Aslam

Prophet Nuh was sent to his people when they had begun worshipping idols named Wadd, Suwa, Yaghuth, Ya'uq, and Nasr. For 950 years he called them to Allah, day and night, in public and in private. But every time he called them, they put their fingers in their ears, covered themselves with their garments, and persisted in arrogance.

He tried everything. He reminded them that Allah would send rain from the sky in abundance, give them wealth and children, and provide gardens and rivers — if only they would turn to Him. He asked them: "What is wrong with you that you do not attribute to Allah proper grandeur, while He has created you in stages?"

When it became clear that his people would never believe, Nuh prayed to Allah: "My Lord, do not leave upon the earth any inhabitant from among the disbelievers. Indeed, if You leave them, they will mislead Your servants and not beget except wicked disbelievers."

Allah commanded Nuh to build an ark. Every time the chiefs of his people passed by him while he was constructing it, they mocked him. He said: "If you ridicule us, then we will ridicule you just as you ridicule us. You are going to know who will get a humiliating punishment."

Then the command came. The oven overflowed with water — the sign that the flood had begun. Allah told Nuh to carry on the ark a pair of every creature and his family, except those against whom the word had already been pronounced.

The ark sailed with them through waves like mountains. Nuh called out to his son, who had separated himself: "O my son, come aboard with us and be not with the disbelievers." His son replied: "I will take refuge on a mountain to protect me from the water." Nuh cried out: "There is no protector today from the decree of Allah, except for whom He gives mercy." And the waves came between them, and his son was among the drowned.

Nuh called upon his Lord: "My Lord, indeed my son is of my family, and indeed Your promise is true." Allah replied: "O Nuh, indeed he is not of your family; indeed, his work was other than righteous." Nuh understood, and sought refuge in Allah from asking for that of which he had no knowledge.

The earth swallowed its water, the sky cleared, the ark settled on Mount Judi, and it was said: "Away with the wrongdoing people."