Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 106 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:106

إِذْ قَالَ لَهُمْ أَخُوهُمْ نُوحٌ أَلَا تَتَّقُونَ

“When their brother Noah said to them, "Will you not fear Allāh?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Nuh's first words to his people echo 37:124, but here he is named their brother, one of their own, calling them to be mindful.

A reflection

A brother's call, and a demand for proof

The question a-lā tattaqūn, will you not be mindful, is drawn out in full at 37:124 and at 26:11. What this ayah adds is one word before it: akhūhum, their brother.

The commentators explain it plainly. Nuh was one of them, as the Arabs would say 'O brother of Banu Tamim' to mean 'O man of that tribe'. One of them quotes an old Arabian poem in praise of a clan. When their brother calls on them in a crisis, the poet says, they do not ask him for proof of what he says. They simply come.

That was the ideal of brotherhood the first hearers knew. A brother's alarm is answered first and examined later.

If your brother rings at two in the morning and says the river is over the bank, you do not ask for the gauge readings. You wake the children and go.

Nuh's people had exactly that: a brother sounding an alarm. And they did the opposite of the poem. They demanded, argued and mocked, and in the end did not come at all.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.