An-Najm · Makki · ayah 52 of 62

An-Najm 53:52

وَقَوْمَ نُوحٍ مِّن قَبْلُ ۖ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ هُمْ أَظْلَمَ وَأَطْغَىٰ

“And the people of Noah before. Indeed, it was they who were [even] more unjust and oppressing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The oldest of the destroyed peoples was also the most unjust and the most overflowing, because they were warned the longest and still refused.

A reflection

The oldest pattern in the book

At the height of a property boom, a young investor explains to his cautious uncle why the old rules no longer apply. Prices only go one way now, he says; this time is different. The uncle, who has lived through three crashes, says nothing. He has heard the sentence before, in every boom.

Wa-qawma nūḥin min qablu: and the people of Nuh, before. The list of destroyed nations has named ʿĀd and Thamud. Now it reaches back further, and the ayah says so explicitly: min qablu, before them. One classical commentator explained why the 'before' is stressed. Nuh is, as it were, a second Adam, and his people were the first of the tyrants and the first of the destroyed.

So the pattern is as old as human history after the flood. Arrogance rises. A warning comes. The warning is mocked. And the arrogance falls. Every generation since has been tempted to believe that it is the exception. That its technology, its wealth, its cleverness, puts it outside the old story.

That is where the ego needs to shrink. No era is too advanced for this ayah. No nation is too strong, and no person too clever. Allah brought down the very first tyranny, and He has brought down every one since. The pattern was not written for primitive people. It was written for human beings, and we are still human beings.

Is it vain for Allah to point to this record? A record is not a boast; it is evidence. He shows us what has always happened so that we do not imagine we are new.

The uncle at the table does not argue with his nephew. He just asks, gently: 'And what did they say in the last boom?' The ayah asks the same of every generation. What did the people of Nuh say, and where are they now? The most humbling discovery about ourselves is how unoriginal our pride is.

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.