قالَ نوحٌ رَبِّ إِنَّهُم عَصَوني وَاتَّبَعوا مَن لَم يَزِدهُ مالُهُ وَوَلَدُهُ إِلّا خَسارًا
Noah said: ‘My Lord! They have disobeyed me, following someone whose wealth and children only add to his loss.
EXEGESIS
Rabb (lord) and its significance in all supplications mentioned in the Quran, has been explained earlier under verse 5.
ʿAṣawnī (disobeyed me) is from the verb ʿaṣā (to disobey, rebel, oppose), its infinitives being ʿiṣyān and maʿṣiyah (disobedience, opposition, rebellion). It denotes exiting from the obedience of someone; such a person is said to have committed ʿiṣyān against the latter. Its root is the noun ʿaṣā (staff, rod, stick), which is also mentioned in the Quran (7:107, 20:18, 26:44, 27:10). From this came the expression shaqq al-ʿaṣā (literally, ‘to split the staff’) to dissent or secede from the community; and yatamannaʿ bi-ʿaṣāhu (literally, ‘he fortified and strengthened himself with his staff’) came to be an expression to mean resistance and opposition, such as when a slave opposes and disobeys his master. This, in turn, came to mean disobedience to God, since all people are His slaves (19:93).
In the case of this verse, Prophet Noah (a) laments their disobedience to himself because he was asked to command them to obey him: Worship Allah and be wary of Him, and obey me (aṭīʿūn) (verse 3) so that he may guide them. The opposite of ʿiṣyān (disobedience) is iṭāʿah (obedience): We did not send any apostle but to be obeyed (li-yuṭāʿa) by Allah’s leave (4:64).
Wa-ttabaʿū (and they followed) is from the infinitive ittibāʿ. God commanded man, from the time He created him: and do not follow (tattabiʿū) in Satan’s steps (2:168, 2:208, 6:142, 24:21). This following may mean obeying Satan’s commands or following his steps by emulating him in arrogance and rebellion against God. Likewise, following the Holy Prophet is the secret to winning God’s love: Say: ‘If you love Allah, then follow me (fa-ttabiʿūnī)’ (3:31). This is because the Prophet is seen as the perfect role model to emulate (33:21), just as were Prophet Abraham (a) and those with him (60:4, 60:6) previously.
Yazid-hu (adds to his) is from the verb zāda (perfect tense) and yazīdu (imperfect tense) and always suggests an increase in something. It occurred earlier under verse 6 when Prophet Noah (a) lamented that his summoning only increases them in evading and fleeing from him. The term is explained in detail later, under verse 24.
Khasāra (loss) is from khusr and khusrān, which originally was a trade term to mean a diminishment and loss in one’s capital, such as This, then, is a ruinous (khāsirah) return! (79:12). It then came to be ascribed to people: Say: ‘Indeed the losers (al-khāsirīn) are those who ruin (khasirū) themselves and their families on the Day of Resurrection.’ Look! That is a manifest loss (khusrān al-mubīn)! (39:15). See also 2:16 for how the Quran uses business or trade terms that humans relate to and that drives their motivations, as metaphors for spiritual gain and loss.
EXPOSITION
The surah now returns to the lament of Prophet Noah (a) to his Lord, continuing from verses 8-9, after a break that detailed the mention of his summons to the people and what he would say to them in his preaching. The previous lament was a summary; these verses now reveal details. They tell us, for example, what those who used to turn people away from Prophet Noah (a) would say to encourage opposition to him and to torment him. In a sense, Prophet Noah’s (a) lament is a plea to God for help, and this is shown explicitly in his words (and the words of other apostles after him): ‘My Lord! Help me! They call me a liar!’ (23:26, 23:39).
Their disobedience is of course to God, yet Prophet Noah (a) does not say: ‘They have disobeyed You’. He says: They have disobeyed me, for he means ‘they won’t listen to me’ and especially because he compares obedience to him against someone whose wealth and children only add to his loss, which is more appropriate than comparing obedience to God with such a person. They have disobeyed me shows, once again, that Prophet Noah (a) is not concerned about his personal suffering and pain. His lament is their refusal to accept guidance and, instead, they follow someone whose wealth and children only add to his loss. This also reveals that humans cannot live without leadership. One who does not follow the right leader will simply follow the wrong one. Rarely, if ever, will a community survive without one who leads.
Someone whose wealth and children hints that these were the affluent and the notables of the community. These social elites or elders of the community are explicitly mentioned in 11:27 and 23:33 as the elite or those whom We had given affluence, and some of their arguments, to dissuade people from following Prophet Noah (a), are given in 23:24-25. This tendency of the rich and powerful to oppose truth is consistent with all human societies in history: We did not send a warner to any town without its affluent ones saying: ‘We indeed disbelieve in what you have been sent with’ (34:34). So Prophet Noah’s (a) people were certainly not the last to be destroyed by divine retribution: How many generations We have destroyed since Noah! (17:17). But in all cases, what ultimately invited God’s wrath was the arrogance of the affluent: And when We desire to destroy a town We command its affluent ones [to obey Allah]. But they commit transgression in it, and the word becomes due against it, and We destroy it utterly (17:16).
Prophet Moses (a), as well, prayed to God like Prophet Noah (a): Moses said: ‘Our Lord! You have given Pharaoh and his elite glamour and wealth in the life of this world, our Lord, that they may lead [people] astray from Your way! Our Lord! Blot out their wealth …’ Said He: ‘Your supplication has already been granted. So be steadfast’ (10:88-89).
God explicitly confirms the prayer of Prophet Moses (a) but it is assumed that whenever the Quran quotes the supplication of any prophet, or righteous individual, or even an angel, it implies God accepted and granted that supplication. For otherwise, without an explicit mention of the supplication’s denial and rejection, it would be meaningless to quote it. In other words, all of Prophet Noah’s (a) supplications were granted, even if their acceptance is not explicitly mentioned.
Wealth and sons were mentioned earlier as a blessing (verse 12). Now they are given as a source of loss. Prophet Noah’s (a) lament is that, instead of showing gratitude to God for these two blessings, his enemies are using them to advance their faithlessness.
This contrast of wealth and children being an aid from God (17:6, 71:12, 74:12) versus a source of loss, confirms that neither are wealth and children a blessing in and of themselves nor is a lack of them a punishment. Whether these – or anything for that matter – is a blessing or a curse, a trial or punishment, a profit or loss, is determined by whether they bring one closer to God, or distance one further away from Him. The relativity of wealth and children is a recurring Quranic theme.
A clear sign of wrongdoers (ẓālimīn) is their consistent belief in affluence as a prerequisite of deserving leadership (2:247, 17:93, 43:53). Those who substitute reliance on God for reliance on possessions and children (48:11) become arrogant and deceived because they see themselves as being self-sufficient (96:6-7). They love wealth with much fondness (89:20) and even brag at having squandered immense wealth (90:6).
Such a person falsely believes no harm can touch him. He boasts: We have greater wealth and more children, and we will not be punished (34:35), and he becomes a vile swearer, scandal-monger, talebearer, hinder of all good, sinful transgressor, callous, and, on top of that, baseborn, – [only] because he has wealth and children (68:10-14; cf. 104:1-3). And even when he does not possess wealth and children, he arrogantly believes he controls every aspect of his life because of his false hope, I will surely be given wealth and children (19:77). Yet neither wealth nor children will avail the faithless against God (3:10, 3:116, 58:17, 92:11) and it will avail no one on Judgement Day (26:88). And the wrongdoers will lament: My wealth did not avail me. My authority has departed from me (69:28-29).
Ultimately, wealth and children are only an adornment of the life of the world (18:46) and a test (8:28, 64:15, 2:155). Without faith and righteous action, It is not your wealth, nor your children, that will bring you close to Us in nearness (34:37). The faithful are therefore constantly cautioned not to let their possessions and children distract them from the remembrance of God, for whoever does that – it is they who are the losers (khāsirūn) (63:9), nor to let the wealth and children of the faithless impress or sway them, for the wealth and children only serve as a punishment for them (9:55, 9:85, 23:55-56, 34:35). The life of this world is described as a rivalry or covetousness for wealth and children (57:20) and one of Satan’s strategies is to misguide humans by associating with them in wealth and children (17:64).
In the parable of one influenced by the world versus one who is righteous, the worldly man argues: I have more wealth than you, and am stronger with respect to numbers (18:34), whereas the righteous one argues back: If you see that I have lesser wealth than you and children, maybe my Lord will give me better than your garden (18:39-40).
The Quran seeks to remind man that others before him enjoyed even more abundant wealth and children yet it was of no use to them when they left the world (9:69). Instead, one should strive to be like those who sold their possessions, and even souls, to God (9:111).
[1] Raghib, ʿ-ṣ-y.
[2] Hans Wehr, ʿ-ṣ-y.
[3] Lane, ʿ-ṣ-y.
[4] Lane, ʿ-ṣ-y.
[5] Raghib, kh-s-r.
[6] Qummi, 2/387; Jalalayn, p. 574.
[7] Nasr, p. 1424.