The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 559
PT. 20 AL-'ANKABŪT CH. 29 فَانْجَيْنَهُ وَ أَصْحُبَ السَّفِينَةِ But We saved him and. 16 وَجَعَلْنَهَا آيَةً لِلْعَلَمِينَ those who were with him in the b Ark; and We made it a Sign for all peoples. وَإِبْرَاهِيمَ إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِ اعْبُدُوا اللهَ And We sent Abraham when. 17 he said to his people, 'Worship وَاتَّقُوهُ ذَلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُم Allah and fear Him. That is تَعْلَمُونَ better for you, if you only knew. "10:74; 11:42. 23:31. It is synonymous with (and also J) with this difference that whereas every is an every d is not a. It is also said to be longer than the which is applied to the twelve Arabian months collectively; but is also applied to twelve revolutions of the moon. According to Imām Rāghib ä… is used as denoting a year in which there is difficulty, or drought or barrenness or dearth; and as denoting that in which is ampleness of the means or circumstances of life and abundance of herbage or the like. also means, drought or barrenness or vehement or intense drought means, drought, etc. befell them. ä means, a year in which there is no herbage or rain. means, a hard, rigorous or distressing year (Lane & Aqrab). Commentary: hundred and fifty years does not seem to be the span of Noah's life but the period of his Dispensation. In fact, the age of a Prophet is the age of his Dispensation and teaching. It is in this sense that we call the Holy Prophet Muḥammad the ever-living Prophet and Islam the everlasting religion. It appears from the Quran (37:84) that Abraham was a follower of Noah. This means that Noah's period continued up to the time of Abraham or even to that of Joseph or of Moses. Noah's Dispensation seems to have lasted about 950 years. In describing the limit of Noah's age two words a and have been used. Whereas the root meaning of the former word possesses a sense of badness, that of latter has a sense of goodness. It seems that the first fifty years of Noah's Dispensation were years of all-round spiritual progress and regeneration and after that moral decadence and degeneration set in and his people gradually became degraded morally, till their In the verse under comment the age of Noah has been mentioned as 950 years. The Bible gives 952 years as his age. But it is difficult to assign a definite date as to when the Prophets of antiquity, such as Noah, Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, etc. lived and how long they lived. "None knows them save degeneration became complete in Allah," says the Quran (14:10). Nine | nine hundred years. 2473