(Revealed before Hijrah)
As the Surah records the spiritual experiences of the Prophet Noah, it has fittingly been named after him. Wherry gives 7th year of the Call as the date of its revelation, while Noldeke places it in the 5th year, but according to other authorities it was revealed in the first Meccan period, about the time when some of the immediately preceding Chapters were revealed. Towards the end of the preceding Surah it was stated that wicked people invariably reject the Divine Message; they oppose and persecute God’s Messengers till the hour of punishment arrives and they meet their deserved end. The present Surah gives a brief account of the missionary activities of one of the greatest Prophets of antiquity—Noah and depicts him as pouring out the agony of his heart before his Lord and Creator in words full of extreme pathos. He preached to his people day and night, he says, and spoke to them in public and in private. He reminded them of the great favours and bounties that God had bestowed upon them. He warned them of the evil consequences of the rejection of the Divine Message. But all his preaching and warning, his sympathy with and solicitude for, their well-being only met with ridicule, opposition and abuse; and instead of following him whose heart was full of love for them, they chose to follow those false leaders who led them to destruction. When Noah’s exhortation and preaching of a whole lifetime proved a voice in the wilderness, he prayed to God to destroy the enemies of Truth. The Surah closes with this prayer of Noah.