مِمّا خَطيئَاتِهِم أُغرِقوا فَأُدخِلوا نارًا فَلَم يَجِدوا لَهُم مِن دونِ اللَّهِ أَنصارًا

They were drowned because of their iniquities, then made to enter a fire, and they did not find for themselves any helpers besides Allah.

EXEGESIS

Khaṭīʾāt (sing. khaṭīʾah) can refer to a sin, an offence, or act of disobedience deserving of punishment, but also a genuine mistake, slip, or lapse. The Quran uses this term in a wide variety of meanings, and the context usually clarifies the intended meaning for a verse. Khaṭīʾāt, for example, can also be the secondary or indirect effects of other sins that accumulate as blemishes on the soul of its doer, and when left unresolved become a permanent trait of the individual, eradicating his or her ability to repent. And it is only then that one is deserving of divine chastisement. Such a meaning is also possible here, where the reason They were drowned is explained as because of their iniquities (khaṭīʾātihim) meaning, they crossed all boundaries and exhausted all excuses for redemption. For more on the term khaṭīʾah, see the explanations under 2:81 and 69:9.

Ughriqū (they were drowned) is from gharq (to drown). Its literal meaning is to sink in water or in afflictions (balāʾ),^{‎[1]Raghib, gh-r-q.} and it is, therefore, a very apt term here, where both meanings are true at once.

Anṣār (helpers) is the plural of nāṣir. The Quran often mentions the unjust or wrongdoers (ẓālimīn) having no helpers (anṣār) (2:270, 3:192, 5:72), and the righteous as God’s helpers (3:52) or they are invited to be so (61:14).

The root n-ṣ-r denotes to aid, help, assist, and to render victorious and triumphant, especially against an enemy. Nāṣir is therefore a helper or one who gives victory. Sūrat al-Naṣr (110) is named after its first verse: When Allah’s help (naṣr) comes with victory (110:1).

Though both nāṣir and naṣīr are masculine, singular, active participles of the consonantal verb root n-ṣ-r, naṣīr is an intensive form of nāṣir, the first based on the form faʿīl and the latter on the form fāʿil. Also, when an active participle is given on the form faʿīl, it can refer to the subject or the object of the statement, depending on the context. Examples of it denoting the object is qatīl, which refers to the one killed, the equivalent of maqtūl, or jarīḥ (the injured), and rajīm (the cursed) (15:34, 38:77), which are equivalents of majrūḥ and marjūm, respectively. When used as the subject (fāʿil), it denotes abundance, limitlessness, continuity, and so on. For example, qadīr is the same as qādir (powerful) but the former denotes all-powerful, samīʿ is the same as sāmiʿ (one who hears) except the first means all-hearing. Likewise, ʿālī is one who is lofty or high but ʿalī is one who is exalted, and for whom lowliness cannot be conceived. And the same is true for a guardian being wālī versus walī. And on that note, unless the Quran is referring to the help of God (naṣr allāh) (110:1), or that He is the best of helpers (nāṣirīn) (3:150), God as ‘the helper’ is always given as naṣīr (2:107, 4:123, 8:40, 9:116, 22:78, 29:22, 42:31, etc.) and never nāṣir. This is because He is frequently mentioned as being the only helper and guardian, besides whom there is none other. And His being the all-helper, directly or indirectly, is to imply that no other help is needed when one trusts in Him. His coming to aid never diminishes, fails, or ceases to be. It is abundant, continuous, all-pervasive, and dominant over any foe: But Allah knows your enemies better, and Allah suffices as a guardian (walī) and Allah suffices as a helper (naṣīr) (4:45).

EXPOSITION

Because of their iniquities reveals God’s justice and power – that He does not punish without reason; yet those who deserve to be punished will not escape either, even though they may be given respite for a while.

Since the entry into hellfire does not occur until the Day of Judgement, the fire mentioned in the words: They were drowned … then made to enter a fire is understood as chastisement in the intermediary world (ʿālam al-barzakh) where souls remain between death and the final resurrection. See the Review of Tafsīr Literature for the opinions of other exegetes on this matter.

The Pharaoh who fought Prophet Moses (a) was also drowned with all his men because they were all wrongdoers (ẓālimīn) (8:54), and they too suffer the fire of barzakh while they await hellfire after the Day of Judgement: the fire, to which they are exposed morning and evening. And on the day when the hour sets in Pharaoh’s clan will enter the severest punishment (40:46).

And they did not find for themselves any helpers besides Allah is significant because these were people who looked up to their idols as gods. It highlights that their gods, whom they were not willing to abandon (verse 23), were unable to help them though they quite likely would have called out to them for help even as they drowned. Who can guard you, day and night, from [the punishment of] the All-beneficent? … Do they have gods besides Us to defend them? (21:42-43) seems to be the rhetorical question that God asks. And this is also what Prophet Noah (a) said to his rebellious son who refused to board the ark and He said: ‘I shall take refuge on a mountain; it will protect me from the flood.’ He [Noah] said: ‘There is none today who can protect from Allah’s edict, except someone upon whom He has mercy’ (11:43).

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Most exegetes note that the word then between drowned … and made to enter a fire is given as the Arabic conjunction particle fa, suggesting immediacy. Some exegetes have even imagined that even as they were drowning, Prophet Noah’s (a) people were simultaneously burning in a fire amidst the waves.^{‎[2]Abu al-Futuh, 11/380.}

And to emphasise this, Ālūsī and Ḥāʾirī have quoted a stanza by Ibn al-Anbārī showing the power of God and the irony of burning through drowning:

Lā taʿjabanna li-aḍdād idhā ijtamaʿat

   Fa-llāhu yajmaʿu bayn al-māʾi wa al-nār

Do not be amazed at opposites when they come together

   For God [even] brings water and fire together!^{‎[3]Alusi, 15/88; Hairi, 11/260.}

The more popular understanding, however, as noted in the Exposition, is that the fire that Prophet Noah’s (a) people were subjected to was neither of this world nor of the hereafter, but a fire in the intermediary life (barzakh) where the souls of the dead remain until the physical resurrection on the Day of Judgement. Tabatabai notes that there is a subtle beauty in the verse in how it combines drowning in water to enter a fire, and adds that this verse is one of the strongest proofs of an intermediary (barzakh) life and that the faithless are also punished therein. The verse does not allow one to interpret it to mean that they shall enter the fire of the hereafter in the future, argues Tabatabai, nor that they entered the hellfire of the hereafter immediately upon death before the accounting on the Final Day.^{‎[4]Mizan, 20/36.}

Makārim Shīrāzī has also favoured this interpretation, quoting the famous prophetic tradition: ‘The grave is either a garden from the gardens of paradise or a pit from the pits of hellfire.’^{‎[5]Bihar, 6/8/275; Kafi, 3/242, h. 2, from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a).} He understands ‘a garden’ and ‘a pit’ in this tradition as referring to the intermediary world’s state of bliss or chastisement, and as a sample of what awaits in the hereafter.^{‎[6]Nemuneh, 25/86.}

They were drowned also has a mystical interpretation. For Ibn Arabi, it means they were drowned in the sea of hayūlā^{‎[7]From the Greek philosophical term Hyle, to mean material form or matter; whatever receives form or determination from outside itself.} (physical, outward form) because they failed to identify with their true spiritual self, then made to enter a fire of ṭabīʿah (animal nature),^{‎[8]Ibn Arabi, 2/374.} which stands in opposition to fiṭrah (the human’s divine nature). For Tustarī, They were drowned in bewilderment (ḥayrah) beyond the reach of guidance (hudā), and so they were made to enter a fire. Hence, God made disgrace binding upon them and lodged them in the abode of misery.^{‎[9]Tustari, p. 178.}

INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS

1. And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;^{‎[10] 2 Peter 2:5.}

[1] Raghib, gh-r-q.
[2] Abu al-Futuh, 11/380.
[3] Alusi, 15/88; Hairi, 11/260.
[4] Mizan, 20/36.
[5] Bihar, 6/8/275; Kafi, 3/242, h. 2, from Imam al-Ṣādiq (a).
[6] Nemuneh, 25/86.
[7] From the Greek philosophical term Hyle, to mean material form or matter; whatever receives form or determination from outside itself.
[8] Ibn Arabi, 2/374.
[9] Tustari, p. 178.
[10] 2 Peter 2:5.