrusted with all the offerings that the Hindus presented to the gods.

The Kshatriya, the warrior caste, was born from Brahma, as were the Vaisyas, the agricultural caste, and the Sudras, the servant caste. Thus, the followers of Brahmanism belong to one of four primary castes.

Others mention that the Brahman society is divided into four classes: the religious scholars, the warriors, the farmers, and the traders. Women and servants are not given much regard. In the our commentary on the verse O you who have faith! Take care of your own souls … (5:105), we have presented a scholarly discussion about the book Mā li al-Hind by Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī¹¹ about the practices and rituals of the Brahmans. Also, there can be found there excerpts from al-Shahrastānī’s ¹²al-Milal wa al-niḥal on the practices of the Sabaeans.

20:112Like the Sabians, Hindus also firmly believe in reincarnation. They believe that there are an infinite number of worlds in both the past and the future, and each has a destined period of existence. When its time ends, its form ceases to exist and another world is born from it, which lives, dies, and is replaced by a third, and so on. Human souls, associated with bodies, do not die when their bodies die; rather, the death of their bodies is the beginning of a new life for them. They attach themselves to other bodies in which they live. If they have acquired spiritual virtues and performed good deeds in their previous bodies, they will live happily; if they have indulged in vices and committed evil deeds, they will live unhappily. Only those perfect in their knowledge of Brahma (God Almighty) are alive with eternal life, safe from a second birth and exempt from the fate of reincarnation.

Buddhism

Buddhism¹³ can be seen as an effort to reform the teachings of Brahmanism. It was founded by Buddha Sakyamuni, who, according to the Chronicle of Ceylon, died in 543 B.C.E. Other sources disagree with this date, however, some by as much as two thousand years. This led some historians to suspect that the Buddha might be a mythical figure with no basis in historical fact. However, recent archaeological excavations appear to confirm his existence, and other newly found artefacts have revealed further information about his life and the teachings he gave to his disciples and followers.

Before founding the movement that is named after him, the Buddha belonged to a royal family as the son of King Suddhodana. However, he rejected worldly enjoyments and retreated from society in his youth. He spent many years of his life in solitude in the wilderness, dedicated to asceticism and spiritual discipline, until he achieved enlightenment. Emerging from his solitude at the age of thirty-six, as reported, he called upon people to liberate themselves from misery and suffering and to attain supreme tranquillity and everlasting celestial life. He urged them to adhere to his teachings, cultivate noble ethics, renounce desires, and avoid vice.

Reportedly, Buddha stated about himself with the utmost humility: ‘I am a beggar. There is but one law for all, which is the severe punishment for criminals and the great reward for the righteous. My law is a law of grace for everyone. Like the sky, it accommodates men and women, boys and girls, the rich and the poor, although it is dif cult for the rich to follow it.’

20:113According to Buddhists, the Buddha’s teachings emphasized that nature is fundamentally empty and illusory, that non-existence pervades every place and every time, and that it is filled with deceit. However, they also believe that this very concept of non-existence removes all barriers between different human castes, peoples, and worldly nations, and makes the even the lowliest of worms brethren to the Buddhists.

Buddhists believe that the last words uttered by Sakyamuni were: ‘All component things in the world are impermanent.’ Their ultimate goal is the salvation of the soul from all pain and vanity. They believe that the endless cycle of reincarnation ends or ceases by preventing the soul from being born again, which is achieved by purifying it from all desire—even the desire to exist.

These fundamental principles of Buddhism are explicitly present in its earliest teachings recorded in the Arya Saccani or Four Noble Truths) They are ascribed to the Buddha and were reportedly mentioned in his first sermon, which he delivered in a deer park near Benares.

The Four Noble Truths concern the nature of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation. The first truth is that suffering is birth, ageing, illness, death, encountering what is unpleasant, separation from what is loved, and not getting what one desires. The second truth is that suffering is caused by carnal desires and emotional cravings. The third truth is the path to the cessation of all such desires and wants. The path to cessation consists of eight divisions (the Noble Eightfold Path): right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. This forms the core of the Buddhist faith, which can be found inscribed on many structures and recorded in several books.

The essence of Buddhist morality is to avoid all base things, do all things that are good, and cultivate the mind.

This is what has been handed down from Buddha’s teachings. Aside from this, the rituals, sacrifices, priesthood, philosophies, and other mysteries were added over time and throughout the ages. These additions include remarkable sayings and opinions on the creation of the world, its organization, and other matters.

20:114It is said that Buddha never spoke of God, not out of disregard for the fact of His existence or a denial of it, but because he devoted all his efforts to preparing people to renounce the allure of worldly life and to develop an aversion for this fleeting abode.

Pre-Islamic Arab idolatry

The pagan Arabs were the first idol worshippers to be challenged by Islam, which called for monotheism against their widespread polytheism. During the pre-Islamic period, most Arabs lived in nomadic tribes. The more cultured among them, like the Yemenis, were essentially nomadic in nature, governed by a mix of diverse customs and traditions, which were borrowed from their powerful neighbors such as the Persians, Romans, Egyptians, Abyssinians, and Indians. These customs included their religious practices.

The ancient ancestors of these Arabs—the “original” Arabs, you might say—such as the ʿĀd, Iram, and Thamūd, were pagans, as God Almighty narrates in His Book about the people of Hūd and Ṣāliḥ, and about the dwellers of Madyan and the people of Sheba in the story of Solomon and the Hoopoe. That was the case until the arrival of Abraham with his wife Hagar and their son Ishmael in the land of Mecca, which was a barren valley inhabited by the tribe of Jurhum. They settled there, and Ishmael grew up, the city of Mecca was built, and Abraham built the Kaaba, the Sacred House. He called people to his upright religion, which was Islam, and his call was answered in the Hijaz and surrounding regions. He instituted the ritual of the Ḥajj pilgrimage for them, as illustrated by what God Almighty told him in the Qurʾan: And proclaim the Ḥajj to people: they shall come to you on foot and on lean camels coming from distant places (22:27).

Later, some of the Arab nomads converted to Judaism through their interactions with the Jewish tribes who had settled in the Hejaz, while Christianity inf ltrated some regions of the Peninsula, and Zoroastrianism in others.

Subsequently, conflicts arose between the descendants of Ishmael and the tribe of Jurhum in Mecca, eventually resulting in the dominance of the Ishmaelites and the expulsion of Jurhum from the area. Subsequently, ʿAmr ibn Luḥayy took control of Mecca and its surrounding territories.

20:115ʿAmr fell gravely ill, and some suggested to him that the hot springs in the Balqa region of Sham (Greater Syria) might offer a cure. Upon visiting these springs and regaining his health, he observed people worshipping idols there. He inquired about this practice, and was told that they worshipped these idols, shaped after heavenly bodies and human figures, to grant them victory over their enemies and to bring them rain for their crops. Intrigued, he requested one of their idols, and was given Hubal. Upon returning to Mecca, he placed it in the Kaʿba. Along with him were also Isāf and Nāʾila, two idols depicted as a couple—or as two youths, according to other sources. He called on people to worship these idols, and this practice took hold among his tribe, and they resumed idol worship after their period of monotheistic faith. They had previously been known as ḥanifs, followers of the Abrahamic faith, but while they retained the name, they abandoned the meaning, and the term came to refer to the pagans among them as well.

One factor that facilitated their shift toward polytheism was the reverence that all religions—including Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and paganism combined—held for the holy Kaʿba. No one would leave Mecca without carrying a stone from the holy sanctuary to take with them its blessings and sanctity. Wherever they settled, they would place the stone on the ground and circumambulate it in imitation of and out of love for the Kaʿba and the sanctuary that surrounded it.

This is how polytheism spread among the Arab Bedouins and those who had adopted the Arab lifestyle. Monotheists among them were rare and are scarcely mentioned in historical sources. The well-known idols they worshipped include Hubal, Isāf, and Nāʾila, introduced by ʿAmr b. Luḥayy who invited people to worship them, as well as al-Lāt, al-ʿUzza, Manāt, Wadd, Suwāʾ, Yāghūth, Yaʿūq, and Nasr. These eight idols are mentioned in the Qur’an, and the last five are said to have belonged to the people of Noah in particular.

In al-Kāfī, al-Kulaynī narrates via a chain of transmission going back to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ashall, a vendor of carpets, who narrated from Imām al-Ṣādiq: ‘Yāghūth was placed facing the entrance of the Kaʿba, with Yaʿūq on its right and Nasr on its left.’

The narration also mentions: ‘Hubal was on the roof of the Kaaba, and Isāf and Nāʾila were stationed on Ṣafā and Marwa.’ In Tafsīr al-Qummī, we read: ‘Wadd was an idol of the tribe of Kalb, Suwāʿ was for that of Hudhayl, Yāghūth for the tribe of Murād, Yaʿūq for the tribe of Hamdān, and Nasr for the tribe of Huṣayn.’

20:116The religion practiced by the pre-Islamic Arabs contained traces of Sabaean teachings, such as bathing to purify oneself following sexual intercourse and other such practices.

It also contained elements of Brahmanism, such as belief in world eras and the in time as the ultimate reality. They say, ‘There is nothing but the life of this world: we live and we die, and nothing but time destroys us’ (45:24). Some mention that this is the belief of the materialists who deny the existence of a creator altogether.

There were traces of the original religion of Abraham, such as circumcision and the Ḥajj pilgrimage. However, these had been mixed with pagan practices such as touching the idols around the Kaʿba, circumambulating the Kaʿba naked, and the polytheistic invocations they would recite, such as: ‘I come to you, O Allah, I come to you. You have no partner, except your partner. He is yours and all that is his is yours.’

They also innovated other practices, such as belief in the baḥīra, the sāʾiba, the waṣīla, and the ḥām, belief in the sadā, the ḥām, al-anṣāb (sacrificial alters), and al-azlām (diving arrows), among other practices mentioned in historical records. We have explained the meanings of the baḥīra, the sāʾiba, the waṣīla, and the ḥām in our commentary on verse 5:103, and of the anṣāb and azlām in our commentary on verses 3 and 90.

Islam’s defence of monotheism and its confrontation with polytheism

Throughout the ages, the divine message has continuously confronted idolatry, stood up against it, and called people to follow the path of monotheism. This is what we find God has recounted in the Qurʾan in the stories of prophets and messengers such as Noah, Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, Abraham, Jethro, and Moses; this is also referenced in the stories of Jesus, Lot, and Jonah.

The most comprehensive statement in this regard is the verse: We did not send any messenger before you but We revealed to him that ‘There is no god except Me; so worship Me’ (21:25).

The Prophet Muḥammad began his public mission by calling the idol worshippers of his people to monotheism using wisdom, preaching, and arguing in the best of ways. However, his appeals were met with mockery, persecution, and severe torment for those who followed him. This state of affairs compelled a group of the early Muslims to abandon their homes in Mecca and seek refuge in Abyssinia. The idol worshippers of Mecca then conspired to assassinate the Prophet, which led him to emigrate to Medina, followed by many of the believers.

20:117However, even though he had left behind his home, his enemies would not relent. They waged war on the Muslims, fighting them at the Battles of Badr, Uḥud, the Trench, and in numerous other armed confrontations until God granted His Prophet a decisive victory over them with the conquest of Mecca. The Prophet then purged the Sacred House and the Sacred Precinct of their idols, breaking the graven images erected in and around the Kaʿba. It is said that Hubal, the largest of their idols, was placed atop the Kaaba, and ʿAlī was ordered to climb up and cast it to the ground. This idol, as they claim, was subsequently buried at the threshold of the mosque’s entrance.

Islam has been particularly diligent in abolishing idolatry, purging people’s hearts of any thoughts leading to it, guiding minds away from even contemplating it. This is evident in the fundamental teachings, noble morals, and legal precepts that Islam promotes. It establishes a fundamental belief in monotheism, that there is no god but God, with His most beautiful names, who is the Lord of everything. He alone possesses the primordial existence that is independent of anything else, and He is Self-Suf cient, in no need of the worlds or their denizens. Everything other than Him begins with and returns to Him and is dependent on Him for its existence and survival. Thus, anyone who attributes any form of independence to anything besides Him, whether in its essence, its attributes, or its actions, is considered a polytheist according to this criterion.

Islam calls on people to rely on God and place their trust in God, to accept God’s sovereignty, love for the sake of God, hate for the sake of God, and to dedicate all of their deeds to God. It prohibits them from relying on anything other than God, placing their trust in others, feeling secure with the outward causes of this world, or having hope in anyone other than Him, or from behaving arrogantly or vainly. All these things involve attributing independence to entities other than God, which leads to polytheism and idol worship.

20:118Equally, Islam prohibits people from prostrating themselves to anything other than God, creating statues that cast shadows, or drawing living beings. It forbids obedience to anyone other than God or heeding them in their commands and prohibitions unless such obedience is ultimately directed to obeying God, as is the case with obeying the Prophets and religious leaders. It also prohibits contriving new things in matters of religion and following in the footsteps of Satan.

The traditions that have come down to us from the Prophet and the Imāms of his Household consistently state that polytheism (shirk) has both blatant (jalī) and hidden (khafī) forms, that it also has many levels and only the truly dedicated can avoid entirely. The most hidden form of polytheism is said to be harder to perceive than the sound of an ant’s footfall on smooth stone in the darkest night. It is reported in al-Kāfī, from Imām al-Ṣādiq, concerning the verse of the Qur’an: … the day when neither wealth nor children will avail, except him who comes to Allah with a sound heart,’ (26:88–89): ‘The sound heart is one which meets God without anyone besides Him in it. Every heart that contains polytheism or doubt is fallen. Their asceticism in this worldly life is only intended to allow their hearts to focus on the afterlife.’

Also, it has been reported that worshipping God out of a desire for paradise is the worship of hirelings, and worshipping Him out of fear of hellfire is the worship of slaves, while the true essence of worship is to worship Him out of love for Him, and that this is the worship of the noble (kirām). This is a hidden spiritual station that only the purified can attain. Several of these traditions have been presented in previous sections of this book.

The entirety of the Prophet’s method was founded upon the principle of monotheism and the denial of partners to God. Moreover, God Almighty has commanded that the Prophet’s methods, which He has ordered him to adopt and follow in human society, be based on the following verse: Say, ‘O People of the Book! Come to a word common between us and you: that we will worship no one but Allah, and that we will not ascribe any partner to Him, and that we will not take each other as lords besides Allah.’ But if they turn away, say, ‘Be witnesses that we are muslims’ (3:64). God has also criticized the People of the Book for allowing pagan beliefs and practices to infiltrate their religion: Say, ‘O People of the Book! Do not unduly exceed the bounds in your religion and do not follow the fancies of a people who went astray in the past, and led many astray, and (themselves) strayed from the right path’ (5:77).

20:119Moreover, God rebukes them in the following terms: They have taken their scribes and their monks as lords besides Allah, and also Christ, Mary’s son; though they were commanded to worship only the One God, there is no god except Him; He is far too immaculate to have any partners that they ascribe! (9:31).

The Prophet treated all people equally when applying the divine laws and enforcing God’s bounds. He bridged the gaps between different social classes such as the ruler and the ruled, the leader and the led, the servant and the served, the rich and the poor, men and women, the noble and the humble. And he established the principle that there is no honor, pride, or rule for any person over another except by virtue of their piety, and judgement belongs to God alone.

The Prophet distributed wealth equitably and forbade the powerful from displaying their strength in a way that would harm or dispirit the weak and abased, such as the rich f aunting their wealth before the poor and needy, and rulers and leaders exercising their power over their subjects arbitrarily.

The Prophet lived as one of the people, distinguishing himself from them neither in food, drink, clothing, seating, walking, nor anything else. A summary of his life can be found in the final part of the sixth section of this book.

Additional Remarks:

In this context, we will weigh the teachings of the Qurʾan by comparing them to the doctrines of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity, in a broad and comprehensive manner across various topics, in a scholarly and analytical fashion.

The concept of Reincarnation among the Pagans:

One of the primary beliefs that informs the foundations of Hinduism, as well as Buddhism and Sabaeanism, is that of reincarnation. This doctrine holds that the cosmos is continually subjected to cycles of creation and destruction. The observable world which we inhabit, as well as its various parts, is believed to have been formed from a previous world, and this cycle repeats indefinitely. This world will decay as its parts continue to do so, and a new world will be formed from it, and so on ad inf nitum. The human being lives in each of these worlds based on whatever they have acquired in a preceding world. Those who do good deeds and cultivate noble virtues will, after death, attach their souls to a blissful body and live in happiness as a reward in their next cycle. Conversely, those who are overly attached to the material world and follow their desires instead of cultivating virtue will inhabit a wretched body after death, suffering various kinds of torment. The only exception to this cycle of death and rebirth are those who recognise Brahman and unite with him. Such individuals escape from the cycle of death and rebirth and return instead as eternal, timeless entities that embody splendor, joy, life, power, and knowledge, and who are immune to annihilation and destruction.

20:120Based on this, it is a religious duty for humans to believe in Brahman (who is the source of everything, analogous to God) and draw closer to him through sacrifices and acts of worship. They should adorn themselves with noble virtues and perform righteous deeds. If one’s worldly desires subside and they cultivate noble qualities, engage in good acts, and recognise Brahman through self-awareness, they become a Brahmin and unite with Brahman, achieving a state of oneness. This is the greatest form of happiness and purest form of life. If one fails to attain this level in their current life, they should still believe in him and do good deeds to find happiness in their subsequent life, which is their next life.

However, since Brahman is an absolute entity, encompassing everything and not encompassed by anything else, he is too high and exalted for human beings to comprehend, except through negating all imperfections from him, or to approach directly through worship and sacrifice. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to draw closer to him through worshipping his deputies and the most potent of his creations so that they may intercede with him for us. These are the deities who Hindus worship besides God through their idols. Within their multitude are beings we would recognise as angels, jinn, or the spirits of holy men. The jinn are worshipped out of fear of the harm they can cause, while others are worshipped in hope of their mercy and fear of their wrath. Among their number are beings who are recognized as the consorts, sons, and daughters of God Almighty.

20:121This is a summary of the doctrines of Brahmanism as taught by the Brahman scholars themselves.

However, the contents of the Upanishads¹⁴, which constitute the fourth section of the sacred Vedas, does not entirely agree with the general outline of their faith given above, even if the Brahman sect scholars teach it.

A critical investigator finds that the message of the Upanishads, which convey divine teachings (even if they do describe the divine world and matters related to it, such as the divine names, attributes, and actions—including creation, sustenance, life-giving, death, and the like—in ways akin to the descriptions of physical materialistic matters like division, dispersal, stillness, movement, transition, settlement, unif cation, greatness, and smallness, among other physical-material states) explicitly state in certain parts that Brahman is an absolute, transcendental entity, beyond the reach of even the most beautiful names and supreme attributes of life, knowledge, and power, and utterly devoid of attributes of deficiency and the physical-material characteristics, and there is nothing like unto it.

They clearly state that the transcendent One is a unique entity, not born of anything, and has not given birth to anything, and there is nothing comparable or equivalent to Him in any way.

They also assert that truthfully, that none other than He should be worshipped, and no one else should be approached through offerings and sacrifices. Rather, He alone, without any partner, is deserving of worship.

Moreover, they frequently af rm the truth of resurrection and state that He is the ultimate end to which all creation will ultimately return. They describe the rewards and punishments of deeds after death in a manner that does not preclude the possibility of being understood as referring to the intermediate state (Barzakh) rather than to reincarnation.

It is particularly telling that these philosophical texts do not make any mention of idols or deities besides Brahman, let alone advocate worshipping or making offerings to them.

20:122What we have cited from the Upanishads—and there is much more we have omitted—are, without a doubt, sublime truths and veritable knowledge that are in harmony with our innate human nature. As you can see, they clearly refute the doctrines of idol worship discussed at the beginning of the study.

In fact, careful consideration leads us to the conclusion that these texts were actually lofty truths revealed to select individuals who were close to God. These individuals then conveyed what they discovered to some of their disciples, although they often spoke symbolically and used parables to illustrate their teachings.

These teachings, only grasped by the few, became the foundation upon which the everyday life—which constitutes the religion embraced by the general public—was based. These are profound insights, comprehensible only to a few knowledgeable individuals due to their elevated nature that surpass the physical and imaginative levels of human understanding, which is how the majority perceive things. Their intricacy challenges untrained intellects that are not accustomed to divine knowledge.

This knowledge, exclusive to the minority, and denied to the majority, is essentially a humanistic religion. However, we must be careful in our conclusions, because our God-given human nature also fosters societal engagement. To disconnect one group of people from others based on religious beliefs contradicts this human instinct and the divinely instituted cosmic order. This, indeed, is to abandon the path of reason, which is one of the three ways of attaining true knowledge—namely, divine revelation, mystical insight, and rational thought. Among these, intellect is the most commonly used and the most essential for human life in this world. Divine revelation is granted only to the infallible prophets, and spiritual insight is accessible only to the most devoted of individuals who possess firm conviction. Yet, everyone, including those who receive revelation and insight, must employ rational argument in all aspects of worldly life. To do otherwise means to impose blind conformity on all aspects of human society and human flourishing—beliefs, morals, and actions—which leads to the downfall of humankind.

Moreover, to eschew the use of reason reinforces the tradition of subjugation within human societies, and this is evidenced by extensive historical experiences of human civilizations that have lived under the yoke of idolatrous religions or have followed the tradition of subjugation by worshipping lords other than God.

20:123The Universality of these Dangers Among All Religions

Other mainstream religions, despite their claim to monotheistic beliefs, have not been immune to the pitfalls of idol worship, leading them to encounter the same problems that the religion of Brahmanism faced, especially the three major issues mentioned above.

For example, Buddhism and Sabaeanism clearly exhibit these problems, and history testifies to this fact. Some of their beliefs and practices have already been mentioned.

As for the Zoroastrians, they attribute divinity to Ahura Mazda, but they also revere Yazdan, Ahriman, the angels entrusted with divine affairs, the sun, fire, and other things. History tells us of the servitude and class differences that prevailed in their societies as well. Careful reflection leads us to conclude that these issues arose due to the distortion of their original faith. It has been reported that the Prophet said about them: ‘They had a prophet whom they killed, and a book which they burned.’

Regarding the Jews, the Qurʾan frequently condemns their actions, their distortion of God’s book, and their practice of taking their scholars as lords beside God, as well as the misfortunes God afflicted them with due to their straying from the natural order and immoral behaviors.

As for the Christians, we have extensively discussed their deviations in their beliefs and practices in the third part of this book. If you wish, review the prologue of the Gospel of John and Paul’s letters in relation to the rest of the Gospels, and complement it with a review of the history of the Church. A full treatment of this is beyond the scope of our present discussion.

Therefore, an in-depth investigation into these matters leads us to conclude that the general misfortunes faced by religious societies across the human world are the legacy of the original idolatry. This idolatry took divine knowledge and supreme truths, used them as the basis of religious norms, and imposed these without recourse to reason on the understanding of the common folk which is mainly inclined towards sensory and perceptible things. This had the expected results.

20:124How did Islam address these erroneous beliefs?

The approach Islam adopted in reforming these flawed doctrines is by presenting the divine truths in a clear and straightforward language that was digestible and comprehensible to the minds of ordinary people. Therefore, the teachings of Islam were such that people could apprehend them as if through a veil or receive them in a suitable garb. This makes these teachings appropriate for the common folk, while those with special insight can still gain direct access to them in their unveiled and manifest splendor, without the need for such mediation. Such people are the convinced believers who constitute the ranks of those blessed by God: the prophets, the truthful, martyrs, and the righteous—very fine company indeed. God says, By the Manifest Book: We have made it an Arabic Qurʾan so that you may apply reason, and indeed it is with Us in the Mother Book (and it is) surely sublime and wise (43:2–4). He also says, This is indeed a noble Qurʾan, in a guarded Book,—no one touches it except the pure ones—(56:79). Moreover, the Prophet himself has said, ‘We, the company of the prophets, were commanded to speak to people according to the capacity of their intellects.’

Islam guarded against the dangers of idolatry and polytheism at the level of monotheism by af rming that nothing was independent in its essence or attributes except God Almighty, who is the Sustainer of all things. It presented an understanding of divinity that avoided the extremes of both anthropomorphism and unknowability. God was described as living, but not with a life like ours; knowing, but not with a knowledge like ours; powerful, but not with a power like ours; hearing, but not with a hearing like ours; and seeing, but not with a sight like ours. In sum, there is nothing like unto Him, and He is greater than can be described. Despite this, people were instructed not to assert anything about Him without knowledge and not to adhere to a belief unless it is based on a rational proof that made sense to their minds and intellects.

In doing so, Islam managed to present religion equally to both the masses and the spiritual elite. Secondly, it allowed the healthy intellect to operate without squandering this divine gift. Thirdly, it brought together different classes in human society to the greatest degree possible without favoring one over another or prioritizing one and neglecting another. God says, Indeed this community of yours is one community, and I am your Lord. So worship Me (21:92). And He says, O mankind! Indeed We created you from a male and a female, and made you nations and tribes that you may identify yourselves with one another. Indeed the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most Godwary among you (49:13).

20:125This is merely a summary; more detailed arguments can be found dispersed throughout this commentary.

Supplications, Intercession, and Visitation

One might suspect that the contents of some of our supplications, seeking intercession through the Prophet and his Household, invoking God in their name, visiting their graves, kissing them, seeking the blessings of the soil around them, and venerating their relics, is a form of idolatry or polytheism and, therefore, prohibited. One might argue that this kind of devotional orientation bestows a divine hue to something other than God and that this is idolatry. The idolaters committed polytheism because they said about their idols: ‘These are our intercessors before God,’ and they said, ‘We only worship them to bring us closer to God.’ Therefore, so the argument goes, it does not matter what you venerate besides God, whether it is a prophet, a saint, a tyrannical king, or anyone else; all of this is idolatry.

However, what this person has overlooked, firstly, is that af rming the causal power of something other than God, whether material or otherwise, is self-evident and undeniable. God, in the Qurʾan, has ascribed all manner of causal powers to beings other than Himself. Moreover, denying the causal ef cacy of anything other than God completely undermines the universal law of cause and effect, which is the foundation of all the proofs for the existence and oneness of God—to deny the law of causality would, therefore, to be deny monotheism. Of course, one can deny that anything has causal power that is independent from God. However, to deny that anything other than God has any causal power whatsoever is to deny what is self-evidently real and known innately to all human beings.

On this basis, we can understand the meaning of God’s words when He discuses the intercession of others with Him in the verse: Those whom they invoke besides Him have no power of intercession, except those who are witness to the truth and who know (43:86) and His in the verse: He knows that which is before them and that which is behind them, and they do not intercede except for someone He approves of … (21:28).

And what about those who turn to God and invoke Him in the name of the Prophet and Imāms? God has said, Certainly Our decree has gone beforehand in favor of Our servants, the messengers, that they will indeed receive divine help, and indeed Our hosts will be the victors (37:171–173), and He has said, Indeed We shall help Our messengers and those who have faith … (40:51).

20:126As for those who venerate them and show their devotion to them by visiting their graves, kissing them, and treating their soil as blessed, this is because they are signs of God and His symbols, holding to His saying: And whoever venerates the symbols of Allah—indeed that arises from the Godwariness of hearts (22:32). This is in addition to the verse of kinship and other statements from the Qurʾan and the Prophetic Sunna.

All of these are examples of seeking intercession with God through them. God has said,

In all of this, he seeks God’s intercession through them. As God has said, O you who have faith! Be wary of Allah, and seek the means of recourse to Him (5:35). By this, the act of seeking recourse to God (tawassul) is made legitimate, and the Prophet and Imāms, by virtue of their love, respect, and reverence, are made a legitimate means of recourse to Him. The essence of the matter lies not in the negation of loving something or revering it, nor in the denial of that love or reverence having a real effect. Therefore, there is no problem with seeking closeness to God by loving them and venerating them, and whatever effects this may have, as long this takes the form of seeking intercession through them and not assigning them the power to act independently of God or to worship them outright.

Secondly, the one who makes the aforementioned argument fails to properly distinguish between worshipping someone other than God in the hopes that they will intercede on their behalf with God or bring them closer to Him, and worshipping God alone, while seeking intercession and nearness to Him through them. In the first case, they have assigned independent power to this other being and made it an object of worship aside from God Almighty. This is a form of idolatry, as it involves associating a partner with God in worship. However, in the latter case, this being is not given any causal power independent of God and God alone is the object of their worship, without having any partner.

God has condemned the polytheists for their saying, ‘We only worship them so that they may bring us near to Allah’ (39:3) because they have treated them as independent beings and made them objects of worship besides Him. If, on the other hand, they had said, ‘We worship God alone and hope that His angels, messengers, or saints will intercede for us by His permission, or that we seek closeness to God by respecting His symbols and loving His allies,’ they would not have been counted as disbelievers for doing so. This is because, had they said this, their partners would have served a similar function to the Kaʿba in Islam; it is a direction of worship rather than an object of worship. It is only God who is worshipped by turning to face it in prayer.

20:127Moreover, I wonder what these people say about the Black Stone and what has been prescribed in Islam about touching and kissing it? And about the Kaʿba itself? Are all of these actions forms of idolatry that have been exempted from the prohibition? If so, the prohibition on idolatry is an undeniable rational judgement that does not accept special cases or admit exemptions, therefore any such exception would be invalid. On the other hand, if the devotion shown to the Black Stone is the purely monotheistic worship of God and the stone merely serves as a means and a direction, then what is the difference between this and other forms of seeking a means to God, if merely venerating it does not necessarily entail treating it as an entity that is independent of God and worthy of worship in its own right?

In addition to this, in order to deny the validity of such acts of intercession, one would have to deny the validity of the verses about venerating God’s symbols and loving the Prophet and his Household.