Al-'Ankabut · Makki · ayah 14 of 69

Al-'Ankabut 29:14

وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا نُوحًا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِۦ فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ إِلَّا خَمْسِينَ عَامًا فَأَخَذَهُمُ ٱلطُّوفَانُ وَهُمْ ظَـٰلِمُونَ

“And We certainly sent Noah to his people, and he remained among them a thousand years minus fifty years, and the flood seized them while they were wrongdoers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Nuh stayed among his people a thousand years less fifty, and the flood took them only while they were still holding to their wrong.

A reflection

Told to a man whose city would not listen

Think about who first heard this ayah. The Prophet ﷺ had been calling Makkah for years. Most of its leaders had refused. Some of his followers had been beaten, some bought off, and some had turned back. The ayat just before this one describe exactly that.

Then, in the middle of that pressure, comes a story. Not an argument, not a command. A story about a man who called his people for nine and a half centuries.

The commentators agree on its purpose. A narration-based commentator calls it consolation from Allah to His Messenger ﷺ. Do not grieve over those who reject you, it says in effect. Nuh called his people by night and day, in secret and in public, and few believed. A theological commentator says the Prophet's chest felt tight because the disbelievers would not enter Islam. The story answers that tightness directly.

He then makes a comparison. Nuh stayed almost a thousand years, and only a few believed. He was patient, and he did not grow weary. You have a far shorter time, and a far larger community will follow you. So you are even more fitted for patience.

Another commentator widens the circle. The surah began by asking whether people expect to say 'we believe' and not be tested (29:2). It has just shown believers tested by their persecutors. Now it shows that prophets were tested too, by their own people. If they endured, believers should not expect an easier road.

There is a gentleness in how this works. Allah does not tell His Messenger to stop feeling the weight. He places beside him someone who carried more, for longer. That is often what grief needs: not an instruction to stop, but company. The Quran gives the reader that same company whenever the work of faith feels slow.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.