Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 77 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:77

وَنَصَرْنَـٰهُ مِنَ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ قَوْمَ سَوْءٍ فَأَغْرَقْنَـٰهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ

“And We aided [i.e., saved] him from the people who denied Our signs. Indeed, they were a people of evil, so We drowned them, all together.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A whole people who called every waymark a lie, drowned together; one man shielded from them, after centuries of being their target.

A reflection

The whole world, and then none of it

Fa-aghraqnāhum ajmaʿīn: so We drowned them, all of them. One commentator spells out "all": the young among them and the old. Another notes that the word stands alone here, without the usual "every one", as a pure emphasis. Nobody was overlooked. A people who had mocked a prophet for centuries and handed their opposition down from generation to generation were simply gone.

That is a sentence to sit with if you have ever felt that the people around you were permanent. Every generation feels this. The powerful seem fixed, the culture seems settled, the way things are seems the way they will always be.

Picture a man clearing out his garage who finds a glossy ten-year plan from his old firm. It is dated 2007. Growth targets, new offices in three cities, a logo redesign, a photograph of the board smiling. A year later the crash came, and within eighteen months the company no longer existed. He reads the document standing up, half amused and half shaken. Everyone in that photograph had been certain.

The ayah reaches much further than a company. One commentator notes the well-known view that everyone after the flood descends from Nuh. A whole world was removed in one act. The pride of nations, of cultures, of "the way we do things here", shrinks beside two Arabic words. And notice who is left standing. Not the majority, not the confident, but one old man the majority had laughed at, and the few who believed him.

A sceptic might ask whether recounting this is a display meant to make us praise Allah's power. He needs no praise; the flood did not happen to impress anyone. It is told for us. The ego that thinks the crowd is always safe needs to hear it. Being in the majority has never once been a reason to be right.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.