The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 145
PT. 12 R. 5. HUD CH. 11 brother Hud. He said, 'O my وَإِلى عَادٍ أَخَاهُمْ هُودًا قَالَ يُقَوْمِ And to Ad We sent their. 51 اعْبُدُوا اللهَ مَا لَكُمْ مِنْ اللَّهِ غَيْرُهُ إِنْ people, worship Allah alone اَنْتُمْ إِلَّا مُفْتَرُونَ You have no God beside Him. You are but forgers of lies. 1431 a7:66. culture and civilization, have come to settle in a country, they have either blotted out of existence the less civilized inhabitants of the land or have greatly weakened them. Thus it appears that when the descendants of Noah and those of his companions, who were the founders of human civilization, spread to other lands, because they were more powerful than the people already living there, they either exterminated them or absorbed them by breaking their power. In this way they must have introduced into all the countries they subjugated their own traditions and customs; and consequently the tradition about the Deluge which naturally impressed the subjugated people must also have come to be introduced into other lands. With the lapse of time, however, the immigrants ceased to have any connection with their original home and the catastrophe consequently came to be regarded as a local occurrence, with the result that local names of persons and places came to be substituted for the original names. In short, the Deluge was not a universal visitation, nor should the traditions of different lands be taken to point to separate floods. It was confined to one land, but owing to the immigration of the descendants of Noah and his companions to other lands, the story spread far and wide and finally the Flood came to be regarded as a local occurrence in every country. As for the place where the Deluge occurred see note on al-Jūdī in v. 45. 1431. Commentary: European critics have denied the very existence of the ‘Ādites. They say that none of the inscriptions that have so far been discovered in Arabia mention ‘Ād as the name of any people in that country, and therefore they allege that the Quran has only quoted one of the popular legends that were current among the Arabs in the Prophet's time. the This objection is based on a misunderstanding. In fact, sections of the human race are generally known by two sets of names, one representing the whole race and the other some particular group thereof. "Aryan," for instance, collective name of a whole race which comprises many groups and tribes. Now it would be absurd to infer that because inscriptions have been found bearing, for example, only such names as Chandra Gupta or Vikramaditya and no inscription is 1353