Noah
Noah,
peace be upon him, was the first of God's messengers who were sent to
people as a mercy to them and ambassadors of goodness, calling for
pure monotheism, commanding worship, and forbidding polytheism and
abominations, both visible and invisible, and Noah, peace be upon
him, spent a thousand years but fifty years calling his people,
promising them paradise and happiness in their lives if they
believed. Noah, peace be upon him, was one of the first of the
apostles, and in his time, disbelief was common and widespread, and
his people were famous for worshipping idols, exaggerating and
persisting in wickedness, injustice, and disobedience.
In
al-Nawawi's al-Tahdhib: Noah was the longest-lived of the prophets,
and it is said that he was the longest-lived of all people, and he
was, according to what has been said, the first one to whom the laws
were enacted, and the first prophet to warn against polytheism, and
his nation was destroyed, and Ibn Kathir says: The truth is that Adam
- peace be upon him - was a messenger who was sent to his wife and
then to his sons, and his law included warning against polytheism:
Noah is said to be the elder of the messengers, because he was the
longest-lived, and Adam was the second.
Ibn Kathir said:
Noah, peace be upon him, was sent by Allah when idols and idolaters
were worshipped, and people began to go astray and disbelieve, so
Allah sent him as a mercy to the people, so he was the first
messenger sent to the people of the earth, as the people of the
parking lot say to him on the Day of Resurrection, and his people
were called the Banu Rasib.
Between his birth and the death of
Adam, there were ten centuries, as stated by Abu Hatim ibn Habban in
his Sahih: Muhammad ibn 'Umar ibn Yusuf, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
ibn Zanjawiya, Abu Tawbah, Mu'awiya ibn Salam, from his brother Zaid
ibn Salam, I heard Abu Salam, I heard Abu Umamah, “A man said: 'O
Messenger of Allah, was Adam a prophet? Yes. He spoke. He said: How
many centuries were between him and Noah?
In
the life of the Prophet Noah, peace be upon him, a new history began
after the incident of the Flood, about which the Holy Qur'an has
clearly narrated in a way that eliminates the doubt and uncertainty
that occurred in other heavenly books. God mentioned the story of
Noah, peace be upon him, what was from his people, the punishment
inflicted on those who disbelieved in him by the Flood, and how He
saved him and his shipmates in many places of His dear Book in
Al-A'raf, Yunus, Hud, Prophets, Believers, Sha'ar, Ankabut, Safat and
Approaching. And he revealed a whole surah, which is the surah of
Noah.
He said in Surat al-A'raf: {We sent Noah to his people and
he said, O people, worship Allah, there is no other god for you, I
fear for you the torment of a great day. The leaders of his people
said, we see you in a clear delusion. He said, O people, I am not
deluded, but I am a messenger from the Lord of the worlds, I convey
to you the messages of my Lord and advise you and I know from God
what you do not know. Should you wonder that a male from your Lord
came to you on one of you to warn you and fear and may you have
mercy, they disbelieved him and we saved him and those with him in
the Ark and drowned those who lied about our signs, they were blind
people} [Al-Araf: 59]
This includes the saying: “And how
many of the villages we destroyed after Noah, and your Lord is
sufficiently aware of the sins of His servants.” [Al-Israa:
17]
Ibn Ashur said: He made the time of Noah the beginning of
the stories of the nations because he was the first messenger, and
considered the stories after him because the time of Noah became
interrupted due to the rebuilding of the earth after the flood, and
because the torment that befell his people was a terrible torment,
namely the drowning that surrounded the world.
Al-Zahili said
in the explanation of the verse: It indicates that the centuries that
passed between Adam and Noah were on Islam, Ibn Abbas said: Between
Adam and Noah there were ten centuries, all of them on Islam.
In
summary, what happened between the Prophet Noah (peace be upon him)
and his people, taken from the Book and the authentic Sunnah, is that
the deviation began at the time of Noah (peace be upon him).